If your t-shirt business doesn’t have a professional profile on Instagram, you could be losing out on sales.
Instagram is more than an app that inspires FOMO when you look at vacation photos. It’s an influential driver in e-commerce sales. You can use it as a tool to establish your brand’s reputation, but more importantly, you can encourage people to click on your products and hit the essential “buy” button.
Now that you’re t-shirt printing online, take the next step in your digital evolution. Check out these three reasons why social media, and Instagram in particular, is so important to your business.
More People Are Shopping Online Today More Than Ever
Online shopping has been a convenient way to shop for a while now, but the pandemic has pushed e-commerce into overdrive.
During the height of lockdown restrictions, Canadians did 10 percent of their spending online. Their neighbours to the south are even more likely to click through the checkout, with 44 percent of Americans spending more money online.
Although health restrictions are slowly lifting, some lockdown habits die hard. Studies show people continue to shop from home rather than in person, with plans to navigate the biggest shopping events of the year like Black Friday and Christmas online.
If you expect to tap into these sales, your custom t-shirt store needs to be available online.
Social Media is Driving Sales
So, you have a website — this should be enough to attract online shoppers, right? While your website plays an important role in your success, social media platforms are revealing themselves to be the lynchpin of custom clothing businesses.
According to the State of Fashion Report, nearly three-quarters of all online sales (74%) will be generated over social media soon. Why? Because it’s easy. Shoppers can scroll through Instagram and buy what they see in the post.
More still, a staggering number of people trust social media influencers. If your custom t-shirt store partners with a fierce influencer in your style niche, you can access their enormous followers list and increase your brand visibility.
More People Are Using Instagram Specifically to Shop
You might be wondering why Instagram beats out all the other platforms. With its image-heavy setup, its design is perfectly suited for fashion brands. You can share a photoshoot linking to the purchasing pages of each t-shirt in your post. You can even create an awesome video of someone rocking your t-shirts. As long as you follow the Instagram ad specs guidelines, you can easily promote them with Facebook ads to boost your reach and increase sales.
The platform has also created Instagram Shopping, making it possible for custom clothing businesses like you to share your inventory and sell your best t-shirt designs directly on the app.
Instagram Shopping gives you a space to create a virtual storefront on the app. There, you can curate a beautiful shop where visitors can admire your heat pressed designs, browse your collections, read details on individual pieces, and proceed to checkout.
There’s also the opportunity to boost your brand with ads within the app, giving you a chance to reach new customers through hashtags.
Do it for the ‘Gram
Today, most people visit Instagram when researching products and services, and some 130 million users click through to make a purchase every month. As Instagram continues to evolve and grow, it makes sense to have an e-commerce presence on the app.
Now that people are shopping online and trusting social media platforms more than ever before, curating your presence online can open doors for your custom t-shirt store. Take advantage of this app to reach new customers and boost your sales.
