Instagram is globally rolling out a new Shopping feature in Stories after having tested it with a limited number of e-commerce brands back in June. The Shopping feature will now help advertisers use the social platform as an e-commerce channel as well as a marketing tool. The Shopping in Stories feature, lets brands place a shopping bag icon on any products within a story, whereby their audience and other users can tap on it to view the product information and then click to see more information, images and link to the brand’s website to purchase those particular products.
Instagram is also launching a Shopping channel in the Explore tab. This offers a unique opportunity for brands to be discovered easily by consumers. Consumers will be able to find products from the brands they follow and also discover new brands. The Shopping channel in Explore will be personalised to every person’s account. It allows people to browse across their interests and look further into something they like in Explore. When a person is interested in shopping for fun, now they will be able to see a channel related to Shopping posts from the brands they follow and the brands they might like.
With more than 400 million accounts engaging with Instagram stories every day and with one-third of the most-viewed stories coming from businesses, the feature can further extend a brands’ reach when trying to connect with consumers.
Instagram’s new product tagging capabilities are significantly enhancing product discovery for brands. Brands are reporting +1,416% traffic and +20% revenue from the use of this new Shopping feature. Every month more than 90 million instagram accounts tap to reveal tags in Shopping posts on Instagram.
The new Shopping feature gives customers a new way to shop and turns brands stores into a visual storefront the online Instagram community to Explore their favourite products with a single tap. Buying is simply made easier, with one click, individuals can go directly to the product page and add to their basket which saves times and effort on searching for and trying to locate the exact product they like or want. See here to learn more about Instagram Shopping.