With billions of dollars on the line, Instagram
continues to refine its burgeoning ecommerce strategy. That includes creating hashtags and curated feeds designed to spotlight particular product and service categories.
For example, the
platform’s curated shopping account @shop just started pushing all things astrology with #AstroWeek2020.
Over the next week, @shop will feature small businesses in Feeds and Stories, and
the products with be shoppable on Instagram.
Instagram is encouraging these small businesses use its various tools and features — like product tags, Stores, and IGTV — to help
users learn more about items.
Social commerce continues to emerge as a major trend, as brands offer more opportunities to purchase products directly from Instagram, Facebook and other
platforms.
Comparing the second quarter to the third quarter, ecommerce grew by 118.3% on Instagram and 91.4% on Facebook, according to Socialbakers’ third-quarter trends report.
“Our data shows that the volume of shopping-related content is rapidly growing on social media, and platforms are responding by adding more ecommerce features,” Yuval Ben-Itzhak, CEO of
Socialbakers, noted in the report.
Leading the way in social commerce, Instagram began offering in-app checkout for its shoppable posts earlier this year.
On Instagram, ecommerce now
makes up 15.8% of total interactions on the platform, which represents a 13.7% increase from the second quarter of the year, according to Socialbakers.
On Facebook, ecommerce remains the top
category -- increasing to 17.8% of interactions in the third quarter of the year, per the social-media marketing firm.
Topping all other ecommerce categories, the fashion industry’s
engagement increased from 27.8% in the second quarter to nearly one-third of all interactions on the platform in the third quarter, Socialbakers found.