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Instagram has put in place a tool designed to consolidate its grip on purchases. The company today announced the launch of a built-in order control function for users in the United States, a secure method and, without hope, for Instagram, for the user. buying products on the application without ever leaving.
At its introduction, 23 brands in fashion, apparel and beauty have signed partnerships including Adidas, Burberry, Dior, Nike, H & M, Zara, Kylie Cosmetics and KKW Beauty (the line of Kim Kardashian West cosmetics). The tool will appear in some users' applications today and will be extended to all users in the US within a few weeks. Additional brands will be added to the beta test throughout the year.
"Given that 80% of people follow a business on Instagram, the urge to make purchases is real," said Vishal Shah, product manager at Instagram. "We just did not have the tools in place to help them do it."
Instagram is busy making mobile purchases since the introduction of its shopping tags in 2016, which allowed users to select product images and be linked to off-platform e-commerce through a pop-up browser window.
Tags and subsequent developments, including shoppable product stickers for Instagram Stories, have had some success. according to According to company figures, 130 million users a month click to reveal purchase tags in publications, up from 90 million in September.
But the process has added steps and, often, frustration. The new system allows users to store their payment information (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover or PayPal) and perform transactions in the application itself.
Unlike its external commercial links, Instagram will charge fees on transactions made through its platform, making it a potentially very lucrative tool for Instagram. Mr. Shah refused to share the fee rate.
"Our main business is advertising and we think it will be an important driver of this activity," he said. "But you can think of this as a potential new venture for us."
Given what appears to be a growing interest in Facebook shopping and shopping, the parent company of Instagram, some have wondered whether introducing this feature would suggest an additional extension.
Mr. Shah said that, for the moment, the payment credentials would only be stored for use on Instagram accounts and would not be usable on Facebook or on WhatsApp, the courier application also owned by the company. He acknowledged that payments on other Facebook platforms would be "something we think about in the future," but added that it would require clear user consent.
But fashion and Instagram have been a natural fit, being visually oriented and regularly (some would say constantly) refreshed.
"Fashion has always been a very strong industry for Instagram at home," said Shah. "Given how the fashion industry launches its new products, there is also an element of novelty and seasonality that really matches the way people express themselves" on the platform.
And that, the company believes, can be a very good thing for the retail business, where the common chorus is that e-commerce has eroded physical shopping. However, said Shah, the mobile world has not yet offered the kind of gathering place for digital shopping that Instagram can provide.
"If you wanted to shop or if you just wanted to know the latest trends and trends, there was not really a good place that was the digital equivalent of the mall," said Mr. Shah, where you can interact at a time. with brands and friends. "Shopping as a hobby or entertainment," he said. "We believe this is an untapped area of the retail market, especially in the mobile."
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