Instashopping

Social meets eCommerce

Instagram, the social oasis of imagery, has yesterday taken steps to become an even bigger influence on modern society, unveiling a native checkout and taking a step towards powerhouse status in the online shopping world

Shopping on Instagram isn’t a new invention, ‘Shopping on Instagram’ was tested back in 2016 and proved to be a big hit with over 130 million people tapping Instagram’s product tags. Instagram continued to improve this feature with Shoppable Tags on Stories, but, it is this latest addition that looks set to really skyrocket Instagram into the upper echelon’s of online shopping.

If you’ve ever scrolled through Instagram and thought passively “I’d like to buy that.” but you’re on – forgive us – a bit of a ‘scroll’ and don’t want to switch from your feed to a search engine to find the product, then you’re one of many. One of us.

Instagram, forever dancing to the shifting beat of its users demands, have introduced an all new ‘checkout’ feature to ensure that you never have to wistfully scroll past a product ever again – no.  Now, you can purchase natively on the app meaning your scroll will never be interrupted again. No longer will you be met with the old “View on Website” button but instead a a brand new Checkout with Instagram button. What a time to be alive.

This is currently a closed beta for US companies such as Adidas, Nike and MAC Cosmetics, but will eventually open up to more business.

Will we see websites haemorrhaging vital traffic and losing out on SEO value? Or will brands lap up the ease of ‘scroll shopping’ and create intricate strategies around the new function? Only time will tell.