13 Instagram Apps to Increase Your E-Commerce Sales

10 min read

We have already explained how to sell directly on Instagram. Today, we’re going to tell you how to automate the work, gain popularity, and convert followers into customers with the help of free or cheap services.

In this post, you will find:

Apps for Content Creation
Profile Management Apps
Apps for Promotion
Instagram Analytics Apps

1. Apps for Content Creation

Nothing can jumpstart your Instagram sales like breathtaking visuals. “Breathtaking” includes two ingredients: quality pictures and a clean, consistent feed.

VSCO

With hundreds of photo-editing apps for Instagram out there, it’s hard to stay chill. Filters, frames, effects, and stickers are so much fun. They can do magic, but if you go hard on them, your Instagram feed can look amateurish.

The VSCO app is a powerful Instagram app that stands out thanks to its smart cinematic filters. You can find a lot of filter presets on Pinterest based on the VSCO app settings. With them, you don’t have to learn a single thing about photo editing. Pick a becoming preset for your brand and stick to it at least until you learn more about Photoshop (which is not necessary with apps like VSCO).

A “tropical” filter preset for VSCO found on Pinterest

The app works for both beginners and pros (the free version can be enough for both).

Get the VSCO app for iOS and Android.

Price: free with in-app purchases.

If you want to plan your grid and see how it would look before actually posting anything, use Later — it can do just that. We’ll have a closer look at it below.

Learn more here: How to Develop a Visual Theme for Your Instagram Business Profile

Word Swag

Do you want to design a fancy image for your giveaway? There are tools like Canva (desktop) to make stylish texts on your pictures, posters, flyers, or even YouTube thumbnails.

Word Swag ($4.99) is another app that has tons of cool fonts and layouts for your message to be noticed.

It even goes an extra mile and automatically turns any text you type into a fancy design. It’s a life-saver when you need to post something on the go.

The app is available for iOS.

Price: $4.99.

Unfold

Upgrade your Instagram Stories with creative layouts, photo, video, collages, effects, and more using Unfold. All in the name of the swipe-ups!

Check out this video tutorial to learn how to make a cool photo + video collage for your Stories.

The app is available for iOS and Android.

Price: free with in-app purchases.

Boomerang

There’s little chance that you don’t know about Boomerang, but are you using it for your Instagram business profile?

This is a very quick way to create engaging content. Just one tap — and you get a video made out of 10 photos. The video is looped, which creates a hypnotizing or funny effect.

Get Boomerang for iOS and Android.

Price: free.

Flipagram

Another type of engaging content is a slideshow video for Instagram, and Flipagram allows you to create just that.

You can show your new collection, explain how to use your product in a step-by-step format, or simply publish something funny/beautiful about your brand.

Harper Books uses Flipagram for sneak peeks into their new books.

Price: free with in-app purchases.

MaskArt

Cinemagraph is probably the most underestimated genre of digital art, especially in e-commerce. Fortunately, it gives you the opportunity to be different and to stand out with fascinating live product photos.

MaskArt is a free iOS app for making cinemagraphs. For Android phones, try Cinemagraph.

Learn more about cinemagraphs and how they can become a twist of your Instagram Business profile in our post: How to Create Cinemagraphs for Product Pictures With Your Smartphone

2. Profile Management Apps

If you can automate a task, do it. Free your time and brain for strategically important questions. Spend half a day and plan Instagram posts for a month ahead rather than get distracted daily.

Latergramme screenshot desktop

Later

Later enables you to schedule up to 30 Instagram posts per month for nothing. It is a great way to stick to posting at regular intervals.

You can also preview and edit your profile grid to make sure it looks clean.

Later works on desktop, iOS, and Android devices.

Price: Free to sign up with paid plans starting at $9.50/month.

Ecwid Mobile

If you have launched an e-commerce store with Ecwid, you can post your products on Instagram in three clicks.

Download the mobile app and press the “share” button in the product info screen. The name, price, and description will convert to text in your web clipboard. From here, your picture will be published on Instagram automatically. Press “next,” paste your text from the web clipboard, and press “ready.”

Ecwid Mobile for posting products on Instagram

Bonus: having an Ecwid account enables you to run high-ROI ads (dynamic ads) on Facebook and Instagram. Learn more →

Get Ecwid Mobile for iOS and Android.

Price: included in all Ecwid paid plans, free trial.

Every business owner wants more Instagram followers. The following apps will help you to do that.

Focalmark

Handpick a couple of relevant hashtags and Focalmark will generate a whole list of them, so you don’t need to search and type in hashtags manually.

Price: free plan with in-app purchases.

Repost

Why Instagram doesn’t add a built-in repost feature remains a mystery. What is clear is that you need to be able to repost content as an e-commerce merchant.

Your customers will feel appreciated and proud if you mention them in your profile. With the reviews of real customers, you’ll look trustworthy.

Get the Repost app for Android.

Price: free.

CrowdFire

Crowdfire works both on desktop and mobile. It recommends content that will likely perform well on your profile based on your Instagram profile data.

A content suggestion I got for the search terms “beauty,” “blogging,” and “fashion”

It also works for Twitter and Facebook, and allows scheduling content, creating RSS feeds, and more.

Get Crowdfire for iOS and Android.

Price: free and paid plans starting from $4.99 per month.

4. Instagram Analytics Apps

Is you Instagram profile successful or you could do more? The analytics apps will let you know.

Instagram Insights

Instagram analytics is free to use, but it doesn’t come with each profile. You need to convert your Instagram profile into a Business profile if you haven’t yet to access your Instagram insights.

Check out all the insights available in the Instagram Help Center. They are enough for most businesses.

Iconosquare

Iconosquare, an official Instagram analytics service, provides a clean interface to view and analyze your account’s performance. It repeats the native Instagram Insights in many ways, but Iconosquare allows a few more features like:

Viewing and sorting posts by likes, shares, and reactions;
Tracking hashtag performance (Instagram only);
Tracking competitors;
Data export.

Iconosquare will do the same for your Facebook page.

Iconosquare for Instagram

The tool works on desktop, iOS, and Android.

Price: starting from $9 per month with a free trial.

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This is where our list of must-have Instragam apps for e-commerce merchants comes to an end. What apps do you use for Instagram promotion? Share your experience with us in the comments.