Instagram has released an updated listing of its eligibility requirements for the shopping tools, which will now make it available to more creators and businesses before the wider rollout of its new Shop option.

According To Instagram:

“Whether you are a candle business making a foray into e-commerce, a musician selling merch or a food blogger expanding into your own cookware line, any eligible business or creator account with at least one eligible product can use shopping tags to drive people to their website to make a purchase.”

The big change in the policy of Instagram is that the Instagram profile should be linked to an owned website or store.

“With this new policy, businesses must tag products on Instagram from a single website that they own and sell from, so that people have a consistent and trusted shopping experience.”

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It means users can not link to items on another platform like Amazon or RedBubble – your items must be on your site. However, you can link via your owned store through an approved eCommerce platform like BigCommerce or Shopify as long as it is connected to your account on Facebook. Also, Instagram is making changes to its sign up flow, so as to make it easier for businesses to have a better notification process for disapproving applications for Instagram Shopping:

“If a business is not approved, we offer a clear reason so they can take the necessary action or appeal.”

Facebook announced the launch of Instagram and Facebook shops back in May, with a motive to expand its eCommerce options.

Facebook will provide a range of opportunities for many sellers via its shopping options. This might be a start to a new case for Instagram, with users used to purchase items based on stories and posts as when they see them.