Instagram » It Just got Easier to Sell Things on Instagram!
Well, it hasn’t just yet as such. But it’s certainly about to thanks to a nifty and rather inevitable new Instagram feature, ‘shoppable photos’. Not sure what a ‘shoppable photo’ could be? Don’t worry – we’ve got you covered.
As per usual, Instagram took to their blog to announce the coming of ‘shoppable photos’. In their own words we, as the consumer, browse products while waiting to be seated for dinner and on our commute into work. What they modestly don’t admit is that we do a lot of that browsing on Instagram.
As you can see beautifully demonstrated in the GIF above, Instagram are therefore about to make it a lot easier to chuck our hard earned cash at all the #inspo products our edgy, aesthetic hearts desire. Sweet.
The principle is simple. In a similar fashion to tagging your mates in a group photo, or perhaps your mum in a Mother’s Day Instagram post (because if you don’t say Happy Mother’s Day to your mum online, did you even say it?) brands will now be able to tag their products.
Not the type to be sold to that easily? Need to see more than just the product in amongst others before you tap and buy? You’re in luck. Clicking the tag won’t actually take you straight through to the product page. From the GIF we can see you’ll be taken through to a post (we’ll go ahead and assume it’s hidden from the seller’s profile) specific to the product you were interested in. Have a slightly better look at it. Read a bit of salesy nonsense. Buy it. Easy.
The days of ‘click the link in our bio’ could finally be over. To be honest, we could leave this section at that, but we’ll explain why. Ask yourself this. How many times have you actually clicked the link in the bio after being asked to? Come on, honestly now. Is it 0? Probably.
Instagram merchants have long struggled with harvesting click-throughs. Try as they might, they can’t fight the fact that people want to engage with the post in front of them. With ‘shoppable’ photos, people will finally be able to do that in a way that makes you money – likes and comments just don’t pay the bills do they? Sit back and watch the dollar flow*
As we mentioned earlier, it also removes any need to try and hard-sell a specific product in a photo. You can create your short, sweet captions and hide the sales talk in the click-through post. They’ll never see it coming.
*Disclaimer – If said ‘dollar’ does not flow after ‘shoppable’ photos are launched, To The End cannot be held responsible.
Ok, so here’s the catch. You don’t, just yet. Unfortunately it’s currently only being tested by 20 select brands including Abercrombie & Fitch, Hollister and Michael Kors. On top of that, it’s only happening in the US, for now. So if you happen to be one of the world’s largest retail brands, and also based in the United States, you might want to ask Instagram to sort you out.
As for the rest of us, well we’ll just have to wait. We’ve got a feeling it’ll be pretty successful though, so hopefully the wait won’t be too long. Of course, this post shall be updated as and when know more.
© 2022 Maze Media Ltd • All Rights Reserved