How to Add Instagram Feed to Shopify

Adding an Instagram feed to your Shopify store immediately boosts social proof and turns passive visitors into engaged customers. It’s an effective way to showcase your products in real-world settings, highlight happy customers, and seamlessly blend your brand's social presence with your e-commerce experience. This guide will walk you through exactly how to embed a beautiful, functional, and shoppable Instagram feed directly into your Shopify site.

Why an Instagram Feed on Your Shopify Store is a Game-Changer

Integrating your Instagram feed is far more than just adding a decorative element to your site, it’s a powerful marketing strategy. By bringing your social content directly onto your e-commerce platform, you create a dynamic bridge between your community and your products. Here’s why it works so well:

• Builds Instant Trust and Social Proof: When a potential customer sees real people using and loving your products, it builds immediate credibility. A live feed of high-quality content - especially user-generated content (UGC) - acts as a collection of authentic testimonials, showing visitors that your brand is legitimate and trustworthy.
• Creates a Shoppable Experience: Modern Instagram feed integrations allow you to tag products directly in your photos. When a customer sees a product they like in your feed, they can click on it and be taken directly to the product page to make a purchase. This shortens the path from discovery to conversion, capturing sales that might otherwise be lost.
• Keeps Your Website Content Fresh: Your website's homepage can become static over time, but an Instagram feed is constantly updating. Every time you post on Instagram, your website gets fresh content too. This dynamic nature keeps your site looking current and gives repeat visitors something new to see, encouraging them to browse longer.
• Increases Follower Count: Displaying your feed with a clear "Follow Us on Instagram" call-to-action is a simple, organic way to grow your social media audience. Site visitors who like your brand can easily follow you for future updates without ever leaving your store.

Choosing Your Method: Apps vs. Direct Theme Edits

The best and most reliable way to add an Instagram feed to Shopify is by using a dedicated app from the Shopify App Store. While some themes offer a built-in, very basic Instagram integration, they are often limited in functionality, offering little more than a simple display of your latest photos.

Apps, on the other hand, are built specifically for this purpose. They offer robust features, superior customization, direct product tagging for shoppable feeds, reliable API connections that don't constantly break, and dedicated customer support if you run into any issues. For these reasons, we'll focus on the app-based method, as it provides the best results for nearly all store owners.

How to Add a Shoppable Instagram Feed Using a Shopify App (Step-by-Step)

The Shopify App Store has several excellent options for adding an Instagram feed. Popular choices include apps like Instafeed, Covet.pics, and Taggbox, each with slightly different features and pricing plans. The process for setting them up is generally very similar.

Step 1: Choose and Install an App

Your first step is to pick the right tool for the job. When browsing the app store, consider these factors:

• Features: Do you just need a simple grid, or do you want a shoppable feed with tagged products, hashtag filtering, and the ability to pull in Instagram Stories or Reels? Check what each app offers.
• Customization: Look for an app that allows you to easily change the layout (grid, slider, collage), colors, spacing, and hover effects to match your store's branding perfectly.
• Performance: A good feed app should be optimized for speed and shouldn't slow down your website's loading time. Check recent app reviews for mentions of site performance.
• Pricing: Most apps offer a free plan with basic features and paid tiers for advanced functionality like product tagging. Choose a plan that fits your business needs and budget.

Once you’ve made a choice, click the "Add app" button on its Shopify App Store page and follow the prompts to install it on your store.

Quick Tip: You will need an Instagram Business account that is connected to a Facebook Page to use most of these apps. If you're still using a personal or creator account, it's a good idea to switch over in your Instagram settings. The process is free and gives you access to crucial analytics and integration capabilities.

Step 2: Connect Your Instagram Account

After installing the app, you'll be redirected to its setup dashboard. The very first thing you'll be asked to do is connect your Instagram account. You will be prompted to log in to Facebook to authorize the connection between your Instagram Business profile, your Facebook Page, and the Shopify app.

Follow the on-screen instructions carefully, granting the app the necessary permissions to access your media. This is a secure and standard process required by Meta's API, and it's what allows the app to fetch your photos and videos.

Step 3: Customize Your Feed's Design

Now for the fun part! This is where you get to design how your feed will look on your website. Inside the app’s dashboard, you’ll find a settings or "Customize Feed" panel. Here are some common options you'll have:

• Layout: Choose between a classic grid, a horizontal slider, or a more creative collage layout.
• Columns and Rows: Decide how many photos you want to show at once. A 4-column grid is a popular, clean look for homepages.
• Spacing: Adjust the `padding` or `gap` between images to give them more or less breathing room.
• Hover Effects: You can often enable an effect that shows the post's likes and comments when a user hovers their mouse over an image.
• Header and Calls-to-Action: Customize the title of your feed (e.g., "Shop Our Feed") and toggle a "Follow on Instagram" button to encourage new followers.

Play around with these settings until the preview looks exactly how you want it to. Remember to save your changes.

Step 4: Tag Your Products to Make the Feed Shoppable

If you're on a paid plan that supports it, making your feed shoppable is where you'll see the biggest return. This feature lets you link products from your Shopify catalog directly to the images in your Instagram feed.

In the app's dashboard, there will typically be a section where you can view all your Instagram posts. Simply click on an image from your feed, and an interface will appear allowing you to search for and "tag" the specific product(s) shown in that photo. You can often tag multiple products in a single image. When a visitor clicks on a tagged photo on your storefront, they'll see a pop-up with the product information and a direct link to buy.

Step 5: Embed the Feed into Your Shopify Store

With your feed connected and customized, the final step is to add it to your website. Most modern apps integrate seamlessly with Shopify's Online Store 2.0 theme editor, which makes this process incredibly easy.

Using the Theme Editor (Recommended)

1. From your Shopify Admin, navigate to Online Store > Themes.
2. Find your current theme and click the "Customize" button.
3. In the left-hand sidebar of the theme editor, navigate to the page and section where you want to add the feed (e.g., on the Homepage, scroll down to the bottom).
4. Click "Add section" in the left-hand sidebar. A list of available sections will appear.
5. Scroll through the list to find the name of the Instagram feed app you just installed (e.g., "Instafeed App" or "Covet.pics Gallery"). Click on it to add it to your page.
6. You can then use the drag-and-drop handles (the six-dot icon) to reorder the section on your page.
7. Click "Save" in the top-right corner. That's it!

Your beautiful, shoppable Instagram feed should now be live on your store. Visit your website to see it in action.

Best Practices for a High-Converting Instagram Feed Wall

Just having a feed isn't enough, you need to optimize it for engagement and sales. Follow these best practices to get the most out of your integration.

• Curate Your Content Carefully: Your feed should reflect the best of your brand. If your app allows it, manually approve or hide posts so only your highest-quality content and best user-generated material is displayed.
• Place It Strategically: Don't hide your feed in the footer. Place it prominently on your homepage to immediately establish social proof. You can also create a dedicated "Shop Our Instagram" page or add specific UGC feeds to relevant product pages to show products in context.
• Prioritize Shoppability: The goal is to drive sales. Regularly go through your feed and tag any new posts with the corresponding products. The less friction there is between seeing a product and buying it, the better.
• Keep Your Instagram Active: An embedded feed is a live look into your social presence. A feed that hasn't been updated in months makes your brand look inactive. Post consistently on Instagram to ensure your website's content is always fresh and engaging.

Final Thoughts

Adding an Instagram feed to your Shopify store is a straightforward process that pays dividends in social proof, engagement, and direct sales. By using a dedicated Shopify app, you can create a beautiful, on-brand, and shoppable gallery that closes the gap between your social community and your e-commerce platform.

To keep that embedded feed looking fresh and engaging, you need a strong, consistent social media presence. One of the biggest challenges for busy entrepreneurs is finding the time to constantly plan and schedule content. I know because that's why we built Postbase. Our simple visual calendar lets you drag and drop to plan weeks of content across all your platforms in one place - including Instagram Reels, Stories, and videos - so your feed always stays current and your brand remains relevant without adding hours to your workday.