Now You Can Shop and Purchase Items on Instagram Without Leaving the App
The new feature enables checkout directly on Instagram — and a slew of fashion and beauty brands are on board.
In an effort to make e-commerce even more seamless, Instagram announced a new feature on Tuesday, which will allow users to directly make purchases and completely checkout on the app itself.
The new function works like this: When users tap on a shoppable product on Instagram, they'll view the product's page with an option to "Checkout on Instagram." Once you make your first buy — along with providing payment and shipping details — the information is (securely) stored within the app for future purchases. Sounds easy! And dangerous!
The new update is only available in the U.S. for now while it's in beta, but a select (and pretty impressive) group of more than 20 brands and retailers are already on board, spanning from luxury (Balmain, Burberry, Dior, Prada) to mass market (H&M, Zara, Uniqlo). A number of beauty companies are getting in on the action, too, including Anastasia Beverly Hills, ColourPop, Huda Beauty, Nars, MAC Cosmetics and Ouai. KKW Beauty and Kylie Cosmetics will also allow shoppers to place orders directly on Instagram, which makes total sense, considering that the two brands, fronted by Kim Kardashian and "self-made" billionaire Kylie Jenner, respectively, rely heavily on spreading the word about new launches and deals via social media. Instagram already has plans to add more brands over the coming months.
Since 2016, Instagram has been making moves to take advantage of consumers' increasing shopping habits online and via mobile. According to the company, 130 million people tap to reveal product tags in shopping posts every month, which is a significant jump from the 90 million that the company announced back in September. But it's only been within the past year or so that the platform has pushed forward some game-changing features that allow users to shop across Instagram's feed, Explore page, business profiles and Stories. However, transactions always occurred directly on the brand or retailer's website — and away from Instagram.
"Much like when we ran the first-ever Instagram ad, we see checkout on Instagram as an opportunity to excite our fans with something new and innovative that will make their shopping experience more seamless than ever before," said a spokesperson from Michael Kors in an official statement. "Our customers are always on the go and with this new feature they can shop whenever, and wherever, they want."
So get ready to make some impulsive purchases when you're half-awake with one eye open while scrolling through Instagram at six o'clock in the morning. What? That's just us?
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