Instagram is forever looking at how it can expand and improve its eCommerce offering. Its latest offering will allow all users to tag products in Insta posts, with the option now rolling out first for US users initially.

Prior to this update, only creators could tag businesses in posts. But now, any business that is set up for Instagram Shopping can have its stuff tagged by anyone in an Instagram post.

Brands and marketers should rejoice at this news, as it should make it easier for potential customers to discover products organically.

Instagram Spokesperson via TechCrunch

“Scored a new pair of earrings from a small business you love? Tag the product in your Feed post so your friends and followers can learn more about the earrings and shop them.

People come to Instagram to share and discover trends and inspiration. Product tagging will make it possible for anyone to support their favorite small businesses, share how they styled their looks along with the products they used and more.”

New product tagging

When you tag a product in a post, or one of your products is tagged in someone else’s post, it will appear in a little pop up box over the image. The box is clickable, and users will be able to click through and view the product in all its glory. If they’re so inclined, they could purchase it from Instagram there and then!

Businesses’ account admins will get a notification when someone tags a product on a post – they will also be able to control who can tag their products via the product tag preference setting and can view all tagged content in one place.

If you want to tag a product in your post, the process is easy:

• Select the photo or video you want to tag.
• Add a caption and press the ‘next’ button.
• Tag your brand in your post, which allows you to tag a product.
• Find the product, tag it in your post. You may tag more than one product per post.

In case you’re worried about tags being used in a negative way, you can control who can tag products and you’re also able to remove tags

Part of a beefed-up Instagram shopping

To make full use of all these delicious new features, you need to be tapped into Instagram Shopping. Instagram Shopping allows users to shop your photos and videos across the platform.

Instagram Shopping is made up of a number of features. They are:

• Your Shop, a place to sell and share your brand story. Users can also browse products or explore collections.
• Collections, where you can customise your shop by curating products into themes and categories such as new arrivals or seasonal trends.
• Product detail pages, which provide customers and browsers with relevant info on items in your product catalogue. Product detail pages can also be used to drive referral traffic to your website.
• Checkout on Instagram does exactly what it says on the tin. Instead of sending traffic away from the ‘Gram, Checkout allows people to make purchases directly in app. Although sadly, its currently only live in the US.

There are also a number of ways people can buy or shop for your items on Instagram.

• Product tags let you highlight items from your catalogue in images or videos, so people can click on them to learn more.
• Ads with Product Tags lets brands increase the reach of shopping posts by using ads with product tags. These can be set up in Ads Manager, or you can boost existing shoppable posts within Instagram.
• Product launches can be used by businesses with Checkout on Instagram to exclusively announce product drops, so customers can preview details and buy as soon as it’s available – only available to US businesses for now.

You can still tag outside of the US… but not as effectively

Product Tags sound like they’ll be incredibly useful to businesses all around the world. While we all wait for them to be available outside the US, you can still tag the products that are featured in your posts so customers can use them to shop.

While this won’t have the organic, word-of-mouth effect, it will still prove a useful signpost for Instagram users who like your account and your products, but just need a little nudge to make a purchase.

It will help grab those impulse buyers and gain a few new conversions. And remember, you can also tag your products in Reels and Stories.

Happy tagging!