Shopify has launched a new integration that enables users to make their goods buyable using the Instagram Stories section of the site. In October 2017, they launched the Instagram sales channel, where approved shops can tag products in their posts, linking users to purchase and checkout from a shopify online store without leaving the Instagram app.
Bigcommerce has announced a similar integration today too. We’ve written about that here.
Today we’re happy to announce that you can now add shopping stickers to your Instagram Stories, a place for sharing less permanent content that vanishes after 24 hours. Instagram Stories present a tremendous opportunity to creatively showcase your products, and with over 400 million daily active users and growing, the potential for engagement is high. When you add a shopping sticker to a product within a story, users can simply tap to learn more about the product tagged, and then tap again to make a purchase.
– Shopify
Instagram will also be rolling out a shopping category in the Explore tab that will feature product tagged content from various user posts. The Explore tab algorithmically organises and suggests content based on a user’s unique interests and likes.
What is obvious from the developments at both BigCommerce and Shopify with Instagram, and also rumours that the social network itself might also be developing a shopping app, is that it represents a new frontier in ecommerce. It has been widely used in the past as an effective promotional and marketing channel, and it has offered shopping features previously, but now it is clearly developing and encouraging more directly transactional functionality related to ecommerce.
There’s absolutely no reason why this shouldn’t be hugely successful. Instagram has a big and engaged audience that is adept at shopping online so it make sense to amplify that. The social network has 500 million daily active users over 80% of users currently follow a business account.
