Why Instagram Is Focused On Shopping In Stories | Social

Instagram's “Stories” feature has come a long way from being a Snapchat copycat. It's now the focus of the platform's push into the world of shopping and e-commerce

Stories—the temporary photos or videos that users post separately from their permanent feed—have been popular with advertisers since it launched in 2016, and brands are finding traction in the format as wel.

To capitalize on that interest, IG is expanding its shopping capabilities specifically within Stories. A trial feature that allows advertisers to tag posts with links that direct people directly to their e-commerce arms is being expanded to businesses in 46 countries, according to The Drum.

Stories on IG was originally seen as an add-on feature, incorporated to nullify the advantage that upstart Snapchat had over the platform. People ate up Snapchat's Story function, and now you can find a near exact replica on Facebook and Instagram.

How did this afterthought become the focal point for IG's Shopping experience, ahead of the company starting a standalone Shopping app? There are a few reasons:

Stories is the rising star of social media

Instagram, in general, is the most-loved social media app out there. The open secret about the platform is that Stories has become the star of the show: Stories “has attracted more than 400 million daily users” according to Recode.

Brands love it for its “BTS” feel

Just like people love Stories for the low-pressure, low-stakes vibe—you can post shaky, blurry, weird, funny (or not funny), and/or experimental photos, and if they don't land, they'll be gone in a day—brands love it as a medium for posting genuine, authentic, often “behind-the-scenes” style content that resonates with users.

Brands like Asos have already raved about how Stories has helped supercharge their marketing campaign. Expect companies to continue to explore how they can turn viewers into shoppers with these new capabilities.

They're a great place to convene with influencers

Influencer marketing is exploding right now, and brands are finding that creating partnerships with influencers that are exclusive to Stories is a win-win for all parties.

For the brands, users aren't as likely to skip past the influencer's sponsored content when it's posted in Stories as opposed to the feed. For the influencers, they can relegate their #ads to Stories, cycling quickly through campaigns that don't work for them and re-upping on those that do.

It's clear that Facebook and Instagram are ready to take on the world of e-commerce in a big way. And with hundreds of millions of daily users ready to find tags that link out to brands' e-commerce sites, they have a huge advantage over other platforms in the space.

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