instagram shopping

How to Promote Your Dropshipping Business with Instagram Shopping

Instagram Shopping is one of the latest introductions in the social’s user experience. And, as an eCommerce business selling via the dropshipping model, you need to heavily invest in marketing. Since you’re selling products that you’re not manufacturing or shipping yourself, you have to be marketing-savvy and present these products in a different and attractive way. You need to always be a step ahead of your competition, use platforms and techniques they aren’t using yet, and be on the lookout for new trends.

When it comes to differentiation, it’s important that you take advantage of any new marketing feature that’s offered. For example, do you remember the first time Instagram rolled out the Stories feature? It seems like it was a lifetime ago, but it was actually first introduced in 2016. Ever since the beginning of Instagram Stories, brands have been using it to foster direct and close connections to their audience.

The latest and most attractive Instagram feature for dropshipping marketers came in 2019 – Instagram Shopping. This year, this feature has been expanded to stories as well. It’s slowly becoming the main marketing tool for eCommerce marketers, especially dropshippers.

In this guide, we’re bringing you everything you need to know about leveraging Instagram Shopping for your dropshipping business.

Learn some of the main tips on how to boost your sales!

instagram shopping example
image by Instagram

What is Instagram Shopping?

Shopping is an Instagram feature that’s been added to the network in 2019. As of 2020, it’s also possible to buy products on Instagram via stories.

Instagram Shopping is a feature that helps businesses offer their products for direct purchase over the network. For many online marketers, Instagram is a very important sales driver, especially in niches like fashion, beauty, fitness, etc. After the introduction of this feature, it’s expected that revenues of eCommerce companies and dropshippers who relied on Instagram for marketing will skyrocket.

In short, the Instagram Shopping feature is an icon of a little shopping bag (a sticker) that’s placed on products you’re selling on an image. You can feature just one product, or you can promote multiple images using a single photo. After a user clicks on your product tag, they will see:

  • an image of the product (plus multiple images from different angles, etc.)
  • the price of the product
  • a description/size guide
  • a landing page link where they can purchase the product.

 

How Can you use Instagram Shopping to Promote Your Dropshipping Business?

In the following sections, you will learn how you can maximize the earning potential of Instagram shopping as a dropshipping business. Of course, all of these need to be tailored to your audience and niche, but you can easily figure all that out through testing and analytics.

Here is how you can stand out from the competition and use this nifty Insta feature to sell more products:

Post High-Quality Images and Test Them

Images that are more likely to perform better are professional photos with harmonious colors and composition. Moreover, smiling faces could boost sales, but these are only guidelines which you can check for yourself during testing.

As a business Instagram account, you’ll have access to analytics that show you how many users engaged with your product. Remember, it’s not all about the number of likes. Sometimes, images with a lower reach get a higher number of likes and comments, which means their engagement rate is actually higher.

When you’re doing A/B or multivariate testing of images for your Instagram shopping page, look for engagement rates. Try to interpret the results as carefully as possible, because there are many variables that go into determining which image performs better.

Create Top-Notch Descriptions

Next to the image, the copy is the next most important thing that contributes to the sales of your product. To capture as many potential buyers as possible, your caption needs to be attractive and urge users to click on the products to find out more. According to surveys, 35% of Instagram users always read captions.

The weight of content and copywriting gets even more apparent as potential shoppers progress to your landing page. There, they will be met with a product description which will most likely determine whether or not they choose to buy the product. In other words, people who have already decided to purchase after seeing the image will likely make the purchase without reading the description, while those who aren’t sure yet whether they are going to buy will almost surely read through the product description.

That being said, investing in your caption and product description are direct investments in your sales success. That’s why it’s worthwhile to work with experts who will create content for your products on a one-off basis. While you will reap the profits for a long time to come. Check out services like Grabmyessay or some of the academic writing companies to compare which might be most suitable for your brand.

instagram shopping storieUse Instagram Stories and Offer Discounts

Now, it’s time to talk of the next step of the Instagram shopping experience. Adding products to stories and offering your customers a direct chance to purchase them with just one click. Communication and interaction via Stories are incredibly close and friendly-like, which is why you might notice your Stories outperforming your post feeds sometimes.

However, you need to remember not to over-do it. Stories are an amazing platform for promoting your products and raising brand awareness. But you don’t want people blocking your stories or unfollowing your account because you’re too spammy. Posting products on stories too much can be harmful for your brand reputation and it might seem like you’re “pushing too much”, especially if you’re a small, new start-up.

To avoid being annoying or repetitive to your audience, you can offer discounts that are valid specifically for Instagram stories shoppers. This will give your followers enough incentive to keep following you and checking in with your stories all the time. You can use Instagram stories to announce your new collections, products, upcoming sales…

Work with Influencers

Finally, one of the most important bits of advice when it comes to promoting your dropshipping products on Instagram Shopping. Cooperate with influencers who will help you expand your customer base and increase your sales! It might be surprising but, influencer marketing on Instagram is incredibly effective. In 2019, the Instagram influencer market was worth almost $2.4 billion.

Almost all brands who advertise on Instagram use influencers, too. It’s especially effective and helpful if you’re selling products via dropshipping. Since your main differentiators are your brand and your marketing, you need to be ready to step on the gas with marketing in order to stand out from the competition.

Conclusion

Instagram really is the king of UX. As you can see, they have once again created a super-smooth shopping process that provides its users with simple and enjoyable user experience. So, it’s not a question of whether you should use Instagram shopping, but rather how you should use it to get the most out of it, as a dropshipper.

Another very important aspect to consider is the choice of your dropshipping supplier, because once you have caught your clients’ attention and they have made the purchase, you have to be sure that they will get the right product, swiftly. 

A supplier who can assist you in the sourcing of high-quality products, and the fast shipping of the same to your clients is Yakkyofy. 

Yakkyofy is a web-app software that can automate your dropshipping daily tasks. We can help you source over 12 million products in China in a handful of minutes. 

So what are you waiting for?

 

Author’s bio: Daniela McVicker is a writer and editor. She graduated from Durham University and has an MA in Psychological Science. Besides doing her work as an editor and writer of Trustmypaper review, Daniela has been applying her knowledge of psychology and marketing to help business owners grow their companies.

Post tags:

Related articles

Artificial Intelligence has landed on Yakkyofy!

Step into the future of eCommerce with your newest ally! Supercharge your product launches, understand your audience, craft killer marketing strategies effortlessly and much, much more!

New Release: Winning Products Database

Dominate the digital marketplace with Winning Products, the comprehensive database offering 90%+ accurate forecasts for products destined to go viral and become future best-sellers!