With Shoppable Tags and native payment option, India could be pivotal in Instagram commerce game

While Instagram has announced a slew of initiatives to protect users from bullying and new formats of telling ‘Stories’, it has silently integrated payment option for select users in the US. The feature allows users to register a debit or credit card in their profile. Currently, a few Instagram pages are offering native payment option.

The move seems to a part of the larger plan by Facebook to place Instagram as serious e-commerce play. The company had launched ‘Shoppable Post’ in November 2017 and recently expanded it to 8 more countries.

Though Indian users are yet to experience the feature, it’s likely to be integrated into native app later this year. Importantly, the picture sharing app is contemplating to place payment option to other countries by March next year. India is likely to be one of the countries for the launch list.

Also Read: Facebook begins beta testing for independent payment product on Messenger

With 60 million users, India would be a pivotal market for Instagram’s commerce play. Since its launch in India, it has managed to achieve nearly 10X growth in the country. Advertisers across several segments (majorly fashion and consumer brands) have also been preferring it over Twitter to promote offerings.

As visual storytelling is gaining grounds in India, visual commerce will also have space to thrive in the future. Currently, visuals play a great role in driving transactions for e-commerce player. Consumers will not hesitate to buy fashion and accessories from the visual social network if quality and trust factors get resolved.

Brands that target young, urban, aspirational and high-on-lifestyle genre, Instagram is an obvious choice. Instagram is all about visuals, a language that is being largely used by millennials for communications.

Presently, many fashion designers and lifestyle brands are leveraging Instagram to launch their new products. Besides showcasing products, Instagram also plays a crucial role in driving transaction (at least in premium segment).

While Shopping Post and native app are yet to be launched in India, combination of the two features will surely have exciting prospect in the country.

The development was reported by TechCrunch.