Soldsie is a 3rd party app for Instagram and Facebook that allows users to sell their products via the comments section. Ever since its launch in 2012, Soldsie established itself as a critical player in the market. Over the years, however, it had to face some challenges. Instagram introduced shoppable posts, which serves the same purpose as Soldsie, and it is free. Moreover, cheaper 3rd party apps with better capabilities entered the market. In this post, we will take a look at top Soldsie reviews to evaluate how this tool is adapting in 2021. Afterward, we will introduce Soldsie alternatives that could better suit your purpose.

Related: How to sell on Instagram without a website

How does Soldsie work?

Soldsie claims to work in three simple steps. First, you post a visual of the item you want to sell. Second, your audience has to comment “sold” on the item they want to buy. Finally, Soldsie will send them an email with an invoice.

In reality, however, things are a bit more complicated. Users have to sign up with Soldsie to buy the item. Additionally, you have to manually change prices in your shop and stick around to deal with Soldsie’s backend problems.

Without further ado, let’s take a look at the top Soldsie reviews in 2021.

Top Soldsie Reviews

Strengths:

• First of its kind: Soldsie was a pioneer in Facebook commerce (aka f-commerce) and paved the way for many enterprises.
• Shopify-Compatible: Soldsie allows users to sell directly on Shopify. This option can foster trust with your customers, as Shopify is a well-known e-store.

Weaknesses:

• Unreasonably Expensive: In addition to charging you 49$-199$ every month, Soldsie takes a considerable portion of every sale you make as well — 5.9%-2.9% depending on your subscription type. This makes Soldsie a very unattractive option, especially now that even free alternatives are available. I wonder why the developers aren’t doing anything about this problem.
• Privacy Issues: If users want to buy your product through Soldsie, they have to sign up with their personal information, including their emails. Naturally, several users will be hesitant about trusting an unknown 3rd party app — understandably so.
• Your sale won’t be limited to Instagram/Facebook: Anybody who visits your website during the sale, and 24 hours afterward, will have access to the sale price. This can be counter-intuitive if you want to grow your social media through these sales.

Soldsie Alternatives

After reading about Soldsie reviews and assessments, it’s time to take a look at some alternatives that might suit your purpose better.

Instagram Shoppable Posts

Instagram has added Shoppable Posts as a new feature to help businesses sell their products within the Instagram app. In fact, even the checkout process doesn’t take users outside the Instagram app. This makes alone makes this method very user-friendly and safe.

Follow these steps to register for Instagram Shoppable Posts:

1. Make sure you are in a supported country.
2. Read Facebook’s commerce policies to make sure your product is eligible.
3. Create your Facebook Catalogue through the Facebook Business Manager.
4. Set up your e-shop on Facebook via Shopify or BigCommerce.
5. Connect your Facebook Catalogue to your Instagram Business Account.

After you follow these steps, you can apply your account to get reviewed by Instagram. After anywhere from 3 days to more than a week, Instagram will reach out to you. Once your account is approved, you will be able to start using Shoppable Posts.

Pros

• user-friendly
• very trust-worthy
• extra credibility for your page

Cons

• a little challenging to set up and get approved
• only physical objects can be sold at this date
• not available in many countries

AiSchedul

AiSchedul is a free Instagram management tool and scheduler. It has several handy features, some of which will help you to facilitate selling on Instagram. Let’s take a look at how you can sell on Instagram with AiSchedul:

• AiSchedul’s Custom Biolink: With AiSchedul’s bio link solution, you can set up a page identical to your Instagram page, but with a twist: every post will be link-friendly. In this way, users will have access to all your Instagram products in a neat, user-friendly catalogue. Overall, this is a direct upgrade to the classic “link in bio” selling method, and it’s free. So why not give it a try?
• Selling in Comments: First, post a photo of your product. Next, select a keyword, such as sold (used by Soldsie as well) or interested. Next, AiSchedul will automatically DM them with a link to complete the buying process. This is a reasonably simple method, and you won’t have to pay any transaction fee.

‘Classic’ Method

The classic link in bio selling method is as old as Instagram itself. You can start by uploading a link to your product in your Instagram bio. Next, upload a picture of the said product on your Instagram page. Finally, ask your followers to check the “link in your bio” if they want to buy that product.

This method is straightforward, but unfortunately, you can’t sell more than one product at a time. This is due to Instagram’s restrictions on how many links you can post on your Instagram page. If you want to overcome this limit, you need to check out a bio link solution.

Conclusion

Now that you know the top Soldsie reviews and are familiar with its alternatives, it’s up to you to decide if you want to use it or not. Will you keep using Soldsie? If not, which Soldsie alternative is your favorite?

Read more: How to never run out of Instagram post ideas