How creators can unlock Instagram Shop and sell their recommendations natively in-app

Instagram is shutting down Instagram Storefronts for creators in August.?This comes as a surprise to many in the creator industry, after Mark Zuckerberg's previous communication about Meta's efforts to help creators monetise better. I put their reasoning at the end of this article.

For about a year, some of the creators on Instagram have been able to create their own affiliate storefront, tagging products from brands natively in Instagram. This meant that followers could now easily find products creators were wearing, and if they bought from the underlying brand - creators received a commission.

This was one of many products shipped by Meta to help creators monetize better. If you have seen it, it has previously looked something like this.

Both creators and brands were excited about this, and for the end customer it meant that they could find exactly the products that were used and recommended by the creators and influencers they follow.

This week they announced that they are shutting down the pilot - leaving Instagram’s Shopping features only available for brands and retailers. Brands and retailers will still be able to tag products and sell via Instagram, making it easy for the user of Instagram to shop and find in-app. But not any more for creators.

From now on, the way for creators to unlock IG Shop will be that they either

1. Start their own brand,
2. Sell merch, or
3. Start their own online retailer ??

We are focused on number 3.

With Off Script, you can set up your own online store and start selling products from the brands you like. Your checkout, your customers, but their products. It has genuinely never been easier to start your own e-commerce.

We are practically turning creators into retailers, giving creators the retailer features that are available in the social channels. IG Shop, FB Shop, and Youtube Shopping.?

You can control and manage your IG shop directly in Facebook Commerce once it has been connected to your Off Script-store. See below for a print screen from Facebook Commerce tool where you can create collections, and edit the look of your Instagram Shop.

If you are a creator that wants to get started with this, you can do so, for free, by registering here. We currently work with both agencies, and creators to help them unlock this new opportunity, and are excited to help more creators and brands leverage social commerce.

If you want to see how smooth it becomes when a creator does this, you can visit Christi Steyn's store via her Instagram here. (IG Shop is only available in Instagram's app, so you will need to navigate via your phone.)

?? Create your own store. ?? Sign up as a brand

Instagram's reasoning for putting their internal storefront project on hold;

Based on the feedback creators, brands, and agencies have shared over the last year, we’ve come to realize that we can generate the most value for our partners by prioritizing a single solution for creator and brand partnerships. As a result, product teams have made the decision to focus on the creator marketplace as the primary destination for creators to partner with brands on Instagram. This means we will bring our native affiliate alpha to an end on August 31, 2022.

For your affiliate creators, this means that after August 31 they will no longer be able to tag commission-eligible products in posts and existing posts will no longer earn commission (creators can edit or remove affiliate posts if they want). They will also no longer be able to create Storefronts, and existing Storefronts will be removed. Until the 31st, creators can continue to earn commissions by recommending products but I would recommend winding down tags to give ample time for commissions to settle. The team will settle all outstanding commissions after the program has drawn to a close. Creators will also be given access to the creator marketplace, which they can navigate to via their Professional Dashboard.

Thank you so much for working with us on Instagram Affiliate. For the partnerships team here, this was truly a labor of love and while we are quite disappointed that the product is not continuing, we’re excited to see what the teams have in store for Creator Marketplace, including solutions to help third parties like Creator Agencies manage their creator accounts. We love working with you and look forward to continuing to enable your creators to monetize through our platforms. As always, we’re more than happy to jump on a call to discuss this update and any questions live. We value you and our partnership and want to make sure we support your creators in transitioning off the product as seamlessly as possible.