Instagram wants to personalize users’ shopping experience by adding new ways to shop on Stories. The idea is to let users connect with their friends on all levels, and shopping is another way to do that.
On Sept. 17, the social network announced two new updates that add new ways to shop on the platform. These updates will allow users who stumble across their favorite fashion brand on Instagram to make purchases more intuitively.
Shopping in Stories extension
According to the press release announcing the Instagram updates, there are more than 90 million Instagram accounts which include tags in shopping-related posts every month. The release also states that more than 400 million accounts use Stories every day to get to see what’s going on with their favorite accounts, while one-third of the most-viewed stories come from business accounts. By tapping the practices employed by these business accounts, the Shopping in Stories feature will enable brands to tell a better story about their products and encourage Instagram users to shop in Stories.
Shopping in Stories was initially introduced in June. However, the new feature is now available globally and will be available in 46 countries. For example, if you’re watching behind-the-scenes Stories that fashion brands like H&M like to do and you see something you would like to wear, you simply tap on it to learn more about that product.
Shopping in Explore
Instagram will also add a Shopping channel to Explore to bring personalized content to individual users. The feature is inspired by the “Topic channels” that were added in June, which allow you to browse content on the platform based on your interests in the Explore option.
If you’re interested in shopping for fun, there will also be a channel dedicated to Shopping posts from the brands users follow and suggested brands that users might like. The new feature which allows for new ways to shop on Instagram will be rolling out today, while it will become available globally in the upcoming weeks.
“Shopping is more than an errand – it’s also about what you discover along the way. For many people on Instagram, shopping is an entertaining way to get inspired and connect with new and interesting brands.”
We can expect the social media network to continue enhancing the shopping experience on its platform. It seems Instagram aims to become everyone’s favorite fashion catalog.
