Instagram Adds a Shopping Tab to Explore

Instagram is adding a shopping tab to Explore

Instagram started out as an easy way to share photos, but since its inception the photo- and video-sharing platform has evolved quite a bit. Especially when it comes to shopping.

According to Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, upwards of 90 million people every month tap on posts to reveal shopping-specific tags. The booming business is something that the platform wants to embrace, and, as such, is working in that direction. We heard earlier this month that the company is planning on launching a dedicated app for shopping, creatively called “IG Shopping”, but there isn’t a specific timeframe for when that will arrive.

Instagram is building up to that day, though, by introducing a brand new tab in the Explore page. As first outlined by The Verge, the new shopping tab will allow users to see a myriad of content that’s purchasable from various sellers. And, for the first time, those sellers will be able to put dedicated tags in their Instagram Stories, which will let viewers buy goods directly from Stories.

Instagram has only been offering a widely-available means to shop on its platform since March of last year, and has been testing the ability to shop within Stories since June of this year. So while this has been a project for the Facebook-owned social platform, a lot has happened in a pretty short period of time. E-commerce appears to be a major focal point, so we’ll likely see an even bigger push in the months and years ahead.

Our Take

Not sure that I’d ever use Instagram to actually shop for anything personally, but I can definitely understand the appeal. After all, it’s all graphics and buzzwords, with plenty of hashtags for good measure. It’s obviously a boon industry for Instagram, one just has to hope that the platform doesn’t get overzealous and start pushing the shopping incentives into the casual user’s feed, too.

[via The Verge]

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