Choosing Instagram for your live shopping events has unique benefits:

Direct Notification: When you go live on Instagram, every follower gets a heads-up. Instantly. This focused notification system means your audience won't miss out on your live session, creating a more engaged experience.

Audience Connection: Leverage your existing Instagram following. If you've got a solid crowd, going live enhances the sense of community. Your followers are likely to be more responsive, fostering a closer connection with your brand.

In short, Instagram's direct notifications and audience connection make it a powerful choice for live shopping events. If you've got a good following, going live on Instagram can boost engagement and drive sales.

Get started with live shopping on Instagram

Connect your Instagram page with Sprii

You can check that your Instagram is connected to your Facebook page under your profile settings in Sprii:

Instagram

If Instagram is not connected

If the Instagram logo doesn't show up by the Facebook page, please follow these instructions from Facebook to ensure your accounts on the two platforms are connected: How to connect or disconnect an Instagram account from your Page

If you have followed the instructions or the account is already connected but no logo is shown, please complete the following steps:

Log out of Sprii, and then back in
Go back to Settings -> Facebook pages -> click the three dots in the top right corner of your Facebook page and refresh the connection

Important to note
When the Instagram logo is showing in Sprii we want to make sure that you have allowed access to messages for connected tools. Use the following steps on Instagram to check:

Go to settings -> Settings and privacy settings -> Reply to messages and stories -> Message settings -> Connected Tools and allow access to Messages.

Allow access to messages has to be blue to be activated.

Test your setup

You can follow the steps below to ensure that your Instagram is connected to your Sprii account.

Step 1

Create a new campaign, and choose "image post"

Step 2

Go to setup, if Instagram is connected properly you will now have the option to post your image post here as well

Step 3

You can also try to connect an existing post in the campaign you made under 'publish', where you can test out the purchase process if you add a product to the campaign, to see that it's all working smoothly.

IG (1)

Go live on Instagram with Sprii

Relevant for users on the basic subscription. Business users will go live through the Sprii Host app (read more HERE).

Create a campaign in Sprii

Going live on Instagram requires the same campaign setup in Sprii as going live on Facebook, but there are a few things to know and check before your first IG live event.

Go live

When you go live Sprii will automatically connect to your live.

To go live.

1. Open Instagram.

2. Click add post.

3. Go to Live.

4. Add a title

5. Tap the go live button.

Important to note

If viewers do not follow your profile and have never communicated with you before, their order confirmation message will be listed as a messaging request and should be accepted for a better experience.

Post your live show as a reel

Live broadcasts can be shared as a reel to ensure you make the most of the content. You can manually post it by going to your Live archive from your profile.

Please be aware of the fact that once the video is uploaded as a reel the original comments and views from the actual live event will not be showcased. Orders etc. are still registered in Sprii's system.

Read more about how to post your reel in our guide HERE.

Use Instagram stories with Sprii

Selling your products on Instagram Stories with Sprii is easy. Just follow these steps:

Create a campaign in Sprii and add your products: begin by adding the product(s) you want to showcase on your Instagram Stories through the Sprii platform. Add search words to the products if you have more than one.
Activate Message Inbox Campaign: under the setup tab in your campaign, make sure to activate the "Message Inbox Campaign." This feature enables us to listen to your inbox, allowing your customers to make an order directly in your DMs instead of the comments. A reply to a story counts as a DM, which is why this makes them shopable.
Post your stories: now the last step is to simply post your stories on Instagram. Post the product you want to sell and make sure to write what the followers need to reply to the story if they want to buy it.

Important to note

You can only have the message inbox campaign activated on one campaign at a time. If you turn it on for a second one, the first one will automatically be deactivated.

Differences between Instagram and Facebook

Some things differ between going live on Instagram from going live on Facebook, please read the different points below to fully understand the differences.

Instagram limitations

Instagram does not support the function of replying to people's comments during a live show. This means that Sprii will not be able to send out any automated comment replies during the live, but all communication will be in private messages, meaning your private replies are extra important here. Once the live is over and you post it as a reel the customers will get a reply to their comments again.
Instagram limitations prevent customers whose only interaction has been commenting on your live show on Instagram from receiving bulk messages sent out from Sprii due to privacy reasons. But you can still send bulk messages to customers who have commented on any of your non-live posts or sent a direct message to you.
What is bulk messages?
Bulk messages are sent from the order list, for example, to remind people to pay. Read more about that HERE
Once you have finished your live show and go to post it as a reel so that people can see and buy from it, Instagram resets it, meaning all comments from the live won't be showcased when posted. You will still have all the information in Sprii, and it's not an error but rather just how Instagram works.

Live shopping on Instagram

Many people use Instagram as a part of their daily routine. With Sprii, you can tap into this audience with your live shopping.

💡 Top takeaways

Table of contents

Why you should host live shopping events on Instagram