Shopping on Social Media

Consumers are constantly on the search for the most convenient way to shop. Most people no longer have time to visit a store physically, so they turn to online shopping. Throughout the years, the online experience has evolved – to the point where now users can purchase products straight from social media. One of the earliest pioneers in this push was Facebook, the social network was the perfect place for brands and consumers to come together… until Instagram came along.

The image-sharing app changed the social media game completely, and with younger generations being extremely tech-savvy, Instagram became a popular app for them to swarm to. As Instagram’s domination rose, brands began updating their marketing strategies to include social media in them. The app saw this as an opportunity and began allowing businesses to tag products on their images. Not soon after, the app rolled out the stories feature that would also allow brands to tag and sell products. Now, the explorer page has released a new tab called “shopping”. This is an entire feed dedicated to shoppable content. But, they are not stopping there – Instagram has announced that it will be releasing a standalone app purely for shopping!

Instagram is not the only app where younger generations are turning to for shopping though. Snapchat and Pinterest are strong contenders, too. Even though Snapchat is slowly integrating a discovery feature, it is no stranger to ads and shoppable content. Pinterest, on the other hand, has always had a feature for content to link to other websites – but it has been making a stronger push for it as of lately. Now, it is allowing businesses to create “shoppable outfit” posts. 

The popularity of social media apps fluctuates constantly. One day, Snapchat might be extremely popular, but the next it might not. Instagram has not shown any signs of slowing down, especially with IGTV and soon a shoppable app. Pinterest, however, has seen steady growth in its popularity. It would not come as a surprise if Pinterest took over the online market in the near future – but that is up to the younger generations and their ever-changing preferences.