Welcome to the IG Store. The shop that never sleeps.
And so it begins.
A new revenue stream for Instagram and a more immersive experience for the 130 million Instagram users tapping the interactive product tags. Shopping posts will now facilitate in-app purchases without users leaving the app. This new ‘Checkout with Instagram’ option has been rolled out to 23 major brands as a trial with a view to transition this across the entire platform, seemingly creating a social department store and end-to-end personal journey to cater for all.
The new development takes Instagram’s ‘Shopping Tags’ to the next level – now, instead of a ‘View on Website’ button when you tap through, users will see a ‘Checkout on Instagram’ option, which will enable them to make a purchase right there and then, before returning straight back to their Insta feed to continue their fluid experience.
At a time when Facebook’s News Feed ad business growth has slowed, Instagram checkout could offer a valuable alternative for global brand and small businesses alike. The Instagram checkout process contains far fewer steps in the user journey and consequently less barriers to complete an objective. This shorter funnel could persuade brands to migrate larger portions of their media spend to Instagram, bringing them into closer contact with their target audiences and the prospect of a better return on investment.
Indeed, given Instagram’s growth, it’s safe to assume that a heap of brands will be very keen to get in on the new process. Instagram now has more than a billion monthly active users, and the visual focus of the platform has made it particularly popular for product discovery.
In-stream purchases will store ‘protected payment’ data after your first in-app purchase, using it for any future shopping activity on the platform, requiring you to only input your details once. You can pay by PayPal, Visa, Mastercard, American Express or Discover from within the app.
Instagram will send you notifications updating you on order status, shipment and delivery. However, unlike Facebook Messenger, Instagram has decided to exclude receipts from it’s messenger product.
With personal data taken care off, users can browse their favourite latest fashion, trends and products without the hassle of setting up individual login accounts with each vendor. Instagram have propositioned this added value as saving brands from high abandoned cart rates. Brands will only receive ‘necessary details’, including contact details and address as users will be given an ‘opt-in’ option to share more personal data, like their email for marketing purposes.
Moreover, an interaction with the new checkout feature will impact upon your content’s ranking, influencing the ads you are served on your feed. Instagram is also charging businesses a fee for each transaction facilitated, giving it another revenue stream. And as the program expands, that stream could become significant.
Instagram has come a long way from the introduction of the shopper tags feature implemented in 2016 and the following product catalogues, shopper tabs and shopping feed integrated into the explore section since.
What’s next – A solo Instagram Shopping App?
The In-app checkout feature will take time and a great deal of trial and error but is unquestionably a feature all forward-thinking marketeers need to already be considering and planning for. This could just be the start of Instagram’s shopping venture and could over time change the landscape of digital shopper activity.
