Getting Your Products into a Meta Catalogue for Instagram

Short answer: Your products reach Facebook and Instagram through a catalogue in Meta's Commerce Manager. On Shopify or WooCommerce, the official integration keeps that catalogue in sync for you; on other platforms you upload a scheduled data feed. Since September 2025, Meta's help centre says Shops on Facebook and Instagram send buyers to your own website to check out, so the catalogue is now mainly about discovery, product tagging and catalogue ads. Most problems come from feed data: missing fields, broken links or prices in the wrong format.

What the catalogue is for in 2026

A catalogue is the list of products Meta knows about: titles, prices, images, stock status and links. It powers three things:

Your Shop on Facebook and Instagram (the browsable storefront on your profile)
Product tags in Instagram posts and Reels
Catalogue ads (Advantage+ catalog ads), which show each person products from your range

The checkout question has settled. Meta's own help page states that as of September 2025, Shops on Facebook and Instagram use website checkout. Shoppers browse on Meta, then finish buying on your site. For an Australian store that's simpler: there's no separate in-app checkout to set up, and orders, payments and returns stay in the system you already run. It does mean your product pages and mobile checkout carry the weight, so check they load quickly when opened from the Instagram in-app browser.

Meta's interface spells it "catalog"; we use "catalogue" here, but it's the same thing.

Setup flow

Step 1: Get the foundations right

Before connecting anything you need, per Meta's Shopify guide (the same applies broadly to other platforms):

A Facebook Page for the business
A Meta business portfolio that owns that Page, with admin access for you
A live, public store (not password protected)
An Instagram professional account linked to the Page, if you want Instagram tagging

Decide now who in the business owns the portfolio. Catalogues tied to an ex-staff member's personal account are a common cause of later lockouts.

Step 2: Choose integration or feed

Your store runs on	Best route	What it handles
Shopify	Facebook & Instagram app (sales channel)	Product sync, Meta Pixel and Conversions API setup
WooCommerce	Meta for WooCommerce extension	Automatic product sync on create/update, per-product sync settings, pixel
Other platforms or a custom site	Scheduled data feed in Commerce Manager	Whatever your feed file contains, updated on your schedule

Shopify. Meta's page lists the Basic Shopify plan or higher. Add the Facebook and Instagram sales channel, log in with Facebook, and follow the prompts for commerce, ads and pixel. Afterwards, check that products appear in Commerce Manager.

WooCommerce. The Meta for WooCommerce extension lives under Marketing > Facebook. Each product gets a sync mode: sync and show, sync and hide, or do not sync. You can also set a Facebook-specific description and image, and map WooCommerce attributes to Meta fields. Sync happens automatically when products are created or updated; the manual sync button is for when things drift.

Data feed. In Commerce Manager, open your catalogue, go to Catalog > Data sources, and add a data file. Meta accepts CSV, TSV, XLSX, XML (RSS/ATOM) or Google Sheets. Host the file at a URL and choose an hourly, daily or weekly schedule, timed just after your own system updates the file. If you already produce a Google Merchant Center feed, Meta lets you select that format during upload rather than rebuilding it.

Step 3: Check the required fields

Meta's product data specifications list these as required for each product: id, title, description, availability, condition, price, link, image link and brand, plus size for clothing and shoes sold in Shops. Details that trip up Australian stores:

Price format: a number, a space, then the currency code, such as 49.95 AUD. No dollar sign, and a full stop as the decimal point.
IDs: use your SKU where possible. If you run catalogue ads, the ID must match the content ID your Meta Pixel sends from the product page.
Images: JPEG or PNG, at least 500 × 500 pixels. If you replace an image, change its URL too, or Meta may keep the old one.
Links: must point to a product page on a domain your business owns.

Step 4: Turn on tagging and the Shop

With the catalogue connected to your Instagram account, you can tag products in posts and Reels. Products with unresolved issues may be ineligible for tagging, which is usually the first sign something is wrong.

Feed error troubleshooting

Meta's troubleshooting page sends you to Commerce Manager > your catalogue > Catalog > Products, then Filters, to see products by status and issue. The common ones:

What you see	Likely cause	Fix
Missing title, price, availability, link, image link or condition	Field empty or not mapped	Map the field in your integration or feed; check the field name is spelled the US-English way Meta expects
Broken links	Product URL changed or redirects	Re-sync after URL changes; avoid publishing products before their pages go live
Description in uppercase or same as title	Thin or shouty copy	Write a real description; WooCommerce lets you set a Facebook-only one
ID conflicts with group ID	Variant set-up error	Give each variant its own ID and a shared item group ID
Item currency and storefront currency mismatch	Prices sent in USD or no code	Set AUD as the feed default and on every price
Product image upload issues	Image too small, wrong format or blocked	Use JPEG/PNG, at least 500 × 500, publicly accessible
Policy violations	Product or wording breaches Meta's commerce policies	Read the specific violation; edit or remove the product
Out of stock	Availability field	Normal; out-of-stock items stay off ads but show as sold out in Shops for a time

One extra check for integration users: if products are missing entirely, confirm which catalogue your store is syncing to. Integrations often create their own, and a second, older catalogue can sit beside it collecting errors.

FAQ

Can Australian customers buy directly inside Instagram?

Not through Meta's Shops checkout. Meta's help page says Shops now use website checkout, so tapping to buy sends customers to your site. Meta mentions a separate direct-checkout option for some sellers; check Commerce Manager for what your account offers.

Do I need both the integration and a feed?

No. Use one source per product. Running both usually creates duplicates or conflicting prices.

How often does the catalogue update?

Integrations sync when products change. A scheduled feed updates hourly, daily or weekly, depending on what you set.

Why are my products showing on Facebook but not taggable on Instagram?

Usually an unresolved product issue or the Instagram account isn't connected to the right catalogue. Filter by issues in Commerce Manager first.

If your catalogue keeps throwing errors or syncing the wrong prices, send us a screenshot of the issues list and we'll help untangle it.