You might have seen the “buy buttons” on social media platforms like Pinterest’s “buyable pins”; they have been around for a while but they haven’t really been adopted by consumers (Halzack, 2016). Reluctance from buying from a place other than an established retailer is one reason, another may be price point (Halzack, 2016). Instagram is trying hard to change that. Next week they are launching tags that let people click on photos to get more information regarding a specific product (Alba, 2016). With another click, users will have the option to buy the item from the retailer’s website (Alba, 2016). In this effort, Instagram is partnering up with 20 well-known U.S. brands including Macy’s, J. Crew and Target (Olivarez-Giles, 2016).
According to Instagram (owned by Facebook), they are not getting a share of the profit from this revenue stream (Olivarez-Giles, 2016). Even if that is true, at least for now, perhaps users have reasons to be skeptical. Instagram went from being an ad free photo sharing app to inundating us with personalized ads based on our online browsing patterns. For me, the new interface with ads and banners took the fun (and innocence) out of Instagram and significantly decreased my footprint on the site. I am curious to see if the many devoted IG users will find the new “shop now’ options appealing and practical or manipulative in their attempts to inform or persuade depending on your perspective.
References:
Alba, D. (November 1, 2016). Get ready to buy stuff straight through Instagram. Wired. Retrieved from www.wired.com
Halzack, S. (January 14, 2016). Why the social media ‘buy button’ is still there, even though most never use it. The Washington Post. Retrieved from www.thewashingtonpost.com
Olivarez-Giles, N. (November 1, 2016). Instagram adds ‘Shop Now’ button for in-app impulse buying. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from www.WSJ.com
Photos retrieved from:
https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/01/instagram-shoppable-photos/
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