Through a partnership with PayPal, Instagram is now a full eCommerce platform. You just had to see that coming.
This could be huge for merchants that have an audience on the platform. For smaller merchants or limited production runs, you don’t need the additional costs of managing your own eCommerce website and can focus those resources instead on promoting your products.
There are 1 billion people who use Instagram every month with over 4 billion posts every single day. That’s a lot.
I think this is going to be a great tool for merchants to be able leverage to grow sales. However, just like with selling on Amazon, he who controls your customer controls your business. Get it while the getting is good, but make sure you understand the long game and that you should be working to migrate those customer relationships into multiple touch points or to platforms that you control.
For now, this is a pilot program with a limited set of merchants before they roll it out to the general population. Here is a list of all the brands that current offer Instagram checkout, with more coming soon I’m sure.
Adidas @adidaswomen & @adidasoriginals
Anastasia Beverly Hills @anastasiabeverlyhills
Balmain @balmain
Burberry @burberry
ColourPop @colourpopcosmetics
Dior @dior
H&M @hm
Huda Beauty @hudabeautyshop
KKW @kkwbeauty
Kylie Cosmetics @kyliecosmetics
MAC Cosmetics @maccosmetics
Michael Kors @michaelkors
NARS @narsissist
Nike @niketraining & @nikewomen
NYX Cosmetics @nyxcosmetics
Oscar de la Renta @oscardelarenta
Ouai Hair @theouai
Outdoor Voices @outdoorvoices
Prada @prada
Revolve @revolve
Uniqlo @uniqlo
Warby Parker @warbyparker
Zara @zara
I feel like I’m starting to see the target demographic come into focus a bit with this list of brands. I want to order something and show you how it works but I’m not buying a $1000 handbag, so let’s see if we can find something interesting to purchase to show how it works.
My shoe fitment is a weird situation, so we are going to avoid these. Lot’s of fashion brands here. Outdoor voices. I like being outdoor, I hear voices. Maybe that’s for me. Maybe they’ll have some camping gear or something. Nope, yoga pants. I don’t get their name at all.
Let’s try Warby Parker. Ah, a cleaning kit for $10. I can use those for my shades. Out of stock. Sigh. Here’s another. That view on website button means it’s not available for shopping online.
Prada. I don’t know much about it, but the devil wears it, so it can’t be too good. Jesus christ. $740 for a t-shirt. I’m in the wrong place.
Michael Kors. That’s a dudes name, lets see what they’ve got. I don’t think Michael Kors has figured out the whole framing of these IG photos. I’m going to pass just because they
H&M: I’m buying lip gloss. Let’s walk through it.
It wasn’t extremely easy, but once they have all my info in there I think it will be incredibly simple. Are you excited about Instagram checkout? Let me know in the comments!
