How to Curate Instagram Feeds to Drive Sales with OpenCart

Visual content matters. Marketers agree: 32% of respondents to a recent industry report said that visuals are the most important to their business, and creating new visual content is a top priority for those working in the B2C industry. So it's only natural to create beautiful visuals to drive sales through your eCommerce site. With the new Instagram Shoppable Gallery feed plugin for OpenCart, you can now use social media photos to make your site more appealing to potential customers by connecting them to your website pages. After all, one of the most popular design trends in e-commerce this year is the use of "real" photos to showcase featured products in use.

Making great visuals to boost sales through your ecommerce site, then, is a no-brainer.

With the new Instagram Shoppable Gallery feed plugin for OpenCart, you can now use social media photos to make what you sell more attractive to possible customers by connecting them to your website’s pages.

After all, one of the most popular design trends in ecommerce this year is the use of “real” photographs that show featured products in use.

While user-generated content definitely helps in this regard, taking your own photos and uploading them onto your brand’s Instagram account puts control in your hands.

It lets you curate your feed the way you want it and showcase your products the way you think is best.

Here are three big tips for website-worthy Instagram pictures to help boost sales.
 

1 Choose a Visual Signature

While there’s no problem with the main product image on a page being a shot of the item itself, you want to show off exactly what makes it so good to buy.

Supplementing the main product image with social media posts gives you the opportunity to appeal to your audience’s lifestyle and tastes. You want your brand to tell a story—one that invites customers to be a part of it.

Look at your products: what purpose do they serve, and what kind of individual would want to buy them?

Two different brands that may be in the same industry - activewear, for example - but they can have vastly different approaches in what they post on Instagram depending on the items they sell and their target demographic.
 

Pro TipA brand that focuses on sports and running apparel can post energetic, high-impact photos in bold colors depicting dynamic motion while one that sells yoga wear would inject lots of calm and clean colors into their aesthetic.

 
Choose your approach and make each photo align with your brand voice.
 

2 Play with Perspective

Wouldn’t you want to know what an item looks like before deciding to buy?

Mix and match how items are arranged in photos you post to Instagram. Uploading many posts of items in various positions, with different backgrounds, and alongside a variety of props isn’t just a creative decision, but a smart one business-wise.

The pictures won’t just look great, they’ll let someone check out the quality of an item from all sides.

Nobody wants to get burned by online shopping—horror stories do abound of “what you see on the site” versus “what you get.”
 

Pro TipThere are many ways of highlighting your products, only one of which is having photos of them being used by actual people.

In fact, just having photos of them held in someone’s hand can be attractive when the packaging is clearly displayed and the background is crisp and clean for a dash of minimalism. This minimalism is also a big hit with flatlays, photos of items laid onto a surface taken from a top-down view.

Keep the objects alone in the frame or add a few props that complement them. Of course, don’t forget to round out the set by taking a regular side view shot.
 

3 Make Colors Pop

Colors go a long way when it comes to product imagery.

To connect with your brand’s lifestyle aspiration, post-processing product photos and adjusting color tones sets the mood of how each item relates with your brand story.

You can choose to edit colors according to your product’s appearance (such as complementing bright colors with bright scenery for a sunny disposition) or what you want it to convey (such as decreasing saturation for a dreamy, pastel aura).
 

Pro TipUse a reliable mobile photo editing application with many options like Instasize for full customizability. With an app like that, you’ll be able to choose from a host of filters and overlays as well as sliders that allow you to adjust shadows, highlights, and tone.

Just remember to avoid overdoing it, or else your subject might end up completely different from what they look like in real life!
 

You're Ready to Go

With these tips, you won’t just be creating beautiful photos to accompany each individual item on your ecommerce website, you’ll be building a great base for growing your social media presence on Instagram as well. 75% of users take action after seeing a brand’s post on Instagram (taking action meaning visiting their website) and 60% of users use the platform to find their next purchase.

With more than one billion individuals having accounts on there, building the connection between Instagram and your website is a win-win for both!

Author Bio: 

Natasha Ponomaroff is the Senior Marketing Director of Instasize – a content creating tool kit for anyone editing photos and online content on mobile. A weekly contributor on the site’s blog, Natasha tracks social media trends and updates the millions of “creatives” who are currently using Instasize to curate awesome online content. When she isn’t writing up the latest trend, Natasha is overseeing a team of 10 over at the Instasize HQ – ensuring that the marketing content on the apps various social platforms is ready to go.