Ready, Set, Sales! How to Connect Your Instagram Shop to Shopify

Dov Quint

Feb 20, 2025

Today, Instagram has become a shopping destination. 

As a Shopify business owner, you can pretty easily take advantage of this channel — and it doesn’t require splitting your attention once again and adding even more management activities to your plate. 

All it takes is syncing your Shopify account with the social media platform to scale up your business by getting your products in front of potentially billions more eyeballs. 

Sure everyone is talking about TikTok Shop, and for good reason with its massive popularity. However, brands that know how to effectively connect their Shopify websites to Instagram can make thousands, partially thanks to the fact that not quite as many competitors are present on Instagram!

Ready to leverage this somewhat overlooked sales channel? 

We’re your guide to doing just that.

How to connect Shopify to Instagram: Step-by-step guide

Instagram has a special way of enabling businesses to showcase products, engage with customers, and make sales directly through the app. That means more reach for your e-commerce brand, without the hassle of spinning up and managing a whole new storefront. 

In this article, we’ll walk you through the entire process — from ensuring your brand meets the requirements to tagging your products and making sales on Instagram.

Step 1. Check the requirements 

To take advantage of this integration, you must be on the Basic Shopify plan or higher. You also need to have your Shopify business set up and launched, with the password turned off. (Need help getting your business set up? Here’s Shopify’s guide on that.)

Finally, ensure your products comply with Instagram’s commerce policies and Facebook’s commerce eligibility requirements that govern location, product information accuracy, and more. These rules require products to have a price, shipping details, and return policy. So you need to be selling a physical item and already have systems in place for fulfillment, returns, etc. 

Step 2. Create your professional Instagram account

Using your mobile device (iPhone for this example), go to your Instagram profile (your profile picture in the bottom right) and tap the hamburger icon (the three lines in the upper-right corner).

Select Settings and privacy, and then scroll a bit to find Account type and tools. Then, click Switch to professional account.

Click or tap Continue.

Follow the next few prompts to get your business profile set up and activated on Instagram. For a more detailed walkthrough, follow Meta’s detailed guide here.

Step 3. Build out your Facebook shop

Since Meta owns both Facebook and Instagram, they’re pretty inextricably linked. In this case, you need Facebook set up as a sales channel before you can tag your products on Instagram. Here’s how to get that done.

Set up a Facebook Page for your shop, if you don't have one already. Once you do, it will live on the left side of your screen under Pages when you open Facebook on desktop. 

Navigate to Meta Business Suite > Commerce Manager in the left-hand sidebar. Commerce Manager is where you’ll set up and manage your shop and products across Facebook and Instagram. Reminder: Checkout on Facebook and Instagram must be enabled. This is a new requirement as of spring 2024.

Click Next. 

Now, you can manually add your products to Facebook. In the next step, we’ll add the Facebook sales channel app to Shopify. Once that’s set up, your products should automatically sync between Shopify and Facebook. This is because Facebook and Instagram use the same product catalog to populate your Facebook Marketing, Instagram Shopping, and Facebook Shop accounts. While that makes it easier to manage everything, remember that any edits or stock updates you make to a product in one place will reflect everywhere.

Step 4. Connect Shopify to Instagram and Facebook

From your main Shopify admin page on a desktop device, click Sales channels in the left-hand menu.

Type “facebook” into the search bar that appears and select the Facebook & Instagram app.

The app page should appear in the Shopify app store, where you can select Install.

You’ll be redirected back to your page, where you’ll be guided through all the steps to sell your Shopify products on Facebook and Instagram. There are plenty of steps to run through, so set aside some time for this process.

Once you’ve connected your Facebook and Instagram accounts to Shopify, it could take up to 48 hours for the connection to be approved and your products to show up for sale on social. If anything breaks down or you just want more details on connecting your Facebook Page or Instagram account, here’s Meta’s guide via Facebook’s Commerce Manager. 

Step 5. Start tagging products on Instagram

When you tag products in your Instagram posts and Stories, customers can tap on them to view and buy them. This helpful guide from Instagram shows you how to add tags on posts, Stories, and Reels. But we’ll quickly walk you through the process:

• On Instagram on mobile (we’re using iPhone here), use the plus icon at the bottom of the screen to start your post. 

• Select your photo, add your caption and any additional effects, and then hit Next.

• Tap Tag Products. Then, select the product in the photo you want to tag.

• Now you can search and select the right product when it appears in the search box.

Select Done > Share. If you also want to share this post to Facebook with product tags, toggle on the Facebook option before posting.

What makes Instagram Shop a critical sales lever?

Not every massive social platform (Instagram currently has around 1.5 billion) is the ideal spot for selling your wares.

Why? 

Because the competition is that much more fierce. 

However, the difference is that Instagram's user base is ready to shop. 

The huge majority of Instagram’s users — 90% — follow at least one business on Instagram. Half of them use Instagram to discover new brands and products. And a whopping 87% report typically taking action after seeing a product on Instagram. While 79% went searching for more information, 37% visited a store, 65% went straight to the brand website, and an encouraging 46% completed a purchase.

To sum it up, Instagram shoppers are uniquely motivated to engage with brands, shop, and complete conversions shortly after discovering brands and products on the platform. 

But, back to the competition — simply showing up on Insta isn’t always enough. So, up next are more tricks to maximize your presence. 

5 pro tips to boost sales after successful Shopify Instagram integration

With all your professional social accounts set up and products seamlessly synced to Shopify, you’ve never been in a better position to rock more sales!

Boost your confidence and skills to drive more sales when you check out the tips below.

Nail the basics of Instagram marketing

Before diving deep into advanced tactics, ensure that your foundational marketing efforts for Instagram are strong.

There are infinite internet guides, like this one, to help you build and pull off a flawless Instagram marketing strategy.

That said, here’s a quick summary of the critical steps of nailing Instagram marketing:

• Know who you’re marketing to: Understanding the demographics and interests of your Instagram audience is key to building a strategy that resonates with them. Use Instagram or your Shopify analytics to figure this out.

• Optimize Instagram profile: Of course, you want to use a professional profile image, an engaging bio with SEO keywords, and either your company’s URL or a service like Linktree to feature multiple relevant URLs. 

• Create a calendar for consistency: All your marketing efforts should work in tandem toward the same goal. Develop a team-wide calendar where you can plan posts and campaigns to stay consistent and align with business goals.

• Monitor engagement: Keep an eye on mentions, comments, and competitor activity on Instagram through social listening tools. This will help you provide better customer service, tap into viral trends, and keep your marketing fresh and relevant. 

• Use multiple formats: From posts to videos, Reels, Stories, and live streams — there’s a lot you can experiment with to engage more followers!

• Analyze and adjust: Use Instagram’s analytics tools to measure how your marketing is going and what you can do to make it even better. 

Get targeted with paid outreach 

Instagram makes it easy to narrow down who it serves your paid ads to. And the more precise your targeting, the better your outcomes. By focusing on factors like ideal location, age, interests, and more, you can craft targeted campaigns that connect with the right people to boost engagement and maximize your return on investment (ROI).

Makes sense, right? Here’s how to pull it off: 

• Define your ideal audience: Check out your Instagram analytics to find out your audience’s key demographics and interests. Then, craft your ads with them in mind. You can also turn to competitors to see how they speak to a similar audience. 

• Create visuals and copy: Develop high-quality visuals and ad copy that’s concise and compelling. Focus on product benefits, create urgency, or feature testimonials to build trust, and ensure a consistent visual identity for better brand recognition.

• Utilize Instagram’s targeting features: Instagram ads feature targeting options based on demographics and behavior. Tap into these features when creating your ad campaign to optimize your personalization and impact.  

• Measure: Track key performance indicators (KPIs) like click-through and conversion rates to analyze and refine your campaign for better results.

Learn more: Instagram & Facebook ad playbook for Shopify brands

Level up your photos 

In the digital space, shoppers can’t actually interact with products. That means great photos are critical to creating an Instagram experience that promotes sales. 

Now, for a rundown of our top product photography tips:

• Plan it out: Determine if you need product-only, lifestyle, or detail shots. Create a shot list and gather necessary items like lighting, backgrounds, and props (more on these shortly).

• Use good equipment: A DSLR is great, but a newer smartphone (such as iPhone 11 or another brand with equivalent camera features) can do the job, too. Avoid clip-on lenses as they reduce quality.

• Secondary items to consider: For pro-looking photos, invest in a camera tripod for stability. Ensure you have proper lighting, like softboxes or diffusers, to avoid harsh shadows. A solid white background that's 40% larger than your product is usually a safe choice.

• Set up your composition: Clean and arrange products neatly, using either your plain background or an environment and props that make it pop. Try to ensure consistency with your brand in how you shoot products. Consider the rule of thirds and lighting to highlight product details. Make sure you’re shooting in the right aspect ratio depending on what the photos are for — posts, Stories, etc. Posts should be about 1080 x 566 pixels with a 1.91:1 ratio. 

• Editing: Learn how to use professional apps like Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom to erase mistakes (like dust on products or lenses) and further enhance photos. 

Consider an affiliate program

Affiliate marketing can be a helpful marketing model where you engage a third party, AKA the affiliate, to promote your products. You get in front of more people, and they get compensation in the form of commission, free items, etc. 

Here’s the strategy we recommend for making Instagram affiliate marketing work for you: 

• Lay the groundwork: Select products to promote and define your affiliate program goals, brand documentation, target personas, and ideal affiliate partners. 

• Choose your platform: Select an affiliate platform that integrates seamlessly with Instagram. Ensure it has robust tracking, payment processing, and user-friendly features.

• Build your tribe: Use recruitment tools from your chosen platform or dive into Instagram yourself (check out hashtags, your followers, and your competitors) to find and invite suitable affiliates to your program. Have a loose script to explain what would make this a perfect partnership. 

• Measure success: Track metrics like click-through rates (CTRs) and conversions to assess your program’s success. Regularly review performance, work alongside partners to experiment with different promotional strategies, and maintain ongoing communication with affiliates to boost performance. 

Tap into influencer marketing 

Instagram influencer marketing is about partnering with individuals with a strong social presence that aligns with your brand’s goals to promote your products. 

Let’s dive into a quick guide for executing an Instagram influencer marketing campaign that gets results:

• Determine your goals: Identify what you want to achieve, whether it's increasing brand awareness, boosting sales, or promoting a specific product. And who do you want to reach to drive these goals? Your audience should be defined at this time, as well.

• Know the law: Familiarize yourself with Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines and Instagram’s policies to ensure proper disclosure and compliance with influencer marketing regulations.

• Make your shortlist: Choose influencers who are in your budget, have sufficient reach to impact a large audience, and create content that resonates with their followers. When selecting your top options, always consider past collaborations and authenticity to ensure they are a good fit for your brand.

• Reach out personally: Contact influencers directly with a customized message that explains why you want to collaborate and what you’re looking to achieve together.

• Time to collaborate: Work with influencers to create content that feels natural and engaging for their audience while aligning with your goals.

• Measure and iterate: As with all marketing strategies, track metrics like engagement, reach, and sales generated from your influencer campaigns. Learn from the results and tweak your strategy for future influencer collaborations.

You’re all set to grow with Shopify + Instagram

With Instagram’s powerful shopping features and Shopify’s seamless integration with the platform, it’s easier to get your products in front of engaged audiences who are ready to buy.

By now, you should be well on your way to getting Instagram and Shopify connected, ready to reach tons of potential customers.

The question now is — what does the future hold?

Do you have enough rocket fuel to take your business to the moon? 

Or, are you happy with your brand and its success and ready to consider your next move?

In working with dozens of Shopify owners, we’ve learned one thing: The majority consider selling their businesses at some point or another. 

If that’s a consideration for you, we might have a solution to ease your uncertainty about whether to scale or sell. 

At OpenStore, we make it easy to connect your business to our smart program. We’ll review your details and determine whether we’d be a good fit to take over operations for you. If so, we quickly make a fair and informed offer that you have time to consider. And if you do choose to sell, our expert team will take the reins on a smooth transition, so you can be on to your next entrepreneurial journey (or vacation — you earned it!) in no time. 

Interested to see if you qualify for our unique program? It’s as simple as requesting an offer today. Or get in touch to schedule a consultation and learn more about how we can work together.