Shopping Feature on Instagram
Instagram is a social media platform that can be used for many reasons and its users have different goals. Instagram users can look at photos and videos, interact with posts through comments, interact with stories through replies, direct message another user, watch reels, and more. While doing this a user may be interested in using the app just for entertainment, to look at a specific vacation place or location and what there is to do there, keep up with celebrities and news, create posts and interact with others, or stay updated on what their friends are doing.
There is another reason to use Instagram that I will be researching and discussing in this blog post: shopping. The “shop” tab on Instagram is new yet businesses have been using the platform to promote their product just as users have been utilizing the platform to look at and buy products. The platform has now made it easier for both business and users to sell and buy products.
This topic is important because it demonstrates how social media platforms grow and change based on user activity. The social media platform Instagram did not have a shopping feature when the app was first published and it was not created because someone thought of it on their own. As users began using their accounts to buy and sell goods through posting pictures and other media of the product, and buyers commenting and messaging them to purchase the products, the shopping feature was made available. Users dictated the app to go in this direction as Instagram saw the users interactions with businesses grow. It is important to analyze how new features are brought into the platform as it makes studying the history of digital media easier to understand and helps us picture what is next in the digital world.
As Instagram users continue to use this shop feature it becomes important that we understand the implications of its use and how it will develop in the future. Online shopping has already created an industry disruptor in retail and making online shopping easier now on social media will amplify these effects.
The questions that I will be exploring in this post are:
1). How do businesses and consumers benefit from shopping on the social media platform instagram?
2). How will this new feature affect the digital world and the retail industry?
3). Was this feature constructed more because of user needs or capitalism?
Instagram shopping is a new feature that is added to the bottom of the site to create a whole page for businesses to post media of their product and consumers to add to their cart and buy it. As described on Instagram’s/ Meta’s website, “you can tell your story and highlight products seamlessly so people can shop in the moment of discovery” (Instagram for Business). As the description written by the company Instagram states, the feature is there to encourage consumers to buy the product as soon as they see it. Before, if users see a product on Instagram and have to go to the store’s website to purchase it, they may have second thoughts during this time.
Consumers are able to easily browse and purchase items tailored to their own preferences from many stores, however, they miss out on a real life experience. Many consumers prefer online shopping and shopping through social media because it is more efficient and they are able to see the best items and deals all in one place although some consumers feel they miss out on the experience of trying on clothes and having a sales associate help them with their purchase.
The digital world is changing to make room for many new ideas and is evolving in a competitive atmosphere to create the next best addition. As technology and digital media becomes more advanced we will see many new additions in the next few years we cannot even begin to predict now.
This new feature has had effects on the retail industry the same as other online shopping sites have and is contributing to the closure of traditional brick and mortar stores. Although these businesses benefit from making sales through this platform, they are losing in person sales which is leading to the close of their in person retail locations creating an argument of whether or not this service is really helping the business.
Although social media started as a way for people to interact and share their lives when not together, it now has many other purposes. Here we see a social media platform made to encourage interaction between users and utilized for connectivity between friends and family taken over by capitalism. We see this elsewhere on the site through paid advertisements and sponsorships.
Overall, capitalism drives almost everything that we do and this is another effect of businesses and companies striving to increase the amount of money they make and stay alive in a competitive environment. The rapid evolution of technology and digital media also encourages the fast changes business owners have to make in order to keep up with current trends.
Although Instagram created the feature because users were already partaking in shopping on their platform and they saw an addition that could fit their users’ needs, businesses initially started to sell on this platform because they saw the opportunity and were driven by capitalistic goals to make more money. Even if it is argued that users encouraged this feature, the users were originally driven by capitalism.
If anyone has used Instagram shopping or has any thoughts on the feature please comment your experience/ what they are. Also, how do you think capitalism drives the goals of social media and how do users react to these changes? Do you think this feature is positive or negative for the business, consumer, and industry?
