How to Get Approved for Instagram Shop

Social media, especially Instagram, is a place full of opportunities for online merchants who want to boost sales of their stores. This is why Instagram shop and knowing how to get approved for setting it up come in extremely helpful. 

What is Instagram Shop?

It is an Instagram feature that allows online store owners to make their products more reachable to a broader audience base. Besides, you can also increase your products’ visibility and brand awareness via your posts, stories, and live shopping. 

Instagram shopping is currently available in America, Canada, Spain, Australia, the UK, Brazil, Germany, Italy, and France. Moreover, the checkout feature within the app is only accessible to US merchants, but it is expected to be available for other countries. 

What are the requirements for selling on Instagram Shop?

Before you can jump into Instagram shopping, there are some requirements that you should take notice of:

• Make sure that your business is located in the supported market.
• Follow the Commerce Policies.
• Having an Instagram business account is a must.
• Your Instagram business account must connect to the Facebook Page. 
• Being the admin of the Page or Business Manager account is a must.
• Your business must have a website which you want to sell on.

As long as you satisfy the above requirements, you can get approved and get more sales on Instagram shopping.

How to get approved for Instagram Shop 

You must fulfill the conditions below in order to get approval. By following these steps one by one, you can surface your products on Instagram and start selling. 

Review the Instagram policies

The first thing to do is make sure that you are following the Community guideline and Commerce Policies. The requirements for getting approved for Instagram shopping are:

• You must sell physical products.
• You should not sell prohibited products such as adult products, alcohol, animals, digital, etc.
• Your posts should be authentic and copyrights-free.
• Your posts on Instagram don’t violate or show discrimination on creeds, color, genders…  

Change to an Instagram business account from your personal account

To get the full potential of Instagram shopping, you will have to change your personal account to a Business Instagram account. Here’s how.

• Go to “Settings” in your Instagram account
• Go down the page to “Switch Business account”
• Create your Business account

After you’ve finished setting up your account, you can put in your business information such as location, phone number. 

Connect your Instagram business account to Facebook Page

Once you have changed your account into a Business account, you have to connect it to the Facebook Page catalog. By doing so, you are one step closer to getting approved for Instagram shopping and effortlessly selling products. 

Here is how to connect the profile in your account: 

• Go to your Instagram profile, then choose ‘Edit Profile’.
• After that, go to ‘Public business information’ > choose ‘Page’ > select a Facebook Page you want to connect to your Instagram business profile.
• If you don’t have a Facebook Page, you can create a new one.

As you continue, you will need to make a catalog to hold all the product information you want to showcase on Instagram. 

Adding a Catalog 

The next step on how to get approved for Instagram shopping is adding your catalog. There are 2 ways that you can add a catalog for Instagram shopping. You can either create a new catalog or add an already existing one. Then, connect it to your Instagram business profile. 

• You can add this catalog through Commerce Manager. This method allows you to create a new catalog or connect with an existing one from Facebook. After that, you can manually upload your products to this catalog. However, it will require some effort and a bit of work. 
• Another way to add a catalog is through Facebook listing partners. You can upload multiple products by connecting your Instagram account to the Facebook Page. With this method, you can add products in bulk within minutes and sell effortlessly. 

These Facebook listing partners include Shopify, BigCommerce, Socialhead, Cafe24, and many more. They can help you seamlessly manage and list your products to many digital storefronts for more sales chances. Make sure to check them out for more partners and details on the list. 

Setting up your account for review

Having finished adding the product catalog to your Instagram profile, you now can submit your profile for review. To get it successfully submitted, you need to follow these steps:

• Go to the “Setting” tab in your Instagram profile 
• Then, sign up for shopping and fill in the necessary information
• Submit your account for review

Some businesses will get a notification for domain verification. If this is the case, you can complete this domain verification process and then try submitting your profile again. 

When you’ve completed all of the steps, all you need to do now is wait for the result from Instagram.

How long does it take to get approved for Instagram Shop? 

This review process can take up a few weeks before you can get approved for Instagram shopping. However, it may take longer than you expected because it depends on your profile and business size.  

During this time, you can visit your profile and check the progress:

• Go to “Setting” 
• Click on “Business” and check your approval status

Moreover, you can contact Facebook customer support for more information. When you receive your approval notification, you can start tagging products into your posts and stories for Instagram shopping. 

Tips to sell on Instagram shop successfully 

To get approved for Instagram shopping is one thing, but how to sell successfully on this platform is another. There are more things you need to consider to make the most profit for your online store.

If you don’t know what to do, we have you covered. You can read more about brilliant tips to sell more on Instagram and prepare yourself. There are 7 of them, so make sure to take a look at this article. 

Final thought

For any online merchant, getting your products to sell on social media platforms can help boost your sales greatly. That’s why knowing how to get approved for Instagram shop in a short time can be the greatest advantage you‘ve ever had. 

Don’t forget about Facebook listing partners like Shopify, BigCommerce, Socialhead, and more. They can make your product uploading to Instagram a whole lot easier and faster.