Instagram adds new shopping features to make it even easier to buy stuff

Instagram really, really wants you to buy stuff in its app.

The company announced three new features that make it easier to buy and sell products on the platform. 

Among the updates:

• A new collections feature that lets you privately save links to products you might want to buy in a dedicated “shopping” section.

• Shoppable product tags for video posts. This lets companies link out to specific products that appear in their videos. A similar feature for image posts was added in September.

• A redesigned “shop” section for business profiles that makes it easier to buy specific items.

These changes not only come in time for the upcoming holiday shopping season, but at a time when e-commerce is becoming more and more strategically important to the company. 

Instagram hasn’t said much publicly about its ambitions in the space, but it’s become increasingly clear that the company sees shopping as a massive — and relatively untapped — opportunity. Currently, there are more than 25 million businesses that have Instagram profiles, and the photo-sharing app has become one of the most important platforms for smaller and direct-to-consumer brands. But the company hasn’t done much to monetize the shopping that happens in its app. Companies aren’t charged for using shopping tools organically, though they can pay for shoppable ads. 

But if Instagram did want to start making money off all these transactions, it first needs to get more people and companies to buy and sell in its app, a hugely important step in the right direction. 

The app also added shoppable tags to Stories and dedicated shopping channels for Explore in September. The company is also rumored to be working on a dedicated shopping app. 

Instagram isn’t alone in this, either. Snapchat is also aggressively pursuing shopping, with shoppable ads in Stories and a partnership with Amazon. In Snap’s case, though, the company may have much more groundwork to lay as Snapchat doesn’t have the same business presence ad Instagram does.

For both companies, though, the strategy is clear: it wants users to think of their apps as shopping destinations.