Haven’t you heard of Instagram new “Shoppable Photos” feature? Of course, you did! Well, do not fret if you still didn’t.

Instagram announced a week ago about its brand new feature of “Shoppable Photos” where users can swiftly and quickly with a click on a small white bag tag on the lower-left side of the photo to view the prices, then when a product is selected, the details of the product (up to 5 products per picture) will smoothly appear, and once the user is satisfied with what they see, and decides to buy, they can click on the “shop now” all that while the user is still IN-APP, then you will find yourself in that product business’ website, simply making shopping so much easier.

Instagram is one of the best applications that customers can discover new products on, even more than amazon’s website, all due to the fact that its search engine introduce to its users relevant content that they searched for before, depending on their search history.

So technically, users find pictures that interest them that they weren’t consciously thinking of searching about. Unlike Amazon where you have to know exactly what you want.

Throughout the years, since 2007 social media mediums have been testing new algorithms to monetize its platforms by an in-app commerce capabilities. In fact, Twitter and Facebook have already tried their hands at an in-app purchase features, like Shoppable photo tags in Twitter and Marketplace in Facebook, which both had some drawbacks, however, Pintrest, Snapchat and Instagram are now in the running for the smoothest, user-friendly in-app commerce features yet.

Pintrest: Blue means Buyable pins

Briefly; Pintrest has announced last year about its “Blue means Buyable pins” feature. Where you can find buyable pins, it works somehow like the Instagram shoppable photos, however it has an edge, which is “In-app check-out” feature. Throughout the process of purchasing you do not leave the application as well as, it is secure as Pintrest review and approve every seller that way, you know you’re buying from someone they trust.

As for snapchat, they revealed their “Swipeable video” Feature few months ago, and couple of prestigious brands had tested it out, for example; Lancome and Target , it is user-friendly, as you only swipe-up if interested to know more details or swipe-down for instant purchase and you can shop from the brand’s website without leaving Snapchat. Quite neat, huh?

Back to Instagram, they are finally introducing contextual e-commerce, lest users leave the app to check out the products they liked on their browsers to buy it.

So by learning from its precursor’s shortcomings, instagram is creating a light-weight photos, that is why they only show the prices at first then you click on “shop now” to get the details, so it loads faster, as well as, Brands will send Instagram’s team the products in the initial phase, to upload manually.

Instagram’s innovative approach to e-commerce, let me get in-details on how as a brand and a user benefit from their innovative approach…

Brand’s reaping Instagram’s new sow:

Staring this week, the testing phase began, on iOS and 20 brands in the US. if you follow any of these brands “Coach, Hollister, JackThreads, J.Crew, Kate Spade, Levi’s Brand, Lulus, Macy’s, Michael Kors, MVMT Watches, Tory Burch” to name a few, you will start to notice the shoppable photos.

However, remember it is only a trial phase, Instagram plans to expand globally, however there is no talk still about small brands to implement this feature yet, as instagram now, apply the shoppable photos manually.

So start thinking outside the “Check link in Bio” mode and start envisioning how can you re-positioning your brand to fit in this new opportunity, for instance; by taking attractive pictures of your products, using influencers and User-Generated content (UGC), which appeals more to potential consumers.

Notably, influencers and instagram, you can’t have one without the other.

More importantly, brands should start on producing more products’ videos! Statically speaking, it raises the conversion rate significantly from 64-85%, from a viewer to a buyer.

So if you can have the same potential customer in one place, watching the video then the shoppable photo where they can buy right away! Can you just imagine the possibilities?!

As well as, we are predicting that with Instagram introducing Videos to its platform soon as well, who says they won’t merge videos and buyable feature embedded in it?!

But why stop at videos, when you can have Shoppable stories, and photo carousel.

Moreover, Instagram won’t be taking any profit from purchases, however, they plan that later on, allowing brands to make a paid-ad to show the shoppable photos to people who do not follow them.

User’s benefiting from Instagram “coming alive photos”:

How many times have you been scrolling in your instagram feed and found an outfit, accessories or any sort of a product that was either worn or used by Tara Emad, Sherif Fayed and many more of the infamous influencers, and you just wanted that product to be yours!?? countless times, right?

Now, that can happen, with just a swipe of your finger you can have it.

No more endless search and infinite browser tabs till you find what you were looking for.

What is even greater, that when you search about something once, you will find limitless recommendation about it later on, so you will be up-to-date and can instantly buy the latest trends, even before you realise you want to.

Social media platforms are diving deep in e-commerce by innovating, developing and expanding, providing a fighting chance for entrepreneurs and e-business against already-established niche brands.