Making Instagram Shoppable In the World of E-Commerce Instagram's chief Adam Mosseri has revealed his strategy to transform Instagram into a sales portal

By Nazreen Nazir

You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.

Natee Meepian | Shutterstock

E- commerce is a thriving space which is growing every year. Currently the e-commerce space is dominated by amazon, walmart, and Chinese giants like alibaba and JD.com. Instagram with its one billion users worldwide is planning to enter the online commerce market. The big giants like amazon are going to be endangered if instagram steps into the e-commerce world. As per reports, the new chief of instagram Adam Mosseri is intending to transform the instagram into a sales portal. Facebook owned brand is following into the footsteps of google which announced last may the redesign of its shopping portal which allows users to shop directly from site without being redirected to sellers web portal.

E-commerce Capability of Instagram

Instagram has 500 million daily active users and about 80 percent of all accounts follow a business profile. The photo sharing platform has become the perfect place to showcase your brand and products.In fact most people search for products on instagram and then take an action like visiting the brand's website or page. Social influencers are tapping into this action taking capability to build their large followers. Instagram has this feature called shoppable posts which enables the users to buy products directly from brand's post.

Instagram stories are another way to drive traffic to e-commerce platforms. These features enable brands to engage followers on the platform and cater to the marketing requirement throughout the world where different users are active at different times of the day. The photo app also launched a direct sales pilot program in March of this year although it was limited to only 20 brands like Zara, Burberry, Nike, Adidas and more with payments being processed using PayPal technology.

Making Instagram Into Sales Portal

Adam Mosseri spoke for the first time in an interview after taking over last October shared his future strategy for the instagram. He plans to tap into the huge influencer base of photo sharing platform and connect the users and sellers thoughtfully dot by dot. He plans to reinvent the platform owned by Facebook and turn it into sales portal. He plans to change instagram to leave its main visual aspect for virtual space to make the decisive leap into e-commerce.

He defended the e-commerce like features on app called shopping bag which enables the user to shop directly on the platform without leaving the app. Although it will take firm some 5-10 years to carve a place for itself in the e-commerce world as its very fragmented right now. The firm will also need time to fully transform into sales venue as there are a lot of other things like infrastructure and agreements with payment service providers to be made in countries they intend to operate in future.

E-commerce world is going through lots of changes and possible entry of Instagram is definitely going to increase the competition. The firms like Amazon need to up their game and maybe plan another strategy because instagram might affect their dominance in e-commerce world.

Nazreen Nazir

Entrepreneur Staff

Features Writer

Looking for happiness in the world of business news and technology. 

I love reading and can be found doodling sometimes.

Business News

ChatGPT Can Now Complete a Major Task That Would Take a Human Up to 30 Days. Here's How it Works.

The AI now has the capability to browse the Internet and write a research paper based on what it finds.

Science & Technology

Is AI Worth the Investment? Calculate Your Real ROI

This article explores how businesses of all sizes can leverage AI to drive efficiency, reduce costs and achieve substantial ROI.

News and Trends

Equirus Welcomes Credence Family Office in INR 100 Cr Deal to Strengthen Wealth Management Services

As part of the deal, Credence Family Office will take over Equirus Wealth's Family Office business, and the combined entity will be branded as Equirus-Credence Family Office.

Business News

This Startup Is Billionaire Reid Hoffman's Next Big Bet

Hoffman sold LinkedIn, which he co-founded, to Microsoft for $26.2 billion in 2016.

Side Hustle

His 6-Figure Side Hustle Fills a 'Glaring' Gap for Coffee Drinkers — Now It's 'Taken On a Life of Its Own'

Ryan Schneider already had one coffee-related business. Then the lightbulb went off for another.

Business News

Elon Musk Just Got an Official Title in the U.S. Government. Does It Come With a Paycheck?

Musk has an office at the White House and a new title of "Special Government Employee."