Instagram launches in-platform shopping function for retailers

Australian retailers on the social media platform Instagram now have the ability to link products in their posts through to online stores for purchase.

The feature, Instagram shopping, has been available in the United States since October 2017 but was rolled out in Australia on 21 March.

Instagram shopping allows retailers to affix tags displaying product and pricing information to items in their photos. The feature can also link directly to the product listing on their ecommerce platform.

A limit of five products per image or up to 20 products per carousel has been set.

The feature is only available to approved business accounts, with account administrators able to upload items via their Facebook shop or an ecommerce platform provider.

In the lead-up to the feature going live, the social media platform rolled out a trial of the functions, with key partners including Myer and Country Road.

As reported by SmartCompany, ecommerce platform BigCommerce also partnered with Instagram to ‘allow its business clients to see how the shopping option could improve traffic to ecommerce sites’. One of its clients, Incy Interiors, which has close to 80,000 Instagram followers, told SmartCompany its two-week trial resulted in a five percent uptick in online sales.

For more information, visit Instagram’s website here.

Category: Local news