Instagram has had a significant impact on the consumer sector and the way people shop especially. The social network has notably been used as a platform for innovative consumer marketing techniques. It has tailored our browsing experience to the point where we are more likely to search, choose, and purchase goods via the same platform.
Let’s take a closer look at how Instagram rethought the customer journey and experience:
1) New Discoveries
Half of the retail business comprises browser-based shopping (also known as “discovery shopping”). It implies that buyers hope to come across a new product. Instagram’s user interface “makes users and their intentions the focus point” because of its social nature.
Instagram’s intuitive design allows users to become completely immersed in the app, leading to the classic rabbit hole. Of course, here is where Instagram’s experience and users’ love for scrolling collide.
After adding a shopping aspect to the Explore tab, Instagram has only intensified the relationship between careless surfing and active shopping. Therefore brands should figure out how to get on the explore page to gain users’ attention.
2) Personalization
Scrolling through Instagram’s feed can feel like you’re in a market that caters to your specific preferences. It’s not just the entertaining content that you’re being targeted with, but also goods for sale.
You’ll notice a resemblance in how content looks as you scroll through your Explore tab or pay attention to the adverts. Instagram does a fantastic job at customization based on visuals rather than only products.
While personalization continues to be a top e-commerce trend, it often limits the scope of the offered products, which means that a user may never explore the whole catalog or other decent brands not searching specifically for them. On Instagram, however, this is not the case. Users can browse based on visual interest while being introduced to new products because the algorithm relies on displaying visually related items.
3) Simplicity
Instagram has recently gotten a lot of publicity and attention for its new checkout function, allowing users to buy goods without leaving the app.
It’s a near-frictionless process: customers merely submit their information the first time they check out, and it’s saved for subsequent purchases. This also protects retailers against abandoned shopping carts left by customers who are annoyed with constant sign-ups.
The best thing is that Instagram users can make a purchase via both posts and stories. Let’s elaborate on the latter. Since its launch in 2016, Stories has grown at an enormous speed, and it has become a strong tool for brands to reach their target audiences. Shoppable Instagram Stories appeared later and have become an important component of how eCommerce evolves in the current years.
Users are already utilizing Stories to interact with brands, while the shopping feature allows them not only to connect but also easily buy what they like. The process is very simple for both parties. Businesses merely add a clickable sticker, and users clicking on it, find themselves redirected to the brand’s online store, where they can purchase the item.
4) Influencers
Instagram is a universe where the power of influence is king. In the real world, we might tell our closest friends, family, and coworkers about a product we liked. Word-of-mouth marketing has previously proved itself to be effective. However, when we combine word-of-mouth recommendations with the influencer marketing realm on Instagram, we have a much more effective instrument to elicit a purchase decision.
Customers can overcome relatively few barriers before adding to the cart, thanks to the deployment of Instagram shopping capabilities to creators and Shopping from Creators. In this feature, influencers can add a brand’s shoppable tags to their posts as part of a paid partnership.
If you’re a company or brand trying to increase online sales, Instagram should be your first stop. And if you have the opportunity to incorporate influencer marketing into your approach, there’s a good chance you’ll be able to reach a new audience with a solid spending capacity.
5) Interactivity
In recent months, Instagram Live has seen a surge. During the period of social distancing, creators and businesses explored new methods to embrace the platform. Before going live, brands with access to Instagram Checkout can tag products from their Shop or catalog. The featured products are displayed at the bottom of the video so that viewers may quickly learn more about them and make a purchase.
This one tiny adjustment results in a significant shift to a live shopping channel! Users can now get live customer assistance from the influencer or brand representative, which means you can have live Q&A with your community, provide product information, or show product demos, all with a live purchase link at the bottom of the screen.
With the number of influencer marketing options on Instagram expanding all the time, shopping via an influencer’s Instagram live might soon become the norm. Influencers can help brands promote and endorse their products to a new and engaging audience.
Conclusion
Social media shopping is rapidly growing around the world. In comparison to other networks, Instagram has unquestionably the highest engagement rate. So, if you’re looking to expand your social media marketing campaign, now is the chance to test out Instagram’s new e-commerce features.
