Last Updated on by Dan S
Originally Published December 17, 2019.


Instagram is a massive channel to market your stores products. Of course, whenever there is a handy feature or tool that a big media company like Facebook Meta (owners of Instagram) are offering, you’d be wise to make use of it.

Shopify have a connection to the Instagram channel but this doesn’t mean you can access this feature straightaway. The ability to sell directly on Instagram is determined by Instagrams in-house review team.

Get product tagging on your Instagram Posts [Updated for 2024]

If you find yourself being unable to tag products, there are a couple of techniques that may help with getting approved to sell on Instagram.

 

Finding tagging options and shop on Instagram

When you first setup the Instagram channel on Shopify, you will go through the verification process. Bare in mind that Instagram doesn’t allow every shop on the platform to do this. You must have an eligible shop and meed the eligibility requirements.

Tagging products on Instagram

When you see that you’re approved in your Instagram business profile and you have added your Facebook product catalog, you can tag your products in Instagram posts and stories.

To tag products in your posts:
  • Tap and toggle to post.
  • Select a photo or video and add a caption, effects and filters. Tap Next.
  • Tap Tag products. Tap the products in the photo or video that you want to tag. You can select up to five products per single image and video post or 20 products per multi-image post.
  • Search for the products that you want to tag, then select them as they appear in the search box.
  • Tap Done.
  • Tap Share.

Tagging products in Instagram stories

You can tag your products in stories using shopping stickers. You can only tag image based story posts with this method.

 

My Instagram account is approved but I still don’t see tagging options

If you’re approved to sell on Instagram but still can’t see your account, here are a few things that might be wrong.

Business Account

Keep in mind that you can only set up a shop on Instagram if you have a Business Account. If your account is not Business, here’s how to change the settings:

  • Tap the three horizontal lines in the upper right corner of your page
  • Go to Settings and tap on Account
  • Select Switch to Professional Account
  • Select Business 
  • You can also connect your Instagram business page to your Facebook account in this step. Doing this is important if you want to sell products through Shopify
  • After that, you can add other details like contact information, business category, etc
  • Tap Done 

Join Facebook page

As discussed above, you must connect your Instagram account to the Facebook business page. Plus, make sure that all products you want to sell on Instagram are available on your Instagram and Facebook.

Choose Catalog

After this, you can go to Settings in Instagram and tap Shopping. Here, you can choose the catalog you’d like to tag from. 

If you’ve checked all these things and there’s no problem with the setup, you should contact Instagram support or report a problem through your account. The support team will check your account and solve any issues that might be restricting you from creating a shop.

Below are steps to troubleshoot the Instagram Sales Channel. Tagging isn’t the same as selling through Instagram. Tagging is simply adding a link to your Shopify store’s product on a post.

Selling through the Instagram Sales Channel means the customer will never leave Instagram and they will handle the transaction.

Do you have a genuine problem or connection issue?

Sometimes, tech goes wrong. You can spend hours over something that is literally out of your hands. The first thing to do is simply report an issue to Instagram.

Letting Instagram know that you your Shopify Product feed is denied, when you know your store doesn’t violate their sales policy will trigger Instagram to take a second, deeper look. This can sometimes act like an appeal and cause their initial decision to be changed.

Another tactic is mentioned in a review on the Instagram app’s page.  This option is a bit more complicated but is another method that has seen success.

  1. Remove the Instagram Shopping Channel and clear your Browsers Cache.
  2. Unlink the connection between your facebook and Instragam pages in the Instagram App.
  3. Switch your Instagram account back to Personal
  4. Delete the Instagram App and reinstall
  5. Log Back into Instagram
  6. DON’T relink your facebook page and DON’T switch to a business profile
  7. Go to your facebook page and disconnect your instagram under accounts
  8. Go your business page of facebook, go to settings and make sure you aren’t listed as a “Service“. You are a shop!
  9. Reconnect your Instagram account to facebook
  10. Follow the prompt to switch your Instagram account to a business. If not prompted, manually do it within the app.
  11. Head back to Shopify, Install the Instagram Sales channel and setup.

Provided the steps are followed, you may be approved within 24-48 hours.

The main factors are that your store is actually eligible. If you aren’t eligible then you can’t tag.

If you are eligible, you just need to ensure you have all the accounts, settings and catalogues setup correctly. Again, this tech can be complicated and if you had used facebook business manager prior to Shopify, this can add to the confusion.