As part of Shopify’s mission to power the future of commerce, today we will start rolling out “Shopping on Instagram” to many more thousands of merchants before the 2017 holiday season. With this exciting feature, Instagram will join Shopify’s sales channels to help merchants grow their business on mobile, alongside Facebook, Messenger, Pinterest, Buzzfeed, Houzz, and more.
Now Start Tagging to SellIn this new rollout, merchants selected by Instagram and Shopify will be able to start tagging their posts with products in Instagram’s apps to showcase to their over 800 million monthly active users. With Shopify’s 500,000+ merchants in categories like fashion, jewelry, beauty, furniture, and home decor, it’s a perfect match to Instagram’s inspired community.
“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 said.
Shopify merchants continue to benefit from the powerful integration between Shopify’s online store and Facebook’s product catalog. Once selected, merchants can choose to connect this catalog in Instagram without any extra effort. This lets them make any new Instagram post shoppable by easily tagging it with any of their Shopify products, right from inside the Instagram app. When users see a post with a tag, they can tap it for more product details and to buy on the merchant’s checkout without ever leaving the app.
Expanding for the Holidays
Shopping on Instagram has been in testing throughout this year, with an enthusiastic response from Shopify merchants such as xKarla, Gymshark, and Diff Eyewear. The positive customer response they report is no surprise: Instagram's feature is simple, visual, and offers a unique experience.
That’s why we’re excited to be expanding access to this feature before the upcoming holiday season, including Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Shopify plans to expand this for broader access to merchants in the future, as further testing and development happens during this rollout.
Future of Mobile Shopping
Merchants want to grow their business with shoppers on mobile, and Shopping on Instagram presents an immersive new way for them to do just that. As Instagrammers find and engage with merchants they love, Instagram and Shopify will be helping connect them seamlessly to their products too.
Visit shopify.com/instagram for more details.