[Sticky] Why you should never use the Instagram widget on your eCommerce homepage ?

Hi all,

I am writing this post to discuss about an important subject (The Instagram widget or Instagram feed on an eCommerce homepage)

How many of you have heared that showing your Instagram content on your store creates social proof. Converts your store visitors into customers? I can't say this is wrong, it is true, but just for specific niches, such as bloggers, portal websites or any local companies that use their site to expand their customers portfolio and increase their brand awareness.

...But this is not good for an eCommerce store and mainly on the Homepage, why ? Let me give some details 

Unlike a portal site or a blog site, the main purpose of any eCommerce store is selling products online, that is to say, at some points, the more visitors you have, the more leads and sales you'll get, so in order to maximize the numbers of visitors, you will need to use paid ads along with SEO ... and the more a visitor stays on your site, the more this visitor can turned to a customer.

So what's wrong with Instagram feed on homepage ?

When you showcase your Instagram posts or feed on your eCommerce store (whatever it is on Shopify, Wordpress, Wix, ...) visitors will be curious to check it out and may click on an image or a link, and if a visitor is redirected to your Instagram post or profile, the chance this visitor will come back to your store is very very low, Yes ! We all love social media, the time you open your social media account, you get some notifications (new followers, likes, comments, ...) 

Your visitor, once on Instagram may be distracted and forget about your site and continue surfing on Instagram, your visitor is then LOST

What if Instagram is my main sales funnel ?

Even if Instagram may be your main sales funnel - the main social media where you get the most of your orders -remember that you are not alone on Instagram, people will undoubtedly check other stuff, other profiles, other photos and may forget about you. So try always to drive people from Instagram to your site and not the opposite

The best practice

If you use your eCommerce store to sell stuff online, try always to keep your visitors the maximum possible on your site, and don't let them get outside, and if you really need that Instagram widget for whatever reason, don't insert it on the homepage. The homepage is the most important page, widgets use heavy scripts that tend to slow the page + when people land to it and leave it to Instagram, your bounce rate will be negatively impacted. You can alternatively insert it in other page than the homepage, and be sure to let the links open in a new tab, so people can still have your site open in a tab

I hope this advice may help you, and if you have any question, feel free to post it below, and I iwll be sure to answer (When I have the time to 😉 )