How to sell things on Instagram without a website

With 36% of companies operating without websites, one begins to wonder how to sell things on Instagram without a website.

Not many people know that a business doesn’t necessarily need to have a website to sell products on Instagram. 

Most people thought Instagram was an interactive social media platform curated to share videos and pictures of one’s life, hobbies, food, etc. However, businesses soon realized that they could harness the power of Instagram and increase their sales.

The next question was how to sell your product on Instagram. Not every business wants to or can afford to have a website so they learned how to sell things on Instagram without a website. 

Those businesses that did have websites realized that instead of targeting audiences and trying to redirect them to their websites, it is easier to bring their products and offerings to the consumers on the social media platform itself.

These businesses not only set up their social media presence, but these businesses also integrated it into their websites and other social media platforms.

Now running a business on Instagram is one of the most lucrative ways of getting customers.

Is it possible to sell things on Instagram without a website?

Yes! It is entirely possible to have a successful business and sell products on Instagram even without having a website.

All you need to do to be able to sell products on Instagram without a website is to set up a payment system. 

Once you have set up a payment system for your business and put the link in your profile’s bio, you can start selling your products on Instagram even though Instagram does require a business to have a website. 

Why should you sell your products on Instagram?

Instagram is one of the most frequently used social media platforms across the globe with over 2 billion active monthly users and growing.

This makes Instagram a great place to sell your products successfully. Some of the benefits of selling your products on Instagram are:

• A large audience means greater traffic to your e-commerce page on Instagram
• You can fully showcase your products on your feed so people have clear visuals of all your offerings
• It is the most preferred social media platform by Millennials and Gen Z users. This makes it a great place to target your audience falling into these demographics.
• You do not need any initial investment to set up your e-commerce business on Instagram.
• It is very easy to understand how to sell things on Instagram without a website.
• ⅓ of all stories viewed on Instagram are stories by Instagram business accounts. This is a huge number of story views for a social platform.

How to Sell Things on Instagram Without a Website

Knowing the potential Instagram holds for businesses and how useful it is to drive sales, let's figure out exactly how to sell things on Instagram without a website.  

There are a few steps you need to follow to be able to sell your products and services on Instagram. 

1. Identify Your Product’s Niche

Even before you decide how to sell your product on Instagram, or start a business on any online or offline platform, you must know and understand your business.

• Identify what problem your business is solving for your customers.
• What pain points is your business addressing
• Who is your target audience
• Who are your competitors and what are they doing
• What is your business niche 

These are some of the few things you need to figure out before you set up your Instagram business account.

2. Set up an Instagram Business Account

Setting up an Instagram business account is pretty straightforward. When setting up your Instagram account for your business, choose a business profile instead of a personal one. 

If you already have a business account but it is a personal profile, you can turn it into a business account. Simply go to settings and click on the ‘Switch to Business Profile’ button. You now have a business account.

The reasons behind having an Instagram business account for your business are many. Some of those include

• Access to insights and analytics
• Customizable call-to-action buttons
• Adding contact details
• Being able to link your posts in stories for easier access to followers
• Having the option to add swipe-up links once your account crosses 10,000 followers
• Having canned responses and much more. 

3. Optimize your Instagram Business Profile

After setting up your Instagram business account, the next step is to optimize your profile. Fill out all the relevant information and details. 

Use the bio section to tell what your business is and what you offer. Add the payments link to the profile since you do not have a website.

Get a tool like Linktree or SendPulse to design a dedicated bio link page that provides access to your business website or your other social media accounts. 

Customize your call-to-action buttons such as ‘contact’, ‘email’, or ‘Book an appointment depending on the nature of your business.

Add the perfect visuals to your feed that are eye-catching and explain your products and services.

4. Set up a Product Catalog

Being a visual platform primarily,  Instagram focuses on pictures and videos. This feature is a great asset to businesses. 

A picture is worth a thousand words, and nothing holds truer than this for Instagram. You can use your Instagram feed to create a visual product catalog that people can look through and pick what they like. 

But just having interesting pictures and videos isn’t enough. You need to add the right caption to your posts. Not too long, not too short, just enough to get your message across, deliver value, and an effective call to action.

There are different ways to use your visual feed on Instagram. You can share pictures or videos of

• Your products
• People using your products
• Important announcements such as sales or new product launches
• Endorsements from influencers and celebrities
• Process videos or behind-the-scenes videos
• Get to know the team series to make it more personal for your followers
• Giveaways to celebrate your followers and show them gratitude.

5. Integrate Payment Solutions

Though Instagram requires a business to have a website when setting up a business account, it makes an exception for those with an online payment link even if the business doesn’t have a website.

For this reason, it is important to have a payment solution figured out for your business. There are multiple ways to have an online payments solution set up and dozens of fintech solutions are available now.

For your business, it is ideal to set up more than one payment option. This allows the customers ease of use as they can choose the option most suited to them. 

This also ensures that on the off chance one payment option isn’t working, you always have a backup so you don’t end up losing on sales due to technical issues.

6. Figure out the Appropriate Hashtags for Your Business Niche

Having defined the business niche, setting up a business account, and optimizing your profile is just the beginning.

Even setting up your product catalog and Instagram feed with great visuals and gripping captions will only take your post reach so far. What you need to understand is that social media marketing, especially on Instagram, is multi-faceted. 

You may be doing everything right but if you do not have the right hashtags for your business niche, the possibility of your ranking on the feed and customers finding you is very low. 

This is why you need to know the right hashtags for your business niche and make sure to keep updating those as and when need be.

7. Optimize Instagram Stories

Out of Instagram’s active 2 billion monthly users, over 2 million people visit a business page every day. 

Furthermore, of all the story views on Instagram, 1/3rd of these views are business stories. This is a huge percentage of individuals viewing business stories each day.

Stories are a great way to engage with your audience through actionable items such as stickers, impressions, or even reposting your posts on your stories with a call to action to tap and view the post.

Stories give you the space to reshare user-generated content as well which helps build credibility and incentivizes people to tag your page in their own stories meaning you get to have digital referrals from existing customers.

You can also use stories to run countdowns on important announcements such as new product launches or sales going live or even restocks on the most wanted products on your business page.

You can also have an influencer take over your stories or host Insta-lives where you can have discussions around your business and have a questions and answers session.

8. Stay Consistent

The key to any success is commitment and consistency. You can not expect great results with botched efforts.

If you are not consistent with your social media marketing efforts, the analytics and insights will show a decrease in activity on your page. 

A decreased activity would translate to a decrease in sales, and no business wants that. So make sure you are sharing engaging content and urging your followers to like, comment, share, and save your posts.

Keep putting out quality content and the followers and sales will come themselves. 

Markaz App and selling on Instagram without a website

Markaz App is one of the most convenient ways to earn online in Pakistan without having a website of your own.

Markaz App is an online social commerce platform that connects wholesalers with resellers. Markaz App has more than 10,000 products listed on its portal which a reseller can pick and choose from.

The wholesale price for each item is mentioned on the portal and only a reseller registered with Markaz App can view these prices.

Once a reseller has selected the products they want to sell, they are free to add whatever amount of markup they see appropriate to the product before sharing the link with their social circle or on their social media.

Whenever someone buys a product through that link, the reseller gets the markup amount set by them. Markaz App also facilitates the reseller by taking care of all payments and logistics themselves. 

A reseller with Markaz App can sell products on Instagram through their pages without a website. All they have to do is share the product pictures and videos on their profile.

Once someone is interested to buy the product shared by them, they can send them the link and the rest is taken care of by Markaz App. 

Selling with Markaz App on Instagram even without a website is one of the easiest and most convenient ways for a person to earn online and establish their reseller business.

Concluding Remarks

Instagram is one of the largest social media platforms most popular with the age group 16 - 24. This makes it a fertile ground for businesses to effectively market their products and generate sales.

Using Instagram is convenient and easy as instead of redirecting customers to their online or offline stores, a business can target them exactly where they are, on Instagram through stories, posts, ads, boosted posts, and even by running campaigns online. 

This lets a customer view the entire product catalog, choose the product of their liking, ask relevant questions, place an order, and make a payment all the while staying in the same application, Instagram. 

While some businesses may have a website, some don’t and this guide is the key to understanding how to sell things on Instagram without a website.