The Birth of Social Media Shopping

Online shopping has been around for over twenty years now, but just recently have companies begun selling their products through popular social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook in order to attract a new flock of consumers who, like many people in this digital age, spend much of their time on social media.

It is no lie that the use of online shopping has dramatically increased over the years. To be able to quickly search up, find, and purchase pretty much any product of your choice in just the click of a few buttons is easy and efficient, especially for those who do not have the time to physically travel to a store to purchase their goods.

Now, thanks to advances in e-commerce, consumers can now buy products right off of the social media apps they spend their days browsing through, with the newest e-commerce marketplace being the popular photo sharing app, Instagram.

Since its humble beginnings in 2010 by Stanford graduates, Kevin Systrom and Mike Kriege, Instagram has grown to a global empire of over 500 million monthly users as of June 2016, according to Statista. It has grown from simply sharing pictures, to sharing videos, gifs, direct messages, and most recently, “Instagram Stories.”

Instagram creators have now decided to join the social media marketplace by partnering with 20 US retailers such as J.Crew and Kate Spade, and using their platform as a marketplace for the popular brands by adding in a special tag on photos with shoppable merchandise.

An instagrammer can tap on the special tag – which can be recognized as a white logo on the bottom left corner of a picture – and see the product’s detailed description with the items price and a “shop now” option, which takes the buyer straight to the company’s website through a protected link. However, this new attraction is only available for iOS users. The company will determine the success of the online market and decide if it will be continued and available to Android users or not.

Instagram is not the online marketplace that has used its digital platform to connect with buyers. Facebook has its own Shopping section that works as a “single place for people to more easily discover, share, and purchase products,” according to the company itself. With this, Facebook users can spend time on the popular website to connect with family and friends while browsing new products all the while.

Both companies are a part of the growing number of social media marketplaces. With the ever-increasing rise of new technologies and digital features, the wonderful world of e-commerce will never be the same.