After a year-long trial in the US, Instagram has enabled its Shopping features in the United Kingdom.
The new features allow approved businesses to overlay virtual price tags onto products in their posts. Shoppers can tap these tags to get product information without leaving their Instagram feed.
You’ll no longer have to beg people to ‘Click the link in the bio’ to prompt a purchase.
When someone taps a tag on your Instagram Shopping post, they’ll see:
- An image of the product
- A description
- Price
- A link that takes them directly to your website, where they can purchase
Shopping posts will be specifically marked with a small ‘shopping bag’ icon and you can tag up to five products per image or up to twenty products per carousel.
“People come to Instagram every day to discover and buy products from their favourite businesses,” Instagram head of business Jim Squires said. “We want that to be a seamless experience.”
One drawback for advertisers is that shopping posts are currently only being rolled out for organic posting – but it’s surely only a matter of time before Instagram adds these to the paid mix, if as expected, they prove to be popular with advertisers.
Also (for now at least) the transaction must happen on your website and cannot be completed directly through Instagram.
This has the potential to add significant value to business’ organic Instagram feeds at a time when their parent company Facebook is throttling brands’ organic reach on that platform.
If you want to know how your business can use these new Instagram features get in touch with one of Anicca Digital’s social e-commerce experts today.
