Instagram is about to become your favourite social shopping app
At a time when mall attendance is dropping and most of us would rather watch Netflix in bed than visit our favourite brick and mortar stores, it seems, ironically, that shopping has become more social than ever. The list of our favourite stores and apps are starting to merge into one and with the advent of The Net Set—Net-a-Porter’s latest mobile release—and the popularity of cult classics like The Hunt continually rising, who could blame us?
Social media giants are starting to take notice of this trend and most notably, Instagram has announced that it will soon be jumping on the bandwagon. Despite the immense popularity of the photo sharing app, monetizing Instagram has proven very difficult for retailers in the past. Since direct links are disabled in Instagram captions, potential customers are left to turn to Google- or abandon the search entirely. Third party apps such as Like2Buy and Like to Know It created a way around the Instagram shopping problem for retailers, but now an official Instagram shopping system is in the works.
Borrowing targeting strategies from its parent company, Facebook, the app will allow advertisers to reach out to specific demographics. For fashion retailers particularly, Instagram is the perfect advertising option. “It’s an ideal platform to shop on as it’s so visual and fashion oriented,” said Old Navy media director Michele Schuh in an interview.
But how does this affect us, the users? We’ll be able to buy our favourite fashion pieces and beauty products, straight out of our favourite app. Can’t wait to shop the outfits of your fashion idols? You might just want to make sure you’ve got Drunk Lock installed too.
 on May 30, 2015 at 8:21am PDT
At a time when mall attendance is dropping and most of us would rather watch Netflix in bed than visit our favourite brick and mortar stores, it seems, ironically, that shopping has become more social than ever. The list of our favourite stores and apps are starting to merge into one and with the advent of The Net Set---Net-a-Porter’s latest mobile release---and the popularity of cult classics like The Hunt continually rising, who could blame us?
Social media giants are starting to take notice of this trend and most notably, Instagram has announced that it will soon be jumping on the bandwagon. Despite the immense popularity of the photo sharing app, monetizing Instagram has proven very difficult for retailers in the past. Since direct links are disabled in Instagram captions, potential customers are left to turn to Google- or abandon the search entirely. Third party apps such as Like2Buy and Like to Know It created a way around the Instagram shopping problem for retailers, but now an official Instagram shopping system is in the works.
Borrowing targeting strategies from its parent company, Facebook, the app will allow advertisers to reach out to specific demographics. For fashion retailers particularly, Instagram is the perfect advertising option. "It's an ideal platform to shop on as it's so visual and fashion oriented," said Old Navy media director Michele Schuh in an interview.
But how does this affect us, the users? We’ll be able to buy our favourite fashion pieces and beauty products, straight out of our favourite app. Can't wait to shop the outfits of your fashion idols? You might just want to make sure you've got Drunk Lock installed too.){kind=link}