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On August 25, 2020, Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, announced on Twitter that all eligible businesses and creators in the US can now use Instagram’s checkout feature. The first launch of Instagram checkout took place in March 2019. Only 26 brands had access to the shopping feature, including notable brands like Nike and Warby Parker. Now that this feature is available to all eligible US businesses and creators, let’s take a closer look at what Instagram Checkout is and how to use it.
News! Shopping on Instagram just got easier. 🛍
All eligible businesses and creators in this US can now use our checkout feature, which lets you buy and sell products directly in app. Businesses can also now sell through Live, which means you can buy products in real time. pic.twitter.com/rpdxiEdLuD
— Adam Mosseri 😷 (@mosseri) August 25, 2020
What Is It?
Instagram Checkout allows consumers to purchase a business’s products without ever leaving the app. Consumers can access products on business accounts with the feature enabled through the “view shop” option in the account’s description or through the product tags in posts. Once the desired product or products are found they simply add the item(s) to their cart and proceed with the checkout process as usual by entering their name, email, billing, and shipping information.
After the first purchase, shipping addresses and payment information are stored for a more streamlined process in the future. Without ever having to leave Instagram, consumers save time and spare clicks associated with the checkout process. Instagram is on its way to becoming an e-commerce marketplace powerhouse.
How to Set It Up
Instagram business accounts and shops have the option to use Instagram Checkout. First and foremost, Instagram advises making sure that Instagram Checkout is the right decision for your business. They have a six-step process to aid with the decision-making process prior to onboarding. These steps may seem vague, but we’ve highlighted the key takeaways.
Instagram’s Commerce Eligibility Requirements outlines what all businesses using Instagram Checkout are required to uphold. Some of these requirements include keeping inventory updated and removing out-of-stock items. Your catalog should contain inventory counts, size and color variants, and products in USD. Additionally, businesses with Instagram Checkout get the shopping tag feature and users can buy products directly from their posts. Check out Instagram’s website to read more.
If you go through the six-step process and decide Instagram Checkout is right for you and your business, you’re ready to get started. Before you can start selling your products through Instagram you have to integrate with their commerce platform. You can integrate with their commerce platform via a commerce manager or with platform partners. Integrating and onboarding through commerce manager gives you a self-service destination where you have control of managing orders, seeing insights, and tracking payouts. If you use a platform partner as your core commerce technology, the integrating and onboarding process can be expedited.
While Big Commerce and Shopify are currently the only eligible platform partners, Instagram expects others such as CommerceHub, Squarespace, and Salesforce will be coming soon. The full list of expected platform partners is available on Instagram’s website. When beginning the integrating process make sure you are on a desktop.
Instagram checkout has a selling fee of 5% however if you join now you will not pay any selling fees until December 31, 2020.
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Benefits of Instagram Checkout
Many companies both large and small have already implemented Instagram Checkout and are reaping the benefits from doing so. With the feature businesses gain exclusive access to creative tools such as product launch announcements, live shopping, and shopping with creators. Businesses can use live shopping by tagging products from their catalog before going live. Their tagged products will be displayed at the bottom of the live screen making it easy for viewers to tap and purchase the product.
For businesses that collaborate with creators, shopping with creators makes collaborations easier since the creators now have the ability to tag products in their posts. In addition to the creative perks, a streamlined process for your consumers is created where they can turn browsing into purchasing in just seconds.
What are you waiting for? Make the leap and start using Instagram Checkout today.
