Dunja Lazic — May 25, 2018 — May 25, 2018
Great news for commerce brands: Instagram is rolling out a brand new native payment feature for its users.
Instagram users will now be able to save their credit card information with Instagram, set up a pin for payments and shop directly in the app. The idea behind the new feature is deepening the relationship between businesses and customers on Instagram, making the app more convenient for consumers and worthy of more attention for brands.
After adding product tagging (coming soon to Schedugram too), it’s easy to see why the payments feature will come in handy for fashion, commerce and entertainment brands. Users will now be able to book movie tickets, buy products or even make reservations at restaurants, all within their Instagram app. This comes as a natural addition to a platform so valuable for commerce brands. Since users are already browsing Instagram before making buying decisions, payments inside Instagram will cut some of the friction and enable impulsive shoppers.
According to Marketing Interactive – “With the new commerce feature, Instagram will be stronger than other platforms since now it would be more seamless and friendlier in experience for users. The ability to ‘Buy’ without leaving the platform is big plus. It’s like being having a cashier or a checkout counter beside you all-ready to help you complete your purchase on the spot when you are shopping,”
For starters, Instagram payments will be available to selected partners and only to users in the US and UK, presumably for testing the waters before they roll it out to their global audience. Even small Instagram vendors will benefit from this feature having unnecessary friction cut from the selling experience and Instagram strategies will become more and more focused on direct sales.
But what does all this mean for you?
- For starters, if you sell anything, you’ll need to decide whether or not you want people to buy directly on Instagram (we can’t see any cons yet, unless your buying process is too complicated)
- You’ll also need to rethink your entire Instagram strategy to encourage shopping directly in the app and enable your buyers to make decisions easily
- You’ll need to decide where to host your product catalogue, will it be in Story Highlights or your grid? There’s not a lot of choices here since you do need to advertise your products inside Instagram but we’re sure we’ll see more creative ways of cataloguing products inside Instagram soon. If you have any ideas, let us know
- Your small eCommerce brand will likely become Instagram-first. With buyers ready to shop and a huge global audience craving great content, it might become obsolete to focus on other platforms for selling goods. While Etsy, Shopify et al are commerce-first and driven by search for specific products, Instagram has the ultimate browsing experience that you can insert yourself into. This makes it a truly native shopping experience.
- Finally, products like Around.io (part of Schedugram) will become an indispensable part of your strategy now that you can sell directly on Instagram. Around integrates with all major eCommerce store providers (Etsy, Shopify, WooCommerce) and seamlessly prepares your existing product catalogue for social sharing.
What does it mean for Instagram users?
- Shopping will likely become part of their everyday Instagram experience
- Brands will definitely ramp up their Instagram strategies to focus on direct sales that will lead to enabling users to discover products more easily
- It will be easier to discover and shop products directly on Instagram.
So, are you excited for payments coming to Instagram? Do you feel like it’s going to be helpful for your brand? We’re looking forward to seeing the creative ways payments will be used and successful Instagram sales strategies. Also, if you come up with any other way to keep a product catalogue on Instagram, let us know, we’d love to chat!
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