What Are Shopping Tags?

Last year, Instagram announced the global launch of Shopping Tags feature — special product tags in posts and stories. You can specify the price of the product in the shopping tag, and direct the buyer to the product page on your website.

For businesses using Instagram as a channel to attract traffic to their site, Shopping Tags have become the gift from heaven — after all, these are the first clickable links in posts that lead customers away from the social network.

Instagram is testing Shopping Tags in post descriptions.

Instagram started testing this feature on a limited list of US users.

Shopping Tags in your posts is an additional tool for increasing sales. Many companies have been already using trade tags in their photos and stories. And now there is another way to attract customers using a clickable link in each post.

But hold off on being excited! Unfortunately, Instagram aims to increase sales of only large trading accounts. Therefore, the feature won’t be available to everyone.

How to enable Shopping Tags?

According to Instagram Help, your account must meet the following requirements:

1. Your business must sell physical products that meet Instagram trading regulations. In other words, if you are a coach, consultant, or makeup artist, you won't be able to use Shopping Tags.
2. You must have a business profile (which you probably already have).
3. You must have a Store section in your Facebook page, where all the products of your business are listed. To do that, you are obligated to have a registered trademark.
4. The account location must be included in the list of countries that have access to trademarks.

By the way, here's a list of services that are forbidden to advertise on Instagram:

• tourism services, including air transportation, hotel services and car rental;
• housemaid services and other services that involve hiring personnel;
• medical, cosmetic or recreational  services, including hair styling and Spa treatments;
• financial services, including insurance, accounting, banking, and crediting;
• household services, including construction works or painting;
• landscaping services;
• electrical services;
• plumbing services;
• cleaning services;
• photo services;
• car repair services, including maintenance;
• event management;
• fitness;
• veterinary and animal services.

If your company account is registered in the country where you don't have access to trade tags, you won’t be able to mark products. Fortunately, there are free alternatives on the Internet. For example, the UniLink service is a multi-link which can be added to your bio. It allows you to attach products to your Instagram posts and sell them immediately. On top of that, it's absolutely free. And no trademarks required ;)