You can give your customers a way to buy in your store without ever leaving the Instagram app by tagging products in your posts and stories. Instagram uses a Facebook Shop catalog to find and tag products. Once your products are tagged, customers can see a bag icon and tap a link to view the item’s name, pricing, description, extra photos, and a direct link to your storefront product page to further purchase a product.

You can sync and connect your Facebook Shop with your Instagram business profile in a couple of clicks. As a result, you'll have multiple sales channels — your product catalog will appear on your website, Facebook Page and Instagram – and you can manage catalog and orders from one place, your store admin.

Requirements for selling on Instagram

Before you get access to tag your products, the Instagram/Facebook team will review your account. To minimize the chance that your store is rejected to sell on Instagram, you need to make sure that your business meets these requirements:

You need to have opened an online store.
Your business must primarily sell physical goods that comply with Facebook's commerce policies and merchant agreement.
You need to set up Facebook Shop and be approved by Facebook, and your Facebook page can't have any age or country restrictions. (Instagram uses your Facebook Shop catalog to find and tag products.)
Your business must be located in one of these supported countries.
Your Instagram account must be a business profile (free to set up) and connected to a Facebook Shop catalog.
Your Instagram app must be the latest version.

Setting up Shopping on Instagram

Shopping on Instagram provides access to Instagram’s platform through Facebook, as Instagram uses your Facebook Shop catalog to find and tag your products.

Before setting up, make sure to:

Set up a Facebook shop.
Convert your store’s Instagram account into a business profile.

To set up Shopping on Instagram through your store admin:

From your store admin, go to Other channels → Sell on Instagram.
Click Connect Instagram.
Next, connect your Instagram account with your Facebook profile:

That’s it! Once complete, Instagram will automatically begin the review process for access to product tagging.

Now, wait for Instagram to approve your account for the Shopping feature. According to Instagram, processing time varies from a few days to a few weeks.

As soon as your account is approved, you'll receive a notification in your Instagram app that you can turn on the product tagging feature in your Instagram account.

Checking account approval status in Catalog Manager

Catalog Manager is Facebook's inventory platform, where you can manage your product catalog. From Catalog Manager, you can create ads to promote your products, enable Instagram Shopping or (if all set up) check out the review status for your Facebook and Instagram connected accounts.

To check on your account approval:

Open Facebook’s Catalog Manager.
Select a catalog’s name to access the Use cases page.
Open Use Cases and check out the status:

If your products were disapproved, please make sure your store meets all the requirements for selling on Instagram. If you are still having trouble, you can contact the Facebook Commerce support team.

Enabling product tagging on Instagram app

Once your account is approved for product tagging, you may enable the feature in Instagram:

From your Instagram app, go to your business profile options, then go to Settings.
Tap Shopping, and then confirm your Facebook account.
Select a product catalog to connect to your business profile.
Tap Done.

If you don’t see the Shopping section, your account is probably still under review. If your account hasn't been approved for the product tagging feature, please make sure you have fulfilled all the requirements for getting access to the product tagging and wait a bit more. You can check out the approval process in Facebook’s Catalog Manager.

Tagging products on Instagram

After you've been approved and completed setup in Shopping in Settings, you can start tagging products in both new and existing posts and stories. You can tag up to 5 products per single-image post or 20 products per carousel.

If your products have variations like sizes or colors, Instagram counts each product variation (e.g., size or color options) as a separate item. Don’t be alarmed if the total number of products in your Instagram catalog exceeds the number of products in your Facebook Shop.

To tag a product:

From your Instagram app, select a photo for the post, add filters, and a caption.
Tap the products in the photo that you want to tag.
Enter the names of the products you want to tag.
Select them as they appear in the search box.
Tap Done and Share your post.

Instagram will review your product tags to ensure they comply with Instagram’s commerce policies. The review process usually takes a few seconds, but sometimes Instagram takes more time to check the product in detail.

Tags under review are marked as Pending. These tags will be visible as soon as they are approved by Instagram.

If you delete a product from your catalog or the product runs out of stock, the associated tag will be removed from all posts where it was featured. Note, this product tag won't reappear when the product comes back in stock.

Tapping the product tag from your post provides the following information for your customers:

The product’s image from your site
The product’s description
The product’s price
A link to purchase the product on your website

After publishing nine shopping posts, businesses receive a persistent Shop tab on their Instagram business profile. This allows customers to view all posts with tags from your account easily.

Best practices: Preparing your business account for a review

Follow tips below for your store’s Instagram account to be faster approved for tagging products.

Get a business profile for your store’s account. If you already have a personal Instagram account with brand-appropriate content and an established following, you might want to simply convert it to an Instagram business account.
You could also choose to create a brand-new Instagram business account. This is the right choice if you don’t have an existing personal account, or if your personal account does not accurately represent your business.

Tip: If you are a business or public figure and sell products, we suggest creating a separate Instagram account for your business. This makes it easy for Instagram to recognize your business. As only Business profiles are allowed for product tagging. You can utilize Creator profiles, which have extended features like statistics about your followers, contact buttons, etc.

2. Tweak your bio. Нere are some quick tips:

Explain in 140-160 characters what your brand is all about.
Utilize business terms like “Store company”, “Official shop”, etc.
Be sure to include a clickable link to your website.
Include a branded hashtag to curate images and videos.

3. Make sure you add variable details such as a business address, contact phone, and email using a button area displayed underneath the initial information.

4. Assign the right category. Check the category assigned to the Facebook page your Instagram account is connected to. If it’s blank, update it to the appropriate business category. Again, this makes it easy for Instagram to recognize you as a business.

5. Use your store logo or mascot in a profile image. This helps people (and Instagram team) who visit your page to recognize your brand the quickest.

6. Post brand-specific content. Here are some tips what business should post on Instagram:

Create high-quality product photos
Use video to showcase your product
Reveal behind-the-scenes of creating products
Educate your audience on using your products
Entertain and engage your audience: run contests or do a fun quiz
Showcase your products as part of a lifestyle
Curate user-generated content

7. Post consistently. This can help you maximize engagement without hitting any lulls or stretches without updates. Any Instagram strategy should clearly outline a target post frequency to help keep you on track.

8. Add more products to your catalog. If you have a limited catalog (under ten products or so), consider extending. You can enhance your offerings with services or product accessories.

9. Consider setting up Facebook Business Manager for your business.

10. Make sure your business meets Instagram’s requirements to be approved for product tagging.

It might take a while to get access to product tagging. We get it. We hope this information helps get your store closer to leverage the Instagram sales channel.