Instagram is expanding its Instagram Shopping features to more types of businesses — including creators!
The announcement came alongside a slew of other updates to Instagram Shopping, including the rollout of new “Commerce Eligibility Requirements.”
According to Instagram, once the update goes into effect on July 9th, any eligible business or creator account will be able to use shopping tags to drive people to their website to make a purchase.
Here’s everything you need to know:
Instagram Expands Shopping Features to Include More Small Businesses and Creators
Over the past few months, Instagram has announced several new e-commerce features to help small businesses navigate the COVID-19 pandemic.
But this update goes beyond supporting small businesses — it extends Instagram’s e-commerce features to a whole new category of users: creators.
According to the announcement, “whether you are a candle business making a foray into e-commerce, a musician selling merchandise, or a food blogger expanding into your own cookware line,” you can use Instagram Shopping to make sales on Instagram.
As part of this expansion of Instagram Shopping, Instagram is also adding new “Commerce Eligibility Requirements” that businesses (and now creators) must fulfill in order to qualify for Instagram Shopping.
Here are the updated requirements:
Commerce Eligibility Requirement #1: Comply With Facebook’s Policies
Firstly, your Facebook account and Page must comply with Facebook’s Terms of Service, Commercial Terms and Community Standards, and your Instagram professional account must comply with Instagram’s Terms of Use and Community Guidelines.
This is all pretty standard and mainly has to do with regulating the types of products and services that can be offered for sale on Facebook and Instagram.
Commerce Eligibility Requirement #2: Represent Your Business and Domain
A second requirement is that businesses can only tag products on Instagram from a website that they own and sell from.
In other words, you can’t use your Instagram account to sell another business’s products, like in affiliate marketing. Your account should only contain listings for products that are available for purchase on your website.
Commerce Eligibility Requirement #3: Be Located in a Supported Market
As before, in order to use Instagram Shopping, your business must be located in a supported market.
Keep in mind that not all Instagram Shopping features will be available to supported countries. For example, Instagram Checkout is currently only supported in the United States.
You can find an up-to-date list of supported countries here.
Want to know more about Instagram Shopping and how to get your brand set up? Check out our Ultimate Guide, where we explain everything there is to know.
Commerce Eligibility Requirement #4: Demonstrate Trustworthiness
Your Instagram account must also demonstrate trustworthiness, including an authentic, established presence.
According to Instagram, this may also include maintaining a sufficient follower base, although Instagram doesn’t clarify what “sufficient” means.
Commerce Eligibility Requirement #5: Provide Accurate Information & Follow Best Practices
Finally, in order to qualify for Instagram Shopping, your account must provide accurate information about your products. For example, product information listed on Instagram cannot contain misleading pricing and availability information.
Your refund and return policies must also be clearly displayed and easily accessible from your website or on Facebook or Instagram.
Beyond these new requirements, Instagram also intends to update its sign-in flow to give clearer guidance to businesses.
New businesses will go through Instagram’s updated flow and existing businesses will receive an in-app notification in the coming weeks with instructions about how to comply with it.
What do you think of Instagram expanding Shopping to creators and more businesses? Are you planning on using Instagram shopping tags on your posts?
Let us know in the comments!
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