You’ll Soon Be Able To Shop Straight From Instagram

Yesterday, Instagram revealed that users will soon be able to shop from their favourite designers and brands directly on the app. Until recently, the only way to recreate those lust-worthy and perfectly created #ootd posts were through a third party like liketoknow.it.

The bold venture is a response to the rising trend and accessibility?of mobile commerce – or m-commerce – which is quickly taking over traditional e-commerce where?consumers would use a desktop or tablet to browse for and purchase goods. But today’s mobile devices are as smart as (if not smarter) than traditional desktop devices; offering a quick and convenient substitute to using a clunky desktop and meaning that you can shop on the go from pretty much anywhere in the world.

How will it work??Instagram will begin to test their new feature sometime next week which will give?consumers the opportunity to purchase goods directly on the app and have teamed up with 20 US designers and brands including Kate Spade, JackThreads and Warby Parker.

Shoppable posts will contain a ‘tap to view’ icon, which, when tapped, will show all of the available products in the post along with their prices. However, brands are limited to showing up to five shoppable product per post to avoid over-saturation. After selecting the product you want you’ll be given a detailed view of the product, extra information, and be prompted to the brands online retail store to confirm the purchase.

https://vimeo.com/189697603

The additional feature from Instagram follows a similar trend whereby online retailers are opting to utilize m-commerce in order to keep up with changing consumer needs. Just last week, popular luxury online boutique group Net-a-Porter announced their plans to become a sole m-commerce site in five years time following a 30 percent increase in profits this year due to mobile sales.

But will it prove useful and successful? The whole thing about Instagram is its functionality: it’s quick and easy to use, we’re familiar with it, we can discover new people and trends with it, we can gain an insight into other people’s worlds with it with the recent introduction of Instastories, and now we can even shop with it; all within one powerful app.

While we don’t yet know of any negative consequences from the feature, we predict that we will see a lot more #Ad and sponsored posts from celebrity endorsements and social media influencers who are paid anything up to $15,000 for one post.

“Cute top, where’s it from?”

“Thank hun, Instagram”

Instagram shopper will only be available in the US while they continue to test and perfect the feature, but there is speculation that it will reach Europe in the first half of 2017.