Instagram has been working on a way to make its content shoppable for some time now. Since its inception, Instagram has been used as a visual platform for inspiration but has never tried to compete with other online retail platforms, but that might change sooner than we think. Starting this week, Instagram will test a new Shopping feature which will finally allow users to buy products directly within the app.
This feature will be tested in the United States by 20 brands, including Kate Spade, Warby Parker, & J. Crew. These brands will be able to tag products in their photos the same way users tag other users in their photos. If the brands’ followers are interested in a featured product, they can click on it & be taken directly to the product page without leaving Instagram, which will reduce loading times & make for a seamless shopping experience.
By doing this soft launch, Instagram will be able to gather user data to improve the feature & eventually (we hope!) offer it to brands worldwide. Rather than paying a percentage of their in-app sales, brands will simply need to pay a subscription fee to make this new feature a part of their social media strategy. Instagram is already foreseeing the growth & development of this feature despite it not being launched yet; for instance, there will eventually be a “Save for Later” option which will allow users to bookmark products to purchase in the future. The difficult task for Instagram will be integrating this feature & assuring that their user experience stays the same; the last thing they want is for their core users to think that Instagram’s becoming a catalog.
The development of the feature seems to suggest that Instagram will eventually make the Shopping option available not only to brands, but to users & influencers as well. Influencers are often more trusted than brands & their followers often rely on their opinions & tastes for purchasing decisions. It would make sense for Instagram to roll out the features to influencers, since they have the potential to make huge contributions to in-app sales. This would create an affiliate-type program where influencers will not only receive compensation for featuring products, but also receive a percentage of the sales generated by their posts.
It’s going to be very interesting to see how this feature will evolve in the next few months & the impact it will have on Instagram’s user experience. How this will impact influencer marketing long term is anyone’s guess, but with what we’ve seen so far, the future looks very promising.
