Have you decided to introduce your products and connect with your customers on Instagram? Let’s take a look at how to sell your WooCommerce products on Instagram shopping? In this article, we will learn the benefits of using Instagram Shopping, interlinking Instagram and Facebook, and creating an automatic product catalog using a plugin.
What is Instagram Shopping?
Instagram shopping allows you to showcase your products in a catalog feed, including your product image, price, description, and it directly links to your WooCommerce store where customers can purchase your products.
Before proceeding on how to sell your WooCommerce products on Instagram, let’s discuss the benefits of using Instagram Shopping
- Customers can easily discover your products: Instagram users can easily access your shop using the application and explore the product catalogs without having to use a separate web browser.
- Realtime and Interactive experience: You can use product pics and videos to create a seamless shopping experience for your customers.
- Meet them where they are: There are more than 1 billion Instagram users monthly and it’s still growing every year.
- Increase store visits: You can easily increase the number of potential customers who visit your store using Instagram.
- Connect with potential customers: Talk, receive feedback and interact with your customers where they spend most of their time.
To sell your WooCommerce products on Instagram shopping you need the following
- WordPress: You can easily use WordPress to create a visually stunning website; just follow this guide if you are a beginner, How to Build a WordPress Website in 7 Easy Steps.
- WooCommerce: A free plugin that can be integrated into WordPress to create an E-commerce website where you can manage and track every purchase. Just follow this article on How to Get Started with a New eCommerce Business Idea using WordPress and WooCommerce?
- ELEX WooCommerce Catalog Feed for Facebook & Instagram
- A Facebook and Instagram profile.
ELEX WooCommerce Catalog Feed for Facebook & Instagram
Now, if you are done setting up your WordPress and WooCommerce store you can go ahead and install the plugin using the WordPress dashboard. You can easily get the plugin using the above hyperlink. Now that you have the zip file for the product you can go to Plugins > Add new. Now click the Import Plugin button. Here you can upload the downloaded file using the Choose File option, once done, click the Activate button.
In the left bar, you will see the installed plugin as Facebook Shopping Feed; now go to Create Feed option.
Then you will see a window like below. Let me briefly explain to you all the options.
Project Name: Provide a unique name to your product feed that you will use for Instagram shopping.
Project Description: You can write a description for the products that will be displayed on the catalog feed.
Country of Sale: Select the country where you want to showcase your feed.
Include Variations: If you want to include variations of your selected product feed, just go ahead and enable this button.
Auto-set Identifier_exists: This option allows you to add products without any unique product identifiers such as GSTIN, MPN, or Brand.
Default Category: Select the default Google category for your desired catalog. For the demo, we will use Apparel and Accessories category.
File Format: Select CSV format as it is supported by Commerce Manager provided by Facebook.
Refresh Schedule: You can set the refresh schedule for your product catalog to daily, weekly or monthly and also assign a particular time.
When you are done, click the Continue button.
Map Category: Here you can include or exclude any product category according to your desired catalog and consequently assign a Google category for each of them.
Map Attributes: This section will automatically map Google attributes to set attribute values. You can also edit each of these sections. Select among the preset values or type your own attribute value.
When you are done, click the Continue button.
Filtering Options: You can select how your products will be filtered for the catalog. Select equal to, greater than, or less than a particular value. Similarly, you can do this for sold quantities, and tick the Featured Products option if you want to include only the featured products in your catalog feed. You can also exclude a particular product by simply searching for a product in Exclusion.
When you are done, click the Generate feed button.
When you click the view feed option you can download the CSV file into your system.
Creating a Facebook Page
Facebook allows features like Commerce Manager and Instagram linking that will be beneficial to create your Instagram Shopping feed. You can use your existing profile and create a new page. Open your Facebook profile, go to the Menu > Create section, select the Page option.
Fill in the following details.
Page name: Type the desired name to compliment your store.
Category: Select a category that compliments your product type, for example, Apparel & clothing
Description: Provide a small description of your online store. When you are satisfied, click the Create Page button. Your Facebook page is ready to use.
Creating an Instagram Profile
Now, go to Instagram and create a new business page or you can even convert your existing profile to a business profile on Instagram. Use your phone number or email address. Then type your Full name. Select a unique Username and set a strong password.
When you are done, click the Sign-up button.
Linking Instagram and Facebook
When you have completed signing up for both Instagram and Facebook, you can go to the Settings section of your Facebook page. Go to the Instagram option and click the Connect Account button.
Click Continue and type your username and password. Your Facebook and Instagram accounts are successfully linked.
Setting up Facebook Commerce Manager
Facebook manager can be used to customize your catalog and also manage the analytics of your product feed. Go to Facebook’s Commerce Manager. Click the Get Started button.
From the below 2 options. Select Create a Catalog option and click the Get started button.
From the next window, select the E-Commerce option and click the Next button.
In the Configure settings tab, select the Upload Product Info option then select your Facebook page and provide a catalog name, and then click the Create button.
When you are done, click the View Catalog option.
This will take you to the Facebook Commerce Manager dashboard. Click the Add items button.
From the below options select Data feed and click the Next button.
In the next window select the File upload option and click the Next button.
Use the Upload File box to upload the CSV file that you downloaded in earlier steps using the ELEXtensions plugin.
Click the Next button, here you can name your data source and select your Default currency. When you are all satisfied click the Upload button.
This will start uploading your product catalog automatically.
You are all set to showcase your catalog feed on Instagram and Facebook. This is how your products will be displayed on Facebook and the same products will be visible on Instagram Shopping. Instagram shopping will have an integrated browser that can be accessed by the customers to purchase products directly from your WooCommerce store.
Use the above guide to sell your WooCommerce products on Instagram Shopping and start connecting with your customers on one of the biggest social media networks. If you have any doubts or suggestions don’t forget to mention them in the comments below.
Hi there,
First of all, great article, thanks for that.
I need Instagram to send the product and client data back to WooCommerce after a sale. Will the sales you make on Instagram be visible in WooCommerce this way?
Best regards,