How to Add WooCommerce Products to Instagram Shop?

Instagram is a leading platform for social commerce, driving product discovery and sales for millions of brands. You can add WooCommerce products to Instagram Shop to showcase your items, boost visibility, and turn posts into shoppable experiences. Learn how to connect your store and maximize Instagram’s potential to drive sales.

Social commerce is thriving. More shoppers now choose to buy directly from the social media accounts of their favorite brands.

Instagram, with over 1.4 billion active users monthly, is one of the most influential in social commerce. Nearly 70% of shoppers now look to Instagram for product discovery, making it a game-changer for WooCommerce store owners looking to reach a larger audience.

This is an exciting and valued opportunity to list and sell your products directly on Instagram. By linking your WooCommerce store to Instagram Shop, you can present your products directly on the platform, turning your posts into shoppable opportunities. This integration increases visibility and makes purchasing easier for your customers, giving them a more convenient way to shop.

In this article, we will show you how to add your WooCommerce products to your Instagram Shop, allowing you to harness Instagram’s extensive shopping potential and elevate your sales like never before.

Instagram Shopping is a feature that enables businesses to turn their Instagram profiles into a digital storefront, where users can browse and buy products directly from posts and stories.

Instead of just displaying products, businesses can tag items in their photos, letting customers tap on those tags for details and prices, and even make purchases – all without leaving the app.

For instance, if you come across a photo of a trendy pair of winter stockings on your favorite brand’s Instagram, you can tap the image to get more information about the stockings, check the price, and even finalize the purchase on the brand’s website or through Instagram, depending on how it’s set up.

Instagram Shopping also features the Shop Tab, which serves as a mini-storefront within the app, and Product Stickers in stories, allowing brands to link directly to products more engagingly.

Some top brands successfully use Instagram Shopping to boost sales and connect with customers. A great example is Nike, which uses Instagram Shopping to showcase new products and limited-edition releases, making it easy for users to shop directly from their posts.

In summary, Instagram Shopping is changing how brands engage with customers, making shopping as social as sharing a post or liking a photo.

If you own a WooCommerce store, integrating your products with Instagram Shopping is a smart strategy to increase visibility and sales on a platform where millions of shoppers discover new products daily.

These statistics underscore the significant potential for brands to drive sales directly from the platform. Here are more reasons why you should consider selling your WooCommerce products on Instagram.

• Increased Visibility: With over 1.4 billion active users, Instagram presents a fantastic chance to broaden your reach. By showcasing your WooCommerce products on the platform, you can connect with a large audience of potential customers. Additionally, Instagram’s algorithm tends to promote posts that generate engagement, giving your products a better chance of being noticed by a wider audience.

• Enhanced Customer Experience: Instagram simplifies the shopping experience for customers. They can quickly discover, browse, and purchase your products within the app without navigating away from Instagram. This smooth shopping experience minimizes obstacles and increases the likelihood of users completing their purchases, which can lead to higher conversion rates.

• Data-Driven Insights: The platform offers valuable insights into how customers engage with your posts and products. You can track which items are most popular, what types of content resonate with your audience, and which advertisements drive sales. This data empowers you to make informed decisions, refine your marketing efforts, and provide more of your customers’ desires.

• Stronger Brand Engagement: Instagram thrives on interaction. With tools such as product tags, shopping stickers, and direct messaging, customers can easily connect with your brand. By being responsive, answering comments, sharing user-generated content, and posting engaging stories, you will foster a loyal following that encourages customers to return and shop again.

An Instagram product feed is a structured file that provides detailed information about the products available in your WooCommerce store. They serve as a connection between your WooCommerce store and Instagram, allowing your products to be showcased in an appealing and precise manner.

A product feed includes all your product details, such as:

While it’s possible to create this feed manually using tools like Excel, this method can also take a lot of time, particularly for stores with vast inventory. Additionally, it raises the chances of human errors, like typos or missing information, which could result in incorrect listings on external platforms.

This is where a product feed plugin becomes useful. These tools automatically retrieve data from your WooCommerce store, ensuring that all your product information is precise and current. These plugins also manage various feed formats and comply with platform-specific standards, which saves you time and minimizes mistakes.

In this guide, we will demonstrate how to use one such plugin, the WebToffee WooCommerce Product Feed for Instagram plugin to quickly and efficiently add your products and set up your Instagram Shop.

Before you begin, you must set up an Instagram Shop.

To set up an Instagram Shop, you need to link your business account to a Facebook catalog and activate the Shopping feature to display your products. Here’s a simple step-by-step guide to help you launch your Instagram Shop.

Meet Instagram’s Eligibility Criteria

To set up an Instagram Shop, your business must meet several key requirements to ensure a smooth setup and compliance with Instagram’s guidelines. Here’s what you need to know:

• Your Business Offers Physical Products – Instagram Shops are intended for businesses that sell tangible, physical goods such as clothing, accessories, or home decor. Digital products or services (like online courses or consulting) are not eligible for Instagram Shops.

• Your Account Follows Instagram’s Commerce Policies – Your account must adhere to Instagram’s rules regarding sales. Be sure to review and follow Instagram’s Commerce Policies to prevent any issues.

• Your Business Operates in a Supported Market – Instagram Shopping is only available in specific countries. Check if your region is included in the latest list of eligible markets to ensure your shop can be established.

Switch to an Instagram Business Account

To set up an Instagram Shop, you must have a business or creator account on Instagram. It’s an essential first step toward creating a successful Instagram Shop! These accounts are tailored for brands, businesses, and creators to display their products and engage with their audience.

It’s a simple process! Just follow these steps:

• Open the Instagram app and head to your profile.
• Tap the menu icon (three lines) in the top-right and select Settings.
• Choose Account type and tools > Switch to Professional Account. Select either Business (for brands and companies) or Creator (for influencers, content creators, or public figures).

• Enter your business details, including contact information, category, and any other required information.

Instagram has a detailed guide that walks you through the entire process. Be sure to check it out for all the specifics. 

Create an Instagram Shop in Facebook Commerce Manager

Setting up an Instagram Shop through Commerce Manager is a simple process that enables you to display and sell your products right on Instagram. 

Commerce Manager, a tool from Meta, allows you to oversee your product catalog, sales channels, and the entire shopping experience all in one place. The setup involves linking your product catalog to your account and selecting a checkout method, either through your website or directly on Instagram (where available).

For more in-depth guidance, check out Instagram’s Help Center. These resources offer step-by-step instructions and troubleshooting advice to assist you in getting started.

To add and display WooCommerce products on Instagram, you must create a product data feed specifically for Instagram Shops. This way, you can freely list your products on Instagram Shop to easily woo potential buyers into your store and increase sales and traffic.

Here is how it’s done.

Step 1: Install WebToffee WooCommerce Product Feed for Instagram Plugin

After purchasing the plugin, log in to your account and download the plugin file from the My Account section.

Once the file is downloaded,

• Go to your WordPress dashboard and navigate to Plugins > Add New.
• Upload the plugin’s zip file, then click Install Now and activate it to get started.

If you need help installing the plugin – refer to this article.

Step 2: Create a New Product Feed for Instagram

Once you have installed the plugin, go to WebToffee Product Feed > Create new feed.

Here, fill in the basic feed settings to proceed. 

• Country: Choose a target country.
• Channel: Select Facebook/Instagram Shop as the sales channel.
• File name: Enter a file name for the feed.
• Auto-refresh interval: Choose a refresh interval for auto-feed updates.
• Cron Type: Select WordPress Cron or Server Cron for the feed refresh.

Step 3: Filter Product Feed Data for Instagram Shops

This WooCommerce product feed plugin offers a range of filtering options, from basic to advanced, allowing you to create accurate product feed data.

At the bottom of the feed creation page, you will see different filtering options organized into two tabs: Filtering and Advanced Filtering.

Basic Filters

• Categories & tags: You can choose to include or exclude specific categories or tags.
• Exclude products: Exclude any specific products from the feed
• Exclude out-of-stock product:  Exclude the out-of-stock products from the feed.
• Product variations: Include selected product variations in the feed. (Users can send either the default, the lowest-priced, or the highest-priced variation to their Instagram Shop rather than sending all variations, which is the standard setting.)
• Product types: Choose any particular product type.

Advanced Filters

In the Advanced Filtering options, you can use if – then based conditions for generating product feed.

For instance, in the example above, any product with the word “Sneakers” in its title will be included in the feed. Similarly, you can set multiple conditions to fine-tune your feed for Instagram shops.

Step 4: Map Attributes for WooCommerce Product feed

You can map the Instagram product feed attributes to the relevant WooCommerce fields here.

The plugin automatically maps the essential fields, but you also have the flexibility to map advanced fields manually if necessary.

Mapping Unique Product Identifiers & Additional Attributes

The plugin lets you add unique product identifiers, such as product brand, GTIN, MPN, etc., to the WooCommerce product edit page.

These fields will be automatically mapped when generating product feed data.

It’s important to map these fields, especially when you are setting up your products on your Instagram Shop. You can also add more attributes related to your store products.

Let’s choose the default options and continue to the next step.

Step 3: Map Store Categories with Facebook/Instagram Categories

Here, you have to map the categories defined in your store with the Facebook/Instagram categories.

Choose the categories from the given set of predefined categories.

After mapping the categories, click on the Generate feed button.

Step 4: Generate Feed for Instagram Shops

This is the final step for generating the feed for Instagram Shops.

• Now click on Generate to generate the feed.

After completion, you can see a popup message saying Feed generated successfully!

Now you have the product feed URL containing all your product info. All we need is the feed URL for the rest of the task. Also, from here you can edit the feed configurations (if you need to change any) or download the feed.

But if not, click on the Copy URL button to copy the Instagram product feed URL. Also, it is recommended that you open the URL in a browser and make sure the file is OK. If everything is okay, you may proceed with the process.

Now that we have the URL, let’s explore how to integrate WooCommerce products into your Instagram Shops using product feeds.

Step 1: Log in to Facebook Business Account

You might wonder why you must log in to your Facebook business account to add products to your Instagram shop. This is because Facebook (which owns Instagram) uses the Facebook Commerce Manager as the platform to create and manage your product catalog, which powers the shop on Instagram.

Thus, even if you’re setting up a shop exclusively on Instagram, a Facebook Business Account serves as the gateway to access Commerce Manager and related tools.

So, If you don’t have one, it’s easy to get started. Here’s a quick guide to creating a new Facebook account. 

First, log in to your Facebook Business Account.

• Then, navigate to the Commerce tab on the left side dashboard.

You will be taken to the Facebook Commerce Manager page.

• From the left dashboard, navigate to the Catalogue tab and select Data Sources. 
• Then, click the Add Items button at the top right and choose Data Feed from the dropdown menu to upload a new product feed for Instagram Shops.

Step 2: Choose the File Upload Option

Here, you can choose how to upload your feed file.

• Select the Use a URL option. 

Now, we need to copy the WooCommerce Instagram Product Feeds URL that you generated earlier. For this,

• Go to WebToffee Product Feeds > Manage Feeds from your WordPress dashboard.
• On the newly generated feed, click on Copy URL to copy the product feed URL.

Now, return to the Commerce Manager page, paste the URL in the corresponding field, and click Next to continue.

Step 3: Schedule Data Feed & Confirm Settings

• Review the feed settings here. To make changes, use the dropdown at the relevant step.
• Select an interval to update the product data feed automatically.
• Click Upload to finish.

That’s it. You have successfully synced WooCommerce products to your Instagram Shop using WooCommerce Facebook/Instagram Product Feeds.

Here’s how your products will appear in the catalog after being uploaded.

Connecting your WooCommerce store with Instagram Shop creates numerous opportunities to broaden your reach and enhance sales. With millions of users finding products directly on Instagram, this integration enables you to showcase your items in an attractive way, simplifying the shopping experience for customers.

By following the steps to add your products, you’ll tap into the advantages of social commerce, offering your audience a more convenient and engaging way to shop. 

Ready to elevate your store? Begin adding your WooCommerce products to Instagram Shop today and see your sales increase!