Instagram turns 5 and is the trendiest social network. Celebrities and brands get maximum visibility for their posts. But besides helping you build your brand, how can Instagram help you sell?
Everyone knows that fashion, footwear and accessories are the top-selling sectors online. Spain’s Telecommunications Market Commission has released new online fashion sales figures: sales grew 40.3% in the first quarter of 2015 compared with the same period the previous year. The numbers don’t lie and everything seems to be going smoothly, but a more competitive market demands far more ingenuity, talent and creativity to outsell whoever ranks above you on Google.
One trend that is here to stay in many online stores is the option to buy through social networks as popular as Facebook or Instagram. Since the ultimate goal of any eCommerce is to sell, why not make the most of what social networks offer?
Thanks to platforms like Instagram, both big brands and smaller eCommerce businesses can build a presence and showcase their products. Still lifes, product shots, street style… everything seems to work on this young social network with an ever-growing following. But,
How can you turn Instagram into a sales tool?
Instagram doesn’t follow links in posts and has run several experiments, such as in March, when it launched ads allowing brands to post images with a button to view additional content. Banana Republic used its link to take viewers to a product page. It was the first time a retailer could send consumers straight to where they could buy products through an Instagram ad.
But if we make the most of the current possibilities, we can:
- Integrate Instagram into a dedicated space or page within the eCommerce site.
With an Instagram widget, you can embed the online store’s profile on a page or dedicated space. This way, every visitor to the online store takes part in the branding strategy and brand building alongside the ultimate goal of any eCommerce: selling.
A great way to display Instagram in an online store is a carousel. We see it at the footwear store Andreas, which adopted this strategy because it has a very well-defined, unique Instagram profile. Right at the bottom of the homepage there is a space where users can see the looks posted daily on the brand’s official account. This shows product pages alongside daily looks featuring Andrea footwear.
Another store that devotes space to its social profile is the luxury brand store ottodisanpietro.com, which has a dedicated page, titled SOCIAL, showing images from its profiles and creating a brand lifestyle for all its followers. Images recreating real-life situations so users can see how a garment or accessory looks.
Costalamel the brand of handmade T-shirts from Barcelona, puts users in the spotlight in a section called GENTE/PEOPLE, featuring Instagram users wearing the brand’s T-shirts and sweatshirts.
- Reply to users who tag themselves to drive purchases
Another brand that integrated its social profiles into eCommerce from the outset was cosmetics brand L’Oréal Paris. Every time a user tagged one of the brand’s products, L’Oréal replied with the point of sale where it could be bought.
- And the newest: #womensecret style
But the brand making the most of this social network is undoubtedly women’secret. Instagram content can be accessed from the online store and, most appealing of all, you can buy the item shown in the image directly via a link to the product. Best of all, these images come from customers showing their purchases with the hashtag #womensecret. In this way, users themselves become models and ambassadors for the brand and its lifestyle.
With a good marketing strategy, your Facebook or Instagram followers are the potential audience you can reach with a single image. And if that audience gets involved with the brand and its cause, you’ve already won a lot of visibility. Are you going to let this opportunity pass?
