Meta Business approval advice

I have a shopify site and would like to start offering the ability to browse our catalog of products on Facebook and Instagram – we are a newer company that did a soft-launch over the summer and have really only started rolling since the end of 2022. We have a handful of followers on Facebook, and a little less than 250 followers on Instagram. However, I’ve been diligent about posting and slowly building our audience since the holidays, in order to keep growing.

I connected my shopify account to my Meta Business account a few weeks ago, and my shops on Instagram and Facebook have been “in review” ever since, and after contacting Meta for an update, was told that they will remain in review until I reach a certain level of engagement/followers across both FB and Instagram. I was told there was really nothing else holding me up as far as approval goes. I think needing a certain level of engagement makes sense in principle, but now I’m feeling a bit like a chicken-before-the-egg situation, because I’d like to drive engagement to my profiles and online store by easily selling items via social channels, but in order to do this, I need to gain more followers before they will let me do this.

I guess my question is – is this a typical situation that newer shops encounter? Is it really just a matter of time? And is there a general ballpark regarding engagement or followers that people seem to reach when they are approved as shops on FB and Instagram?

Thanks in advance for any advice or tips!