Facebook-owned Instagram is reportedly developing a standalone commerce-focused mobile app, potentially signaling the social media firm’s ambitions to become a bigger player in shopping.
The Verge, citing sources familiar with the matter, reported Tuesday that Instagram is working on an app, “which might be called IG Shopping,” that would show users merchandise on offer from the brands they already offer and enable direct, in-app transactions. Instagram did not comment on the rumored app, The Verge noted.
The social media platform has more than 800 million users, including 300 million daily users, and as of Nov. 2017, 25 million businesses maintain an active profile on Instagram. On Facebook’s Q4 2017 earnings call, COO Sheryl Sandberg shared that Instagram serves 2 million advertisers and climbing.
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“About two-thirds of the visits to Instagram business profiles are from people who don’t follow them,” she said at the time. Even more compelling, 80 percent of users have connected with a business on Instagram, making the commerce app a logical, and potentially lucrative, next step.
For what it’s worth, Instagram has steadily been beefing up its commerce chops in recent years, make brand posts shoppable with tagged products and adding a feature that allows shoppers to transact without leaving Instagram. But an app dedicated to commerce would remove some of the friction of shopping on Instagram in its current manifestation.
Oz Etzioni, CEO and co-founder of Clinch, a personalized video advertising platform that makes content for branded Instagram Stories, said an Instagram app devoted to shopping will enable merchants to “take a straight brand awareness strategy to a direct response one.”
“This will provide social marketers a great opportunity to reach a higher number of people by taking advantage of one of the fastest-growing social networks,” Etzioni noted. Part of Instagram’s success, he added, comes from posts on the platform that feel like native content versus a traditional ad, and it’s content that consumers clearly want to engage with.
