Snapchat Looks to Incorporate Shopping Features
Snapchat board member and editor in chief of Cosmopolitan — Joanna Coles — recently announced that the transitory messaging app is now going to allow shopping. Snapchat is primarily used to send and receive photos that disappear immediately or after 24-hours and to view brand content and publications from marketing companies around the world, but the future of the app now holds e-commerce opportunities.
A current channel via Snapchat called “Sweet” has been a collaborated creation between Hearst and Snapchat with the tagline is “Love something new everyday,” explains Coles at the Re/code’s Code/Media conference back in February, “But at some point that will morph into an e-commerce platform so you will be able to buy from it.”
Hearst is owned by Cosmopolitan and aims to generate more revenue online in 2016. This plan includes Snapchat’s cooperation and integration of future shopping features, which will open many economical doors for marketing companies involved with Snapchat.
So you might be wondering how shopping and an ephemeral messaging app are going to mix; will you have to make a purchase before it disappears? Not exactly.
It just so happens that Snapchat has already experimented with this new feature through the implementation of those new and fun filter options — wait, but aren’t those free? Yes, most of them are included in updates. However, you might have noticed that in the past, some were inaccessible because they cost money.
This approach is slightly different than the one marketing companies and publications will be seeing in the near future, but it is a form of shopping that Snapchat experimented with.
The process involved buying special filters for 99 cents through “Lens Store,” but back in January, they shut this down. Instead, Snapchat decided to give away all filters for free and attempt to make money through marketing companies that sponsored lenses instead.
Now, Snapchat is looking beyond the messaging aspect of the app and into the promotional and content side of things. Last spring, Snapchat invested in a shopping app where multiple fashion brands could sell their wares but the app has yet to allow users to actually purchase physical products.
It sounds like Snapchat is going to start with Hearst publishing to sell stuff through the app but they aren’t the only publisher showing interest in the new feature. The Wall Street Journal also told Re/code back in January that it is interested in selling subscriptions through Snapchat in the nearby future.
The changes haven’t been set in stone but we can expect to see the integration of shopping options coming soon to Snapchat — but don’t worry — you’ll have more than 10 seconds to view shopping options and make purchases.
Alyssa Koenig writes for Fusion 360, an SEO and content marketing agency. She writes for many other clients as well. Follow on Twitter
