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Instagram testing in-app shopping feature from select retail companies

By Anthony Thurston Published January 26, 2017

Instagram Tests Shoppable Photo Tags

Instagram doesn’t want users to have to leave the app and go into a subpar browser purchasing window to buy products they find through the social media company. As a potential solution, they are testing out a product-tagging feature where companies can sell their products directly through the social network.

The feature is being tested on iOS Instagram apps just ahead of the holiday season. The new tags work much like tagging a user would work, except now certain test companies will be able to tag their products in their images and Instagram users who happen across these tags will be able to purchase the product within the app. No browser, or third-party processing required. These product tags are initially hidden by default to all users, but Instagram users will see a button that allows them to show the tagged products.

instagram-shoppable This way the current Instagram experience is not cluttered with a bunch of product tags, but if you are surfing through your Instagram feed and see a killer pair of jeans you want to buy, you can press the button to see the tag and make a purchase.

Technically, the purchase is still being made through the web but users will no longer be required to open a separate browser to complete the purchase. Users will instead see the page opened up within Instagram itself, meaning for a faster and more fluid experience. If the deal does not look as good as they were hoping for, they can simply swipe to go back to their feed without needing to switch out of a separate app.

The launch test partners of the shoppable tags are Abercombie & Fitch, BaubleBar, Coach, Hollister, JackThreads, J.Crew, Kate Spade New York, Levi’s, Lulu’s, Macy’s, Michael Kors, MVMT Watches, Tory Burch, Warby Parker, and Shopbop. More details about this new feature can be found over on the Instagram blog, here.

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Anthony Thurston

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Anthony is an internationally published photographer based in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. Specializing primarily in…

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