With over 800 million registered accounts and millions of active users every single day, it’s no surprise that Instagram has become a popular platform for buying and selling online. With that said, it’s important to note that setting up an e-shop on Instagram is nothing like creating a personal account on the social media platform. Creating an e-shop does not only require immense dedication, but your efforts, too, need to be directed where they will actually matter. And since we know how much you’d love to create an e-shop out of your own Instagram account for additional revenue, we’re letting you in on some surefire tips that can get you started with your very own shop.

Be Focused

The number one reason why Instagram shops fail is because their owners step into the world of ecommerce without having a proper plan or strategy in place. More often than not, Instagram shop owners try selling everything from crafts to clothing and books at the same shop, leaving customers uncertain about the quality of products. It is, therefore, recommended that you have a clear picture of exactly what it is that you wish to sell to ensure that your additional revenue stream is as sustainable as it is profitable.

Prioritize Quality

Being a platform that thrives on visual content, you need to ensure that you only upload extremely high quality images and videos of your products to increase your chances of sales and maximize revenue. Since your videos and images are the first things that your customers or target audience will view, you need to upload content that is so engaging and insightful that it has your audiences glued to their screens to see what you have to offer.

Leverage Links

While you’re still not allowed to incorporate clickable links in your Instagram captions, losing out on customers just because they didn’t have a convenient method to access the product or service that you had displayed in your account is a surefire recipe for disaster. If you see that a certain image or video is gaining more traction than usual, adding a clickable link to the product page in your bio and making mention of it in your caption is a great way to direct your customers to the page where they can purchase the product that they’ve fallen in love with.

Encourage Brand Loyalty

By running competitions and campaigns that encourage your customers and audiences to share your page or images wearing or using your products for their followers to see, you do not only contribute positively to your brand identity, but doing so is also a great way to attract more customers.