The other day, I suddenly thought, “I should open an Instagram shop.” Yesterday, I started working on it. To cut to the chase, after spending about 8 hours over two days, I wasn’t able to set up the Instagram shop.
To create a shop on Instagram, you need a Facebook account, and with that account, you must create a Facebook page. Then, you have to link your Facebook page with your Instagram account. After that, you need to integrate everything using Meta’s app, which manages both Facebook and Instagram.
In my case, I had old, forgotten Facebook accounts and pages I had created and abandoned in the past. These old accounts started to clash with the new Facebook account I made this time, creating a power struggle.
Every time I tried to do something, I kept getting errors like, “You do not have access,” or “You don’t have the necessary permissions.” I tried deleting accounts and creating new ones, but by that point, even Facebook seemed confused, and I started seeing frequent messages like, “An unknown error occurred.”
Though I can be quite persistent, I finally gave up just a while ago. Until yesterday, I was convinced that “being able to shop directly on Instagram would be convenient,” but now I’m feeling more like, “Who even buys pearls on Instagram?” Well, that might be an exaggeration. I’ll give it another try someday.
Since last week, I’ve also been experimenting with paid ads on Instagram. Thanks to that, my view count has increased. However, just because more people see my shop doesn’t necessarily mean more purchases. In my case, it seems like I don’t have enough products listed.
Additionally, when I search for “blue pearls” on Etsy, not many pearls come up. It seems blue pearls are scarce in the market as well. Personally, I find it more rewarding to operate in a smaller niche. If I were to become a pearl seller specializing in round, white-pink pearls, it would likely turn into a bloody battle for survival.
Today is Thursday, and tomorrow is Friday. I have a job unrelated to pearls that I do during the day on weekdays. On Friday night, I head home to Kobe from Osaka, and that’s when I work on my pearl business. I’m really looking forward to it.
I always bring some pearls with me to my place in Osaka, but pearls don’t quite suit the city. They suit Kobe much better. More than 70% of the pearls harvested in Japan are gathered and processed in Kobe, and most of them are then exported to China via Hong Kong. However, the bubble in China has burst over the past few years, and the many Chinese buyers who were once around have mostly disappeared. I expect the market price for pearls will gradually drop in the near future. When that happens, I’ll be able to buy high-quality pearls at lower prices. I’m eagerly waiting for that.
Thank you for reading all of this.
I wrote an article about this product today. It touches on the relationship between Blue Baroque and B-grade tomatoes.
https://flowerjem.etsy.com/listing/1773069782