E-Commerce Sales

How to Use Instagram to Triple Your Online Sales

How to Use Instagram to Triple Your Online Sales

Are you leveraging fashion’s favorite social network to the best of your abilities?

Fashion lovers are all over Instagram, but regularly posting on-brand, attractive content is far from enough if you want to bring in more cash.

Leverage these five moves to use the platform to triple your online sales…

1. Connect Instagram with Your Shopify Account.

If you have a Shopify account, be sure to take advantage of this great opportunity. You can connect your accounts so people can shop your e-commerce store directly through the Instagram app.

Did you notice how all of a sudden shoppable posts are all over your feed? That’s because consumers have finally become comfortable with shopping on Instagram. And most of these purchases are impromptu, impulse buys so the key is making the purchase process as quick and streamlined as possible to close the sale.

2. Use Hashtags Strategically.

As an e-commerce business owner, you know how crucial it is to use the right keywords for your brand. Do you give your hashtags on social media the same credit? You should! Make sure your content is seen by as many of the right people as possible. Include strategic hashtags with each post.

One of our clients’ social media managers recently ramped up their hashtag strategy on Instagram. The result was incredible. They noticed a sudden spike in their out of state sales – they doubled via their activity on Instagram!

You can also use hashtags to build up your wholesale business. It’s hard for new and smaller retailers to source new and emerging brands, so a lot of them will follow specific hashtags. If you’re not familiar with this fairly new feature, content from the hashtags you follow show up in your feeds just like the content from the accounts you follow. This feature helps buyers see who is new, what is new and what is trending every time they log in.

Make sure you’re hashtagging properly. Independent fashion brands, you may want to use hashtags indicating that as well as more generalized industry hashtags to get discovered.

Some examples include…

  • #emergingdesigner
  • #emergingfashion
  • #independentdesigner
  • #ss19
  • #ss19collection
  • #springsummer
  • #springsummer2019
  • #sustainablefashion (if applicable, of course)
  • #ethicalfashion (if applicable)

3. Share User-Generated Content (UGC).

Reposting UGC is a surefire way to increase the traction on your Instagram posts. Why? People are excited to see their content shared on your account and will be sure to spread the news and notify others about it. It’s also helpful because consumers want to see themselves and other “everyday people” in your products. It helps them understand how they fit, how they may be worn and what they look like when they’re worn in context. They also bring a sense of reality to their digital screens.

This doesn’t take away from the power of working with models and influencers. Instead, user-generated content has its own unique benefits. The main draw is a sense of realness that helps to convert sales online.

Scaling Retail client, Rhode Resort, does a great job with this. They repost content frequently and yet they’re careful to only share content that fits with their brand aesthetic. It’s important that you also curate strategically. You’re still directing the image of your brand.

Rhode Resort UGC Example 1

Rhode Resort UGC Example 2

Rhode Resort UGC Example 3

4. Use Instagram Stories.

Instagram Stories is perfect for flash sales and pre-releases of product. If you want to test the strength of your audience, post announcements to your Story list. You’ll understand how strong your audience is there based on who ends up clicking through and purchasing.

5. Develop and Execute a Paid Advertising Strategy.

Last but definitely not least, delve into the world of paid advertising on Instagram. There are a lot of ways to do it and your strategy should evolve over time. Do your research, set your goals then build a strategy for news feed ads, Story ads and partnerships with micro influencers.

Need help with your Instagram strategy or growing your sales online? We’ve helped hundreds of businesses – big and small – grow their sales with strategic, custom marketing campaigns and even hands-on execution. Let’s start with a 30 minute consultation session. Give us a call at 310.957.5264 or email hello@scalingretail.com.