Why Instagram Social Selling Drives WooCommerce Success

Social selling is using social media platforms to sell your products. It can include influencers and user-submitted photos but it doesn’t always. Harnessing social selling means going native – sell your products the way the platform wants you to. Instagram social selling has been amazingly difficult for marketers because of it’s integration limitations.

Why is it so hard to sell physical products on Instagram?

They’re basically the only social media platform that doesn’t allow hyperlinks in comments. This makes it hard for users to get to your website and for marketers to justify their campaigns.

But there’s good news, friends. As long as you have a Facebook Page, an Instagram Business Account, and a Business Manager Account for Meta (is that enough Meta accounts?), you can use Instagram to sell products from your WooCommerce store. 

Praise be to the internet gods! Right?

Can I Integrate WooCommerce with Instagram?

Yes, you can connect WooCommerce with Instagram. As with any integration, there will be some work on your part to set it up. If you’re not the main web admin, then maybe check with your developer. But you got this.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could just put a link on a regular post like you can in your Instagram story? Sadly, it’s a tiny bit more complicated than that. You need to set up a catalog and – for that, you need the WooCommerce Instagram plugin and Instagram Shopping.

What is Instagram Shopping?

You may think shopping on Instagram is the same as “Instagram Shopping.” Well, you’d be partly right. The self-describing name Meta came up with refers to their catalog integration that allows users to click on an image to get to your shop and then buy that thing – or buy directly on Instagram with their payment processor.

“Instagram Shopping is a set of features that allow people to easily shop your brand’s photos and videos all across Instagram.”

Instagram

It’s also worth noting that Instagram Shopping only works on mobile. So when your team is testing, be sure to test on iPhone, Android, Google, and the like. Though it may sound strange that IG shopping is only on mobile, that’s the people you want anyway – doomscrolling for more comfortable house shoes while they’re watching the Lakers. 

What Should I Put in My Instagram Shopping Catalog?

It would be tempting to put your entire WooCommerce store in the catalog. But. You need photography of your items – not just the ones you have in your store. And, by the way, get those updated, por favor.

“Photos can make or break your WooCommerce Store SEO because people are too lazy to fix the details. This is work. It will cost money. It will be tedious to name your images and ensure they have descriptions, alt tags, and captions that conform to best practices.”

Rocket.net

When you start your WooCommerce Instagram integration, our advice is to start small. Pick the top 3 sellers on your site. Or, if you want to put the cart before the horse, then start with the products you have images of already. That makes it even easier. 

You’ll want three to five pieces of creative for each product to spread out among your regular content, too. Your feed can’t just sell, sell, sell. But you know that.

What’s the Difference Between LinkInBio and Instagram Shopping?

Everyone loves social selling with influencers and user-submitted photos and contests. And that’s fine. Generate hype. Get people talking about your things. But that’s marketing. Not selling. 

LinkInBio sounds cool, and it’s a great hashtag, but it requires a lot of work from your user. If they randomly find your post and are like, whoa! I want those slippers, then you want to make it easy for them to go to that specific item in your store. (I’m talking to you, OOFOS.)

Perfect example (but far from the only one):

OOFOS, who I keep seeing ads for while watching the NBA, just dropped their pink slides. These are epic. But you can’t click on the photo to buy it. Why OOFOS, why?

Instead, you must go to the link in their bio to find them. But first, you must go to their bio.

Steps to find OOFOS pink slides:

1. See Instagram Post.
2. Go to OOFOS profile.
3. Click the link.
4. That has a popup of 3 links.
5. Pick the top link.
6. That brings you to a LinkTree page with several more options
7. Choose “shop.”
8. That takes you to OOFOS home page. Not their shop. The home page.
9. Now there’s a popup you have to navigate from.
10. Click Women.
11. Navigate away from a slider pop-up.
12. Scroll. Scroll. Scroll.
13. Oh! there’s the pink slider. 

After 13 steps do you even care? And how many people texted you while you’re shopping? If you didn’t open the Linktree link in an external browser, opening a DM from your BFF stops the whole process.

Le sigh. Mobile shopping is hard. 

But it doesn’t have to be.

Instagram Shopping is different. Take Mahabis sandals for example, ironically an account OOFOS follows.

1. You see the photo. 
2. You touch the product.
3. Touch the text box over the product.
4. You’re brought to the Instagram Product Page.
5. You click on “view on website.”
6. You can now add it to your cart and checkout.

What do you think harnesses social selling more – 13 steps or 6? And don’t stop there. Now you have to care about how fast your website is. Fortunately, we have a recommendation for you.

Instagram Shopping Needs Lightning Fast WooCommerce Hosting

You definitely don’t want to set up Instagram Shopping if your website is slow as a slug. You’ll just turn customers off. Instead, invest in yourself and your business with a lightning-fast, secure, and optimized website that is easy to set up & manage. Top-tier agencies and online stores choose Rocket.net as their trusted managed WordPress hosting provider – why shouldn’t you, too?