Tagging Online Store products on Instagram

You can give your customers a way to buy in your store without ever leaving the Instagram app by tagging products in your posts and stories. Instagram uses a Facebook Shop catalog to find and tag products.

Once your products are tagged, your customers can see a bag icon and tap a link to view the item’s name, pricing, description, additional images, and a direct link to your storefront product page to further purchase a product.

With Online Store, you can sync and connect your Facebook Shop with your Instagram business profile in a couple of clicks. As a result, you'll have multiple sales channels — your product catalog will appear on your website, Facebook Page and Instagram – and you can manage catalog and orders from one place, your Online Store dashboard.

Requirements for selling on Instagram

Before you get access to tag your products, the Instagram/Facebook team will review your account. To avoid having your store rejected to sell on Instagram, you need to make sure that your business meets these requirements:

Your business must primarily sell physical goods that comply with Facebook's commerce policies and merchant agreement.
You need to be approved by Facebook, and your Facebook page can't have any age or country restrictions. Instagram uses your Facebook Shop catalog to find and tag products.
Your business must be located in one of the supported countries.
Your Instagram account must be a business profile and connected to a Facebook Shop catalog.
Your Instagram app must be the latest version.

Setting up Shopping on Instagram in Online Store

Shopping on Instagram provides access to Instagram’s platform through Facebook, as Instagram uses your Facebook Shop catalog to find and tag your products.

If you have already created a Facebook Page for your store, connected it with Online Store, and Facebook has approved your store, go further to step. Otherwise, follow these steps.

To set up Shopping on Instagram through Online Store:

From your Online Store dashboard, go to Other Channels > Sell on Instagram.

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2. Click the Connect Facebook button.

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3. You will be redirected to the Sell on Facebook page. Click the + Connect Facebook Page button and choose the Facebook page you would like to link with, then click Save.

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Online Store will automatically sync your catalog with Facebook and publish products from your online store on your Facebook Page.

Note: You must first set up your Facebook Shop and connect it to Online Store.

That’s it! Once complete, Instagram will automatically begin the review process for access to product tagging. Online Store cannot enable the product tagging feature for your store.

You will need to wait for Instagram to approve your account for the Shopping feature. According to Instagram, processing time varies from a few days to a few weeks, and the timing is out of our control.

As soon as your account is approved, you’ll receive a notification in your Instagram app that you can turn on the product tagging feature in your Instagram account.

To check on your account approval:

1. Go to Sell on Instagram page on your Online Store dashboard.

2. Scroll down to Approval status and click on Check your status.

3. If your products were disapproved, please make sure your store meets all the requirements. If you are still having trouble, you can contact the Facebook Commerce support team for Instagram Shopping questions issues through this page.

Enabling product tagging on Instagram app

Once your account is approved for product tagging, you may enable the feature in Instagram:

1. From your Instagram app, go to your business profile options, then go to Settings.

2. Tap Shopping, and then confirm your Facebook account.

3. Select a product catalog to connect to your business profile.

4. Tap Done.

Note: If you don’t see the Shopping section, your account is probably still under review. If your account hasn't been approved for the product tagging feature, please make sure you have fulfilled all the requirements for getting access to the product tagging and wait for a few more days.

Tagging products on Instagram

After you've been approved and completed setup in Shopping in Settings, you can start tagging products in both new and existing posts and stories. You can tag up to 5 products per single-image post or 20 products per carousel.

If your products have variations like sizes or colors, Instagram counts each product variation (e.g., size or color options) as a separate item. Don’t be alarmed if the total number of products in your Instagram catalog exceeds the number of products in your Facebook Shop.

To tag a product:

1. From your Instagram app, select a photo for the post, add filters, and a caption.

2. Tap the products in the photo that you want to tag.

3. Enter the names of the products you want to tag.

4. Select them as they appear in the search box.

5. Tap Done and Share your post.

Instagram will review your product tags to ensure they comply with Instagram’s commerce policies. The review process usually takes a few seconds, but sometimes Instagram takes more time to check the product in detail.

Tags under review are marked as Pending. These tags will be visible as soon as they are approved by Instagram.

If you delete a product from your catalog or the product runs out of stock, the associated tag will be removed from all posts where it was featured. Note, this product tag won't reappear when the product comes back in stock.

Tapping the product tag from your post provides the following information for your customers:

The product’s image from your site
The product’s description
The product’s price
A link to purchase the product on your website

After publishing nine shopping posts, businesses receive a persistent Shop tab on their Instagram business profile. This allows customers to view all posts with tags from your account easily.