Instagram is visual, and a shop is visual — the combination looks perfect. It is a good one, with a caveat that decides the future of the business: the platform controls how many people see what you publish.
Start with a business profile
Free, and it opens up reach figures, a contact button and the website field. Fill that field with the address of the store, not with an aggregator — every intermediary is one more click and one more chance of giving up.
Show the product in use
A catalogue photograph on a white background sells on the site. In a feed, what stops the thumb is the product in real life: being used, worn, assembled, in somebody’s hand.
Lead people out
The point of every post is to take the person out of there. Say where to buy, out loud and in text. It sounds obvious and it is the thing most often missing.
Product tagging
When it is available to your account, tagging products shortens the road to the purchase considerably. It is worth setting up.
Why not to depend on it alone
Whoever sees your post was not looking to buy — they stopped by chance. Whoever types the product name into a search box already has the intention. Those are two visits of very different quality.
A shop that exists only on Instagram is hostage to a reach decision it does not control. Having the shop findable in search, with sites pointing at it, is what gives independence.
