Instagram Shopping Feature

Instagram’s New Shopping Feature Makes It a Digital Mall

The mall of the future is not a sprawling metropolis of stores, punctuated by the occasional soft pretzel stand and megaplex movie theatre, but a platform on your phone. Imagine: a million stores made just for you, selling only the things you’re likely to buy, based on what you’ve bought in the past or how you’ve behaved online. Plenty of platforms are trying to steer shopping in this direction. Amazon anticipates when you’ll need to restock on paper towels. Pinterestpredicts what you’ll want for your home remodel. Now Instagram Shopping Feature is taking a big step toward surfacing the stuff you might buy and making it easier for you to buy it.

For brands, it’s like an 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.

Starting today, Instagram will enable in-app checkout for its shoppable posts. By streamlining the process of purchasing things within its mobile app, Instagram hopes to become your own personalized digital mall.

One year ago, Instagram made it possible to “shop” posts in your feed. If you follow a brand like Zara, you might see a post showcasing a new shirt—part branded content, part advertisement—with a tag that shows the item name and pricing. Instagram also introduced a dedicated space for shopping through Explore. Enter the Explore tab and you’ll find, in addition to personalized interests like food or travel, a section for shopping. It’s filled with shoppable posts from brands or accounts you follow, plus ones Instagram thinks you’ll like based on your browsing behaviour. Tap on a post and you’ll find more details about the product for sale—a sectional couch, or a pair of sunglasses—with pricing and a shopping link.