Using Instagram Shopping to Benefit Your Business

by Bryan Brumfield, Guest Contributor

Instagram is one of the most popular social networks with more than a billion users worldwide. With such a large audience, this app represents a major marketing arena for both small and large, corporate businesses alike. Statistics show that more than 500 million people visit Instagram on a daily basis, which is the most probable reason why people who develop this app try to figure out new ways to add marketable features that business owners (predominantly e-commerce entities) could use in order to scale their business and enlarge their revenue.
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How Instagram Shopping is changing the business landscape and why you should start using it right now.

What is Instagram Shopping
One of the latest business features that Instagram launched in 2017 is Instagram Shopping. This feature was first available only to certain U.S. based clients, however, by the spring of 2018, it spread across the globe to dozens of other countries, with the prospect for further expansion in the future. This interesting feature allows users to post their product photos and tag products in order to allow followers a smoother shopping experience. The audience is able to click on a tagged product, which automatically fires up the product page, allowing the potential customer to get more details, product features, and buy the product without a hustle.

The power of tagging
There are many reports regarding the benefit of using Instagram shopping feature, all of which speak highly of the latest innovation.

Natori Company, American fashion industry leader, stated that they have experienced a 100 percent increase in revenue with 1,416 percent of traffic increase in just a few weeks since they've started using Shopping feature.

Magnolia Boutique also shared the news that it took only 117 posts with tagged products in order to achieve a 4 percent of traffic and 20 percent of revenue increase on Instagram. They even created instructional content to help people use Shopping feature more efficiently. Additionally, they promoted the new feature via Live video, which helps to raise followers’ attention and direct them to the new feature.

Since the new feature showed so much potential and Instagram developers decided to level up Instagram Shopping, allowing business owners to tag and link products within Instagram Stories. This addition was, at first, available only to large corporate brands such as Luis Vuitton and others, however, the good people at Instagram are widening the list of business entities and countries that are able to utilize this feature. Using stories to promote and sell products is beneficial because stories are just photos or videos that stay visible for 24 hours. This makes it a useful tool for sales, special offers, and promotions because once the 24-hour period is over, the content is not available to the audience. More than that, the fact that it allows direct purchase without the need to leave the Instagram app increases the feature’s market significance.

The secret behind such a powerful marketing impact of Instagram shopping could reside in the fact that it's a completely free marketing tool. Business owners already regularly post photos of their products and interact with their customer. This new addition allows customers to buy products without the need to contact the seller for basic product info, search for links in the description, etc.
When it comes to the word of marketing experts, the verdict is simple - Bryan, a content marketing specialist at BestEssays says that the effects of a cleverly planned and executed Instagram Shopping feature vastly surpass even the best SEO strategies in terms of ROI and traffic increase.

This statement holds its backing in earlier presented figures but also the fact that over 70 percent of Instagram users are following business profiles which means that there is a pool of around 700 million users ready to check out the latest products. Moreover, nearly 31 percent of users belong to demographics with minimum yearly income averaging $75,000 and higher.

Conclusion
​The current market is not forgiving towards those that miss out on any trend. However, Instagram Shopping is more than just a trend with no prospect for the future. It is a powerful marketing tool that already shows its potential with business Instagram users across the globe. We've seen the numbers that prove how already developed businesses can scale to the point beyond their own beliefs. Surely, this amazing, free, easy to use feature can help your business, too.
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Author bio:

Golf lover, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. Bryan Brumfield is a full-time content marketing associate at Best Essays AU and a part-time blogger. His roots are in North Carolina, but his soul belongs in California. Bryan’s favorite pastime is playing chess and lip-syncing Rihanna’s songs. Check him out on Twitter.