Instagram is now a hyper-personalised shopping centre

Shopping is now possible on Instagram: pictures of brand products are now ‘shoppable’, allowing you to buy the items and pay through the Instagram app. Users can seamlessly shop in their own environment, featuring nothing but their favourite brands.

Payment through Instagram

Did you see a nice T-shirt while scrolling on Instagram? You can now buy it straight away, without having to go to that brand’s webshop first. Instagram has now released its checkout function: you simply tap the product, pick its size and colour and pay. The first time you pass by the virtual Instagram register, you still need to enter your e-mail address, bank account information and delivery address. Afterwards, the app will remember it for you, “securely saved for convenience the next time you shop“, according to the platform. Even the track & trace option, which provides notifications on the delivery, can be used from inside the app.

The introduction began this week in the United States, featuring a selection of twenty labels that are already very active on Instagram. Participating brands and retailers include Adidas, Burberry, H&M, NYX Cosmetics and Prada. Over the coming weeks, new names will be added to the list. Participating brands will have to cede a small portion of the revenue to Instagram, but how much that is has not been made public.

All your brands under one roof

The power of Instagram as a shopping channel is that it is very customised: the product range has been curated according to the user’s personal taste, since they only follow the brands that appeal to them. In addition, the Facebook subsidiary has access to a treasure trove of data, allowing it to target specific consumers very effectively with customised content and brands. Project management lead Ashley Yuki told Wired magazine that such a customised sales channel, based on brands you follow and that you might never have discovered in another way, is pretty interesting for us at Instagram“.

A year ago, Instagram already added ‘shop posts’, which made consumers see targeted ads and branded content, including the name and price of the product. However, in that system, you still had to click through to the seller’s web site to buy the items concerned. The Explore tab also already includes a shopping section, where brands and products are suggested, based on your previous searches: over 130 million people click through on those shop posts every month.

In total, Instagram has over one billion users every month. According to Wired, the company has a detailed file on every one of them, from the categories that interest them to the ads that keep them engaged for the longest time. For brands, the new checkout feature is “like opening a storefront in a shopping centre where the customers who are most likely to buy from them are automatically directed to their front door,” writes Wired.