IG Shopping: Goodbye, money
Instagram is looking to launch a standalone app for shopping. It makes sense — the platform has become a fantastic place for brands (think FMCG, with clothing being the most obvious example) to showcase their latest lines. High-resolution images, boomerangs and videos nestle between those lavish travel bloggers you follow in a way that feels authentic and lavish.

So, why the need for a standalone app? Well, it’s likely that IG Shopping (as it’s being suggested it may be known) would be a more overt shopping experience, allowing for additional functionality that is excusable in that environment but maybe less so on the social network. Think cross-vendor selling (at the moment brands can only refer people to their own site), platform-wide shopping tags, and, perhaps most importantly, the potential for Instagram to introduce its own payment platform. Imagine the possibilities: Fulfilment straight from your Instagram feed. Drunken impulse purchases have never felt so possible. Who knows? Once users feel comfortable with the platform and it has been refined to be the optimum user experience, the functionality may be integrated into the full-fat Instagram app.
This seems like a quiet way for Facebook’s sexier side to do what it does so well: become a pervasive part of internet behaviours in a way that creeps up on you without you noticing.
For brands and organisations it’s too early to do much more than speculate, but for those who already find their products selling well on Instagram, it’s likely to be a platform that will only make encouraging consumers down a seamless purchase journey even easier. It may even benefit smaller brands, as there’s currently still a feeling of democracy and discovery possible on the platform that can’t really be found elsewhere. This may all be taken away by an algorithmic weighting given to discovery on IG Shopping to benefit those likely to make the most profit for Instagram, or we may be surprised to see a more level playing field.
Either way, my wallet is terrified.
Andy Cooper, Creative Content Strategist, OMD Create EMEA
OMD Create EMEA are OMD EMEA’s dedicated content team. If you’d like to learn more or have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
