Instagram shopping denied: Product Unavailable on Your Website

[AkaneY]

Hi everyone! I've been having an issue on connecting Istrangram shopping with my Shopify store. I've tried many solutions that I found online but nothing worked so far. I'm hoping to find someone would lead me in the right direction or in a similar situation.

I opened my Shopify store which connected to print-on-demand order fulfilment company Printful. I connected the Shopify Catalog with Facebook via Shopify app. It works perfectly and all items from the catalogue are available on my Facebook page. However, I couldn't get it approved from Instagram and they keep declining produced tagging. The reason is:

Product Unavailable on Your Website (To use Instagram Shopping, your products must be sold on the website connected to your account.)

My understanding of 'The website connected to your account' is that the website link on my Instagram profile. I put the correct shop link which is the same as the one connected to the Facebook page. All products are available on the shop with the direct purchase and I'm not really sure why I keep receiving the same results. I follow all guidelines and policies and I'm sure my shop qualifies for Instagram shopping.

I'm guessing an issue might be the website domain in which my own (not Shopify's), but already got it verified from Facebook. Once I disconnected everything and started it again, but I still keep receiving the same result from Instagram.

If someone knows the best solution please let me know, I would be greatly appreciated your help!

[Erintidey]

I also have amazing news!! Mine is approved to! I emailed fb appeal and changed my domain, they them automatically sent me of for a review and I’ve woken up to a working Instagram shop!

the fact my fix was as simple as unlinking a domain and re linking will continue to confuse me as to why it’s taken fb 2 months to realise 😂

[bambina]

What did you do? did u just unlink it?

[Erintidey]

I wrote to FB using the option “I didn’t get approved but I’ve changed my domain” and just typed my domain in and that was it🤷🏼‍♀️ I didn’t change my domain to myshopify domain or change my product links it just accepted my private domain 

[AkaneY]

Hmm, then probably what we have to do is just ask Facebook to unlink the domain and submit the private domain, without touching anything in the catalogue itself?

I just reverted my private domain as primary and everything still works fine (while still keeping the catalogue domain as myshopify.com)

[bambina]

trying this out today. wish us luck!! 

[bambina]

okay, did not work 😞

[bambina]

did u receive the same email? we consented and got rejected still huhu

[bambina]

I got great news you guys! we finally got approved!!

First thing i did was to make sure i copy the url and not type the website on our ig bio.

second was i checked the domains on my shopify account. i noticed that my domain didn't have the "www" so i typed it in.

then i went to verification on business manager and made sure that its www. and that my account  was connected.

then i appealed again using the my domain was rejected but i want to change it and woke up getting approved.

[Tumilu]

Funny that the workarounds look so different for each of us. In my case adding the "www" did not work. Catalog still runs on myshopify.com links while my private domain is set to primary. As long as its works though I won't complain :))

[TheBee]

Hi all,

Seems to be some differences how this problem manifests to each of us. I also read (and this is something true in my case) that use of some Instagram scheduling/management apps like Later etc. can be behind of these issues. No confirmation of course if this is the real root cause or part of it.

I got a step forward and got my catalogue approved, though still stuck as I cannot complete the integrations next step. After the catalogue is approved next step is to configure "set up Instagram Shopping" in the mobile Instagram app, but this brings me to random "no internet connection"- error. Struggle continues with FB support.

How the approval finally worked for me was:

1. Removed Catalogue in Facebook Business https://business.facebook.com/settings/ -> Data sources -> Catalogues

2. Removed the Facebook sales channel in Shopify -> "manage sales channels" after pressing the + icon in admin dashboard

3. New set-up of the Facebook sales channel in Shopify and thus creation of new catalogue in Facebook side

4. Using the IG Shopping Partner Support (facebook.com) to ask un-linking and copy pasting the URL of my 3rd party domain with the https

Hope this helps

[AkaneY]

@Tumilu Can I ask how do you keep myshopify.com domain in your catalogue after setting back your private domain as primary? I use Flexify app but it doesn't keep myshopify.com domain in the catalogue.

So once I got approved IG by setting myshopify.com domain as primary and able to tag products. But as @Tumilu previously said it's not the permanent solution as running the business with a private domain is very important. So after that, I switched back to my private domain(3rd party, not Shopify owned) as primary to see if I can still tag products. And the result was not - I was not able to tag products anymore because the domain in the catalogue was automatically rewritten to the private domain which I can't get approved by IG.

I've tried a couple of different approaches(http and https as well), but nothing has quite worked so far. But If only I could keep the domain in the catalogue as myshopify.com while setting the private domain as primary everything should works as all access from the catalogue automatically redirects to the private domain. My portfolio is already vast so I can't change the catalogue manually.

I'll keep seeking a solution...

[Tumilu]

Oh so I guess that Flexify overwrites the domain then... :(( As I manage my products manually, the links in my case have not been overwritten and everything works for me.

Did you try to Play with Flexify settings on Shopify, perhaps there is a part in there that affects how often the data updates? 

Alternatively I think you can try to experiment with the Data Sources on FB side - but I have not done that so I cannot advise with anything specific. 

[FranciscoHuaman]

@Tumilu thanks a lot! you really gave us the real tutorial here. I was struggling for 3 weeks, checked all of the comments and try a few suggestions from @TheBee and @bambina but finally decided to try the longest path ( the right one for me). I am approved now and would recommend others to try directly @Tumilu approach.  have a nice weekend all!

[liallal]

Hi everyone!

Problem! Problem! Problem!

Product unavailable on your website to use Instagram shopping, your products must be sold on the website connected to your account. if you think this is a mistake, you can request another review. or, you can submit a different website for review. 

Don't worry! I will do Solve 'Product unavailable on your website to use Instagram shopping, your products must be sold on the website connected to your account" Problem. 

Please contact me!

Thanks

[TheBee]

Hi all,

A final update from my part as well. I got finally approved directly with Facebook/IG integration using the steps from my previous post without any other feed apps.

Few additional steps taken after the previously described:

- Removed connections to any publishing apps to Facebook

- Continued working with FB support & final request to re-approve the Shopping has to be (as per FB support) done using Mobile Instagram App

When re-requesting the Shopping after all the steps & using Mobile App I finally got approved after months of headache.

[BYOVIE]

has anyone resolved this issue for you? No one is helping me. FB Support and Shopify support are completely lost as to why my shop is getting rejected. Can anyone advise anything?

[BYOVIE]

did you get this resolved? can you help me please.

[Tumilu]

Please read the entire thread - I wrote a step by step guide how I got approved. Others shared their experience too.

Counting on Shopify or Facebook to fix the issue will get you nowhere to be honest... 😞 

[kzytaruk]

Hi @Tumilu, I have the same problem.  I am trying your recommentation.

How do I update the links in my Facebook catalogue?

I know very little about Facebook.  I set up my catalogue in Shopify and linked the catalogue to Facebook.

Thanks

[Tumilu]

You do that in your business' Facebook Commerce account under Catalog -
Items.