How to Add UGC to Shopify in 5 Easy Steps (2025 Guide)

Posted June 17, 2025 • Written By The Socialphotos Team

User-Generated Content (UGC) is the most authentic marketing you can have. It’s real photos and videos from real customers who love your products. Adding UGC to your Shopify store builds powerful social proof, increases trust, and directly boosts conversions.

But how do you actually get that great content from Instagram onto your product pages? You have two options: the hard, manual way, or the easy, automated way. This guide will walk you through the best method.

Option 1: The Hard Way (Manual Embedding)

You can technically add UGC to your store manually. The process involves finding an Instagram post, clicking the "Embed" option, copying the code, and pasting it into your Shopify theme's HTML. While this is possible, it's not recommended for serious businesses for several key reasons:

• It's time-consuming: You have to find and embed each post one by one.
• It looks unprofessional: The default Instagram embed doesn't always match your store's design.
• It's not shoppable: Customers can't buy products directly from a manual embed.
• There's no moderation: You have no control over the content if it changes.

Option 2: The Smart Way (A Step-by-Step Guide Using an App)

The best way to add UGC to Shopify is by using a dedicated app designed for the job. These apps automate the entire process, give you full control over the design, and turn your galleries into sales-generating tools. Here’s how to do it in five simple steps.

Step 1: Choose a Dedicated Shopify UGC App

Your first step is to choose an app that specializes in collecting and displaying UGC. You want a tool that can find content from multiple sources and give you full control over how it looks.

Our Recommendation: Socialphotos

We built Socialphotos to be the most powerful and easy-to-use Shopify UGC app on the market. It handles the entire workflow from collection to shoppable gallery, all with no coding required and no limits on photos or videos.

Step 2: Connect Your Sources

Once you've installed an app like Socialphotos, you need to tell it where to find your UGC. The best platforms automatically pull from multiple sources:

• Instagram Mentions & Tags: Automatically find any post or Reel where customers have tagged your @username.
• Hashtag Campaigns: Track a specific #hashtag to collect all content related to a campaign or your brand.
• Direct Uploads: Allow customers to upload their photos and videos directly on your website, giving you a private stream of high-quality UGC.

Step 3: Curate Your Best Content

Not every piece of UGC will be a perfect fit for your brand. A good app gives you a simple dashboard to review all the content you've collected. With one click, you can approve the images and videos that match your aesthetic and hide the rest. This ensures your galleries always look professional and on-brand.

Step 4: Make Your UGC Gallery Shoppable

This is the most critical step for increasing sales. A shoppable gallery allows you to tag your products directly in your customers' photos and videos. When a new visitor sees a real person using a product they like, they can click a "Shop This Look" button and add it to their cart instantly.

For a detailed breakdown of different shoppable apps, see our guide on the Best Shopify Shoppable Apps.

Step 5: Embed Your Gallery on Your Shopify Store

Finally, you need to display your beautiful, curated, shoppable gallery on your site. With a modern app like Socialphotos, this process is simple and flexible, no matter what kind of theme or page builder you use.

For Shopify 2.0 Themes:
This is the easiest method. You can add Socialphotos as an "App Block" directly within the Shopify theme editor. This allows you to visually drag and drop your gallery exactly where you want it on any page, with no code required.

For Vintage Themes:
If you're using an older "vintage" Shopify theme, installation is still straightforward. It requires adding a simple, one-line code snippet to your theme's Liquid files. The process is clearly documented and easy to follow.

For Page Builders:
Using a popular page builder like PageFly, GemPages, or Shogun? No problem. As long as your builder allows you to add a custom HTML or Liquid block, you can embed your Socialphotos gallery with a simple one-line code snippet.

Once installed, you can place your gallery in high-impact locations like:

• Your Homepage: To build instant trust with new visitors.
• Product Pages: To show real customers using that specific product, which dramatically increases conversion rates.
• A Dedicated Lookbook Page: To create an inspirational "Shop Our Instagram" experience.

Conclusion: Turn Your Customers into Your Best Marketing

Adding UGC to your Shopify store is one of the most effective strategies for building an authentic brand and driving sales. While manual embedding is possible, using a dedicated app like Socialphotos transforms the process from a time-consuming chore into a powerful, automated sales engine.