Wouldn’t be great if you could buy products while you are enjoying your favorite creator’s Live Video?
Instagram thought so too!
With the latest update, businesses and creators can tag products when going Live on Instagram, and make Live Shopping on Instagram much easier for users who will be able to shop in real-time on their favorite social media platform.
In the words of Instagram:
Live shopping lets people purchase products in real-time when they are inspired by a brand or creator’s live video content, opening up a new shoppable channel for businesses.
The process of doing Live Shopping video is straightforward.
Before starting the live shopping video, you can add up to 30 approved products to a collection you want to promote.
When live streaming, you won’t be able to show all the collection at once, but pin one item at a time and focus on demonstrating it’s characteristics.
From there, while watching the Live video, if they find it useful, viewers can buy or save products added to the shopping video.
Instagram Live Shopping is now available to all businesses and creators using checkout in the US. Hopefully, it will roll out globally, soon.
Before we dive into how you can add products to Live Shopping on Instagram, let’s just go over the benefits of doing so.
Help users see if the product fits their needs
Live Shopping is a great way to show people how to use your product or recommend products they might find useful.
Since the video it’s a two-way street, live streaming seems like the perfect moment to directly interact with your customers, answer their questions and help them figure out if your product is the right one for them. Don’t miss this opportunity.
Promote your latest products
Keep your Instagram followers up-to-date on your latest products. They will be delighted to be the first to know. Meanwhile, you can create a real-time demand for your products, for free. It’s a win-win situation.
Drive sales from product collaborations
Everyone enjoys a good sales pitch from their favorite Instagram creator, right?
Take that into your advantage next time when you do live streaming. Let your collaborators overtake your Instagram account and promote your latest collection the best way they can.
Please note that your business and creator must be approved to use Shopping from Creators.
Here you can check out if your Instagram Shopping availability.
How to add products to Live Shopping on Instagram
Before we start, please note that to add products to your live shopping video, you need to use the Shopping option only. Fundraisers and badges are not allowed (for now).
As mentioned above, you can add up to 30 products to your collection. So make sure to pick your items carefully and then follow the steps to add products to your live shopping video:
Step 1: Go to your Instagram account and open the Camera option
Step 2: Toggle to Live at the bottom of the screen
Step 3: Select the Shopping icon
Step 4: Choose the products you want to promote
Step 5: Once done, just tap to go Live
That’s it.
Next time users are watching your video and see a product they like, they can tap on it to view the product details page and continue to the checkout page to complete the buying process.
Please have in mind that you can pin your products to the screen only during the live streaming.
How to know if my product is eligible to be added to a live video?
According to Instagram’s guidelines, only approved products that are available to buy directly on Instagram can be added to a live video.
For a product to be approved, it should complete the following criteria:
- Already added and approved for the Instagram shop
- Recommended to a creator in Commerce Manager
- Used in an Instagram post or Story
Please note that all products are reviewed and approved by Facebook’s Commerce Policies.
To wrap up
Once again, Instagram showed that is doing everything possible to land a helping hand to promote businesses and creators’ products and facilitate the buying process.
We cannot wait to see what they will come up with next!