What if you could purchase products on Instagram?
Over time I’ve seen a lot of brands post to their Instagram accounts saying “Link in Bio” for items they are selling.
“Link in bio” is not an ideal user experience, if you ask me. I often leave in search of a product I just saw on my feed. Why would Instagram want you to leave their application to ‘interact’ with their user’s products?
Think about that. You see a product you like. You close Instagram, go to their site in search of it. Add it to your cart, fill out shipping and billing, check out. Then maybe head back to Instagram. There are a lot of steps involved in that process. With all of that, I still end up buying the product about 50% of the time. Imagine if you simplified the process for the consumer, made it effortless for them to purchase a brand’s product.
So what if you could purchase products on Instagram?
What would it be like?
Brands would be limited to 6 items per picture. They’ll also be able to customize the overlay with their logo and brand colors. A user would have the option to checkout via Apple Pay or checkout via the web.
If you ask me, I see this as another form of revenue for Instagram. Ads are ok, but having brands connect with their followers by giving them access to buy what they see right away would be huge.
Update Nov 1, 2016: Shopping coming soon to Instagram. http://blog.business.instagram.com/post/152598788716/shopping-coming-to-instagram
