I’ve been getting a lot questions from many of you regarding how my Instagram posts are now shoppable just by tapping on the photo.  While I usually stick to fashion posts I thought today would be a good day to shift focus and do a “Blogger’s Guide” for all you other bloggers out there on how to make your Instagram posts shoppable.  Since this is a new feature from Instagram (and there weren’t many guides out there for me to follow) it took quite a while to figure out.  Hopefully with this guide you won’t have to waste as many hours as I did!

How to Make your Instagram Posts Shoppable

First things first, for this to work make sure you’re using a Business Instagram and you have a Business Facebook Page.  If not, please refer to these guides on how to set those up… oh and make sure your Instagram and Facebook are linked to each other.

• Convert your Instagram to a Business Account

• Setup a Facebook Business Page

* Make sure you have the latest version of Instagram on your iPhone (as of this post, this is a beta feature that is currently only available on iOS).  Also note that the shoppable links only appear when viewing posts on your phone (you can see them on both Android and iOS), but you won’t see them on Instagram browsing via a web browser.  Finally, this feature is currently only available in the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Canada, Australia, and Brazil.

Once that’s done, we need to further adjust your Facebook page to use the Shop template.

1. Log into your Facebook account but make sure you’re logged in with your Business Manager account.  Navigate to your page, not your feed.  Like so https://business.facebook.com/yourpage.
2. Click the Settings button on the upper right-hand side of your page.
3. On the left-hand side of the Settings page click on Edit Page.
4. Back on the right-hand side select the Edit button under the Templates section.
5. Scroll through the available options until you find the Shopping template and click on the View Details button.
6. Click on the Apply Template button and a popup describing the changes to your page will appear.
7. Click OK and you’re done!  Your Facebook Business page should now add the following TABS to your page “The Shop, Offers, and Events” but we’re only interested in The Shop tab.

To view the new changes to your page let’s head back to the Edit Page in Step #3.

1. On the right-hand side of the page you should now see that your page’s template style is listed as Shopping and all your TABS listed below have changed slightly.  Mine looks like this and includes the following “Shop, Posts, Photos, Videos, Community, About”.  You can add new tabs or remove/edit existing tabs.  What’s important here is that the Shop tab is visible.  If not, click on the Add Tab button at the bottom of the page to add it.
2. Once added, click the Edit button to the right of the Shop and make sure Show Shop tab is clicked on.  It’ll also show the direct URL link to your shop under the Share Shop tab which can be useful to know for linking purposes.

Now let’s head back to your Facebook’s homepage where we started in Step #1.

1. You should now have the Shop tab section listed on the left-hand side of your page.  Go ahead and click on it.
2. You’ll be prompted with a Set Up Payments popup that’ll need to be filled out.  This information really doesn’t matter as you’ll be using affiliate links and not actually selling products.  I’d recommend putting in a real but dummy address of where you live.  A fake address won’t be accepted.  Once finished, click Next.
3. The next popup How would you like to get paid? will request how you want to be paid when selling your products.  Again, this really doesn’t matter but go ahead and select Check out on your website instead and then click the Continue button.
4. You should be prompted with the final popup stating that You’re all set!  Click Done to continue.

Okay, let’s start adding Products (or our affiliate links in this case)

1.  You should be back at your Shop page but if not navigate back there.  Since you’ll be going here a lot you might want to add a bookmark.
2. The Add Products button should now be visible.  Go ahead and click on it.
3. The Add Product popup will appear, so you can add your first product.  The important information to fill out here is the Name, Price (it’s up to you if you want to add the price or leave it at the default of $0.00), Description, and most importantly – Checkout URL (This is where you’ll input your affiliate link).
4. You also need to make sure to add a photo of the product as well.  You’ll have to upload this from your computer.
5. The following two settings I just leave at default Share this product on your page and Visibility.

In your Shop you will now see your first product.  The product should say Processing underneath the title which indicates that it’s not yet ready to use.  This is one problem with this whole process… you don’t know how long the processing phase will take.  I’ve added products that are made available within fifteen minutes while others have taken 7 hours.  So, my advice is to plan your shoppable Instagram posts well in advance to make sure everything is processed and available in the system.

We’re finally ready to head over to your Instagram app.  Open it up on your phone and go to your Profile and then click on your Settings button at the top right of the page (it’s the cog wheel icon).  Scroll through your settings until you reach the Business Section where you should now see a new option labeled Shopping.  Be advised, once completing all the Facebook steps mentioned above it might take a week before the Shopping section is activated on your Instagram account.  I know it’s a pain but give it time.

Now that we know your Shopping section is active, let’s go ahead and try tagging one of the Products you added to your Facebook Shop.  Again, before proceeding make sure it no longer says pending underneath the product title on the Shop page.  When you start a New Instagram Post you’ll notice the Tag Products section should now appear.  If so, that means you’ve been successful and you’re all set to start tagging any products you want in your Instagram posts.  Head back to your Facebook Shop and start adding anything you need for a new post.  Given the delay in Facebook verifying your products, I usually add everything the night before just to be safe.

I know it’s a lengthy process but I HOPE I’ve made it relatively straightforward for you to follow.  As always, please email me with any questions or corrections/additions to make this guide easier to digest…

Cheers and happy posting!