How to Start Selling Shoes on Instagram

Selling your shoes on Instagram is more than possible - it's how countless brands, from custom sneaker artists to high-end bootmakers, find their audience and build a loyal customer base. You don't need a fancy website or a big marketing budget to get started, your phone and a great pair of shoes are all you need. This guide will take you through every step, from setting up your profile for commerce to creating content that makes people hit Add to Cart.

Laying the Foundation: Setting Up Your Instagram for Sales

Before you post a single shoe, you need to make sure your profile is ready to work for you. A little bit of setup on the front end makes a huge difference in converting followers into customers.

Switch to a Business or Creator Account

This is the first and most critical step. A personal profile is great for sharing photos with friends, but a Business or Creator account unlocks the tools you need to actually sell. When you make the switch (it's free and reversible), you gain access to:

• Instagram Insights: See data on your followers (like their age, gender, and location) and learn which posts perform best. This is invaluable for understanding what your audience wants to see.
• Contact Buttons: Add buttons that let people email you, call you, or get directions directly from your profile.
• Promotion Tools: The ability to run ads and boost posts to reach a wider, more targeted audience.
• Instagram Shopping: The crown jewel. This allows you to tag products in your posts, making your entire feed shoppable. We'll cover this in more detail later.

To switch, just go to your settings, tap "Account," and choose "Switch to Professional Account." From there, select "Business" or "Creator" based on what best describes you.

Craft a Killer Bio

You have 150 characters to tell a potential customer who you are and why they should care. Make every word count.

• State your value proposition clearly: What kind of shoes do you sell? "Weekly Drops of Curated Vintage AJ1s," "Handmade Italian Leather Loafers," or "Custom Painted AF1s." Be specific.
• Add a Brand Hashtag: Create a unique hashtag for your business (e.g., #YourBrandKicks) and encourage customers to use it for a chance to be featured.
• Include a Call to Action (CTA) and a Link: Your bio has the only clickable link on your Instagram profile (outside of Stories). Use it wisely! Your CTA should prompt people to click it, for example, "Shop the latest drop 👟⬇️". Use a service like Linktree or Beacons if you have multiple links to share (like your store, your TikTok, and an "About Us" page).

Example Bio:
Sole Revival PDX® 👟
Breathing new life into vintage sneakers.
New arrivals every Friday at 12 PM PST.
Tag #SoleRevived to be featured.
⬇️Shop the latest collection⬇️
[your link here]

Set Up Your Profile Picture and Highlights

Your profile picture should be a clean, easily recognizable logo. If you don't have one, a high-contrast shot of one of your best shoes can work, but a professional logo really makes you look legit.

Your Story Highlights are prime real estate just below your bio. Use them as a navigation menu for new visitors:

• New Drops: Showcase what's currently available for sale.
• Sold Out: Builds social proof and creates a sense of scarcity.
• Sizing: Answer the most common sizing questions for the models you sell.
• Reviews: Screenshot and share positive feedback from customers.
• About Us: A few stories explaining who you are and what your brand stands for.
• How to Order: Spell out the ordering process if it's not straightforward.

The Art of the Shoe Pic: Content That Stops the Scroll

Instagram is a visual platform, and for shoes, the bar is high. Grainy, poorly lit photos won't cut it. The goal is to make people feel like they're holding the shoe in their hands. The good news? Your smartphone is more than capable of capturing stunning images and videos.

High-Quality Visuals are Non-Negotiable

This is where brands new and old win or lose. You don't need a professional camera, but you do need to master the basics. Find a spot with plenty of bright, indirect natural light (like near a window) to avoid harsh shadows. Always wipe your phone's camera lens before shooting. And finally, keep your backgrounds simple. A clean floor, a plain wall, or a complementary texture lets the shoes be the star of the show.

Capture These Four Shots for Every Pair

A good product carousel tells a full story and answers visual questions customers might have. For every pair you list, try to include these four types of shots:

1. The On-Foot Shot: This is arguably the most important. How do the shoes look when they're actually being worn? It gives customers context and helps them envision the shoes in their own wardrobe.
2. The Organized Carousel: This should include multiple angles against a clean background. Give them the side profile, a top-down view, a shot of the heel, and a view of the sole. Think of it as a 360-degree tour.
3. The Detail Shot: Get up close. Show off the unique texture of the leather, the quality of the stitching, the pattern on the laces, or the logo on the tongue. This screams quality.
4. The Lifestyle Shot: Put the shoes in their natural habitat. If you sell rugged work boots, show them a little dusty at a work site. Selling elegant dress shoes? Show them on a nice rug in a well-decorated room. This helps communicate the vibe of your brand.

Go Beyond Photos: Embrace the Power of Video

Photos are great, but video is what drives reach on Instagram right now. Reels and Stories are your best friends for getting discovered and making a personal connection with your audience.

• Instagram Reels are your #1 tool for discovery: Short-form video is how you reach people who don't already follow you. Use trending audio to your advantage. Great Reels ideas for shoe sellers include:
  • "Unboxing" a new shipment.
  • A satisfying cleaning or restoration process.
  • Showing one pair of shoes styled in three different outfits.
  • Short explainers on the history of a particular shoe model.
  • A slow-motion video showcasing textures and material quality.
• Instagram Stories build community and urgency: Stories are for your existing followers. They're more casual and conversational. Use them for:
  • Behind-the-scenes glimpses into your sourcing or design process.
  • Q&A sessions with an "Ask me anything" sticker.
  • Polls, like "Which of these should we drop next?" to get audience input.
  • Countdown timers to build hype for an upcoming release.

From Viewer to Customer: Getting Started with Instagram Shopping

Instagram Shopping features are the bridge between browsing and buying. By enabling them, you reduce the friction it takes for a user to make a purchase, and you can see a direct jump in your sales for it.

Set Up Your Shop (The Not-So-Scary Part)

This sounds technical, but it's a pretty straightforward checklist. You'll need to set up Meta's Commerce Manager. Here's what's involved:

1. Make sure your business is in a supported country.
2. Ensure your account is an Instagram Business or Creator account connected to a Facebook Page.
3. Connect your product catalog. The easiest way to do this is with an e-commerce platform like Shopify or BigCommerce, which integrate seamlessly. You can also set up a catalog manually if you're just starting out.
4. Submit your account for review through Commerce Manager or your Instagram settings. It usually takes a few days.

Use Product Tags Like a Pro

Once approved, a "Shop" tab will appear on your profile. More importantly, you can now tag your products directly in your content. When a user taps a product tag on your photos or videos, they see an item description, the price, and a link to purchase it from your website. You can add up to five product tags per image or video, and even use them in your Stories with the product sticker.

Building Hype and Your Community

Your Instagram shouldn't feel like a digital catalog, it should feel like a community hub for people who love the same kind of footwear you do. That energy comes from your captions, your hashtags, and your daily interactions.

Write Captions That Connect, Not Just Describe

The image stops the scroll, but the caption earns the follow. Go beyond the obvious. Instead of "Jordan 1 Retro High Chicago, Size 10," try telling a story.

• Share the story behind the shoe: Why did you source it? What makes this pair special?
• Offer styling advice: "The perfect sneaker to anchor a streetwear look. We'd style these with black denim and a simple hoodie."
• Ask questions: "Is this the most iconic colorway of all time? Let us know in the comments." Engagement in the comments helps tell Instagram's algorithm that your post is interesting.
• End with a clear CTA: "Tap the photo to shop your size," or "Our DMs are open for offers."

Use a Smart Hashtag Strategy

Hashtags help categorize your content so new audiences can find you. Don't just spam 30 ultra-popular ones. Use a mix:

• Broad Hashtags (massive reach): #shoes #sneakers #footwear
• Niche Hashtags (more targeted): #vintagerunners #customsneakers #shoerestoration
• Community Tags (speak their language): #sneakerhead #kicksonfire #complexkicks
• Branded Hashtags (yours): #YourBrandName #YourBrandSlogan

Look at what other accounts in your space are using and build a few lists in your phone's notes app to quickly copy and paste them into your posts.

Engage with Every Single Person You Can

An apathetic business owner loses sales. Respond to every comment, even if it's just an emoji. Reply to your DMs as quickly as possible. People appreciate the connection. Actively search for people who post photos wearing shoes you sell and leave a thoughtful comment on their post. And when a customer tags you in a photo of their new purchase? Instantly reshare it to your Stories! Nothing builds trust faster than seeing other happy customers.

Final Thoughts

Turning your love for shoes into a viable business on Instagram is all about consistency. Follow the steps to set up your profile properly, commit to creating high-quality, engaging visual content, utilize shopping features to make buying easy, and actively nurture your growing community. Your dedication is what transforms a simple shoe page into a respected brand.

As your shoe brand grows, managing all that content - planning Reels, drafting posts, scheduling drop announcements, and answering every comment - can begin to feel like a full-time job. This is exactly where we come into the picture. We built Postbase to streamline all of this. Our goal was to create a clean, visual calendar to let you plan all your content in one place, a rock-solid scheduler to get Reels and posts live on time (every single time), and one unified inbox where you can handle all your comments and DMs without losing your mind. It's the kind of organized workflow that frees you up to get back to what you truly enjoy: the shoes.