Instagram, much like every other platform from Facebook, has been trying to leverage its vast numbers to become a shopping hub, thus fulfilling the company’s dream of becoming a fintech giant. To that end, the company has announced today that it will be introducing the Shopping feature on Instagram Reels, making it even more similar to its rival application (which it has already blatantly copied)-TikTok.
Back in October, the company had said that this is a feature was in tests and now with the latest update, Instagram has revealed that businesses and creators will be able to tag products when they create Reels. Viewers will be able to browse through or buy products directly from the Reels and even save them for later.
Creators will also be able to add a “Branded Content” tag when making reels to keep transparency about when the feature is being used for promotional purposes.
Shopping is clearly the next big thing on Facebook’s mind, which has come under scrutiny for its monopoly over the social media market, even facing a lawsuit.
WhatsApp also has introduced a new shopping feature that is supposed to manage orders for businesses a lot easier. As for Instagram, it now has a shopping feature in every format on the app — the Feed, Stories, IGTV, Live, and now Reels.
Facebook is looking to diversify its revenue with this new push to shopping. Advertisement is the main source of the platform to make money and shopping puts forth an opportunity to profit off sales fees. Instagram is already a platform that attracts a lot of attention in fashion and giving people the opportunity to directly buy from the platform is a nice touch. Instagram also redesigned its home screen to put more emphasis on shopping and Reels.
TikTok, the rival of Instagram has announced its partnership with Shopify and will launch new shopping features. With this new update, Instagram wants to beat TikTok in the e-commerce business and lure in more crowd in its application.
