Instagram might come up with a new e-commerce platform
Online shopping is not how it was used to be. There are huge competitors out there, and online stores are always competing against others by throwing some features or the other. When we do think of online retail shopping, we might think about sites like Amazon and eBay. But there is someone else who is looking forward to having a piece of the pie. Instagram.
Yes, it might seem weird for a photo sharing platform to jump onto the fray, but it is true. Instagram is working on creating a completely different application that would be exclusive to shopping. People that are close to the project have explained that this application would supposedly be called as IG Shopping, and this app would give companies an opportunity to showcase their products.
Social Advertising
Though Instagram has refused to comment on this, this can be a true rumor. Back in late 2016, the company had already tried out a feature like this and then was officially released. This was a huge hit, and many brands came on to use this feature. They advertised certain products, and users had the option of buying such products by being redirected to the site of the brand.
This was a major move for the company as it also risked angering its users. Though no one loves ads, the app did not face any major criticism, but instead companies big and small began to use this feature. In fact, Instagram proved to be the reason for various companies to kickstart. This option gave companies to have a much more personal touch with its audience, and with Instagram’s advertising tools, they could also target on which kind of audience they want to approach.
Instagram did not stop there, though. The app introduced a new feature more recently called Shopping to Stories, and that again took off as Stories became the preferred communication channel for most of Instagram’s users.
IG Shopping
The IG shopping app is still under development, and no launch date is still officially announced. Nevertheless, since this is still in beta testing, there are also chances for this application to be canceled before it sees the light of day.
But as of now, advertising on Instagram is going pretty well. More than 25 million companies have an account on Instagram, and 2 million of them have ads. And if IG Shopping is also added to the fray, then the reach for these companies and Instagram would immensely increase, thus also increasing the revenue of its parent company, Facebook.
