Instagram Is Now Shoppable For Shopify Stores

Shopify recently announced a new feature allowing shopping on Instagram accounts of U.S. merchants. A group of Shopify test stores (apply here) will be able to sell products right from their Instagram posts. Currently, 60% of Shopify’s 500,000 merchants sell in two or more channels. With the addition of Instagram, business owners will be able to maximize their channels in time for the busy holiday shopping season. Once selected to participate, merchants can choose to connect to Facebook’s product catalog in Instagram without any additional effort.

Shopify stores who use Instagram shoppable posts will also have access to analytics from the photo-sharing service, including how many people viewed product information or clicked through to its product page. Clickable links aren’t allowed in post captions, so shoppable tags are the quickest way for e-commerce retailers to get Instagram users into their stores. Before Instagram launched its shoppable posts feature, e-commerce sellers turned to services such as Four Sixty to link their Instagram posts and online stores.

“Discovery is at the heart of the Instagram experience. Together with Shopify, we are enabling new ways to turn discovery into exploration, allowing Instagrammers to find new things from brands they love and businesses to find opportunities to build relationships with these valuable customers.” – Instagram

Instagram, which has 800 million monthly active users, began testing shoppable tags last November, making it available to 20 U.S.-based retail brands, including Kate Spade, JackThreads and Warby Parker. Instead of taking a cut of the purchase amount, Instagram plans to monetize the feature by letting business accounts pay to display their shoppable photos in the feeds of users who don’t follow them already.