Set up Facebook Shopping and Instagram Shopping • Vivlab

The Facebook & Instagram Shopping feature allows you to automatically retrieve your product catalog from your site and tag them directly in your posts and stories. Subscribers who click on them will be automatically redirected to your site to make a purchase.

💡 The Shopping feature of Facebook and Instagram only concerns the sale of physical products and does not apply to services or events.

With social networks playing an increasingly important role in online transactions, Facebook and Instagram can be a real accelerator for your business and sales. Their Shopping feature allows you to highlight your products and enhance their visibility.

A Shop tab appears directly on your Facebook and Instagram page, making your entire catalog available.
You can tag the products from your catalog in your posts, allowing your subscribers to click on them and access the product page on your site directly.
You can also put the link to your products or shop in your stories.
Your products appear in the Shop tab of your subscribers' accounts or people interested in the type of products you sell.

⚠️ To activate Instagram Shopping, it is mandatory to set up Facebook Shopping.

Set up Facebook Shopping

Initialize the RSS feed of the product catalog

Go to the editing menu for Facebook and Instagram Shopping.
Select a product category that best defines the items you sell in your online store.
Copy the automatically generated RSS feed URL, which is structured as follows: https://maboutique.com/apis/feeds/facebook

Set up a Facebook shop

Go to your business Facebook page and click on the Manage Shop tab in the management menu to start setting up your shop.

Select Payment on another website.
Link a business account or create one.
Name your catalog.
Request a review of your shop.

Create a catalog on Facebook

Once these steps are completed, go to your Facebook Sales Manager.

In the menu, select Catalog, then Items.
Click on Add items.
Click on Import in bulk, then Scheduled feed.
In the Enter a URL field, paste the URL of your RSS feed and leave the login information fields completely empty.
In the Schedule updates box, ensure that updates are scheduled automatically, once every hour, every hour.
Change the default currency to euros.
Click Import to see your products appear in the Facebook catalog.

💡 Facebook will automatically retrieve your site's catalog every hour to update the available product sheets, add new ones, and remove those that have been disabled.

Finalize the shop initialization

Click on the Shops tab in your sales manager.
On the line corresponding to your shop, click Edit.
Create a nice shop that reflects your brand, showcasing your products, using the editor.

For more information on customization and highlighting options, refer to the Facebook documentation.

Validate your domain name with Facebook & Instagram

Facebook and Instagram require you to own the domain name of your online shop. They will not grant you permission to use their Shopping features if they cannot verify it. To prove that it is indeed your site and domain name, follow the steps below.

In your Facebook sales manager, click on the square with 9 dots in the top right of the menu and select Business Settings.
Once on the page, in the left menu, click on Brand Safety, then on Domains.
Click on Add a new domain, and enter your domain name, such as vivlab.com.
In the options provided, select "Update the TXT DNS record with your domain registrar."

In a new tab, go to your domain name host, in the DNS settings:

Add a TXT host name.
Enter an @ in the host name.
Paste the TXT record code that starts with facebook-domain-verification, provided by Facebook.
Save.

Return to your Facebook Manager page:

Validate the integration on the Domains page and refresh.
The small colored dot next to your domain name should have turned green.

Set up Instagram Shopping

Activating Instagram Shopping is an essential step. This feature allows users to discover and purchase your products directly from your Instagram profile. However, before you can use Instagram Shopping, you must set up Facebook Shopping. This detailed guide will explain how to activate Instagram Shopping and what steps are necessary to achieve this.

Check that your Instagram account is linked to your Facebook page

To activate Instagram Shopping, it is imperative that your Instagram account is linked to your Facebook page. If this is not already the case, follow these steps:

Access the Facebook sales manager from your Facebook admin account.
Check that your Instagram account and Facebook page are correctly linked. If not, link them by following the provided instructions.

Convert your Instagram account to a professional account

Before requesting Instagram Shopping approval, you must ensure that your Instagram account is a professional account. To do this, follow these steps:

Open the Instagram app on your mobile device.
Go to your profile by tapping the profile icon at the bottom right of the screen.
Tap the three horizontal lines in the top right corner to open the menu.
Click on "Settings."
Scroll down and click on "Account."
Under "Account options," select "Switch to professional account."
Follow the steps to set up your professional account, including linking to your Facebook page.

Request Instagram Shopping approval

Once your professional account is ready, you can request Instagram Shopping approval. Follow these steps to request approval:

Still on your Instagram app, go to your account settings by following the steps above.
This time, under "Account options," choose "Business."
Select "Instagram Shopping" to start the approval process.
Instagram will review your business account and inform you of its decision. This process may take a few hours or even a few days.

Be sure to follow these steps carefully to fully enjoy this feature and enhance your social media presence.

💡 Instagram should validate Instagram Shopping. If you receive a new rejection, it’s because your Instagram account is too new or not active enough, in terms of posts or followers. Feel free to contact their support for more information.