What Happened?
Instagram has just rolled out “Instagram Shop” in the United States - and will be rolling out globally over the next few weeks. This new feature lives in the Explore tab and will allow you to see products from brands and creators based on tailored recommendations and what’s trending on the platform.
Based on this release from Instagram, you will also be able to purchase certain products directly within Instagram via Facebook Pay - but again this feature is limited to the US.
Why Did They Do It?
This move seems very much like the next logical step after the release of Facebook Shops back in May - as it allows for people to be able to explore and find new products which are hosted on the aforementioned shops. This will undoubtedly increase the volume of traffic to these shops which when combined with the Facebook Pay goes a long way in decreasing friction in the buying process. The increased ease with which one will now be able to move from product discovery to purchase will no doubt also increase the revenue of brands who have products hosted on this platform.
This is all part of Facebook’s plan to increase the platform's relevance as an ecommerce solution and marketing machine. Because if the user can get inspired from influencers, paid ads, and the new Instagram Shop, and then be able to buy within the app it makes it the ideal place for businesses to not just advertise, but also process their payments through creating increased revenue for Facebook.
And although there has been no mention of this yet, I am sure that once Instagram Shop moves to its own tab, as discussed in this article from Social Media Today, there will be a new ad inventory popping up within Facebook Ads Manager so that your product can get featured similar to what you would see with the promoted products on Amazon.
What Does This Mean For You?
If you are in the E-Commerce business this is another in a long line of must have features in order to keep your brand from slipping into anonymity. Luckily, it doesn’t look like you will need much more than to set up a Facebook Shop at this point, but as mentioned above, I’m sure you’re not far off from having to shell out ad dollars to climb to the top of those recommendations.