In many ways, it’s easy to underestimate the importance of Instagram when it comes to its effect on online shopping. Many people would assume it’s nothing but a platform for cutesy pictures and video snippets that people can check out to pass the time.

But actually, it’s now more recognized as a valuable tool that many social media marketing services are using to promote the brands of their clients.

The Latest Developments

The Instagram app isn’t static, as it’s constantly upgraded to provide new features for users to use. In September of 2018, Instagram added 2 new updates to its app. These updates will help make it much easier for their users to buy products that are featured by influencers and by businesses.

The first update lets users tap on items in the stories, and this will then show additional details about the items mentioned in the story. But now, there’s a link that leads users directly to where they can buy the item mentioned in the post.

Instagram has started testing this feature out since June, and the results are very encouraging. That’s why they’re now expanding the feature for businesses to use in up to 46 countries around the globe.

In addition, the Instagram explore channel will also feature shopping. This will be a personalized channel for the user, as it will include shopping posts from brands that the user may want to follow. The app itself recommends brands that you might like, based on the brands you’ve already picked and the posts you like to view.

This feature started out with a few select locations in the middle of September, and it will expand globally in the weeks to come.

Hashtags

These features add to how users tap photos to reveal hashtags in shopping posts. These hashtags help users find related posts with the same hashtags. So for a person interested in basketball sneakers, they may use the section for sneakers to find the products they want.

A recent Instagram survey found that up to 90 million accounts tap the photos for hashtags in shopping posts. It’s expected that a sizable number of these users can then make use of the direct links in the posts to buy the items they wish to get for themselves.

The Global Instagram Influence

Many smartphones today carry the Instagram app. It’s easy to use, it doesn’t use up too much memory, and it’s a great way to pass the time. Instagram is so popular that in fact in June of 2018 Instagram announced that they reached 1 billion users.

This is not a purely US user base at all. In fact, it’s a global community as 80% of the users come from outside the USA. However, the US does top the list of countries with the most Instagram users, with 88 million active users per month. But other countries have more than 10 million users, including Canada, the UK, France, Russia, Poland, Turkey, Japan, and Brazil.

Popularity Among the Youth

It’s pretty much accepted that teens and young adults are the driving forces for fads and trends, and Instagram is extremely popular among the youth. The adults in the 18 to 29-age bracket make up 59% of the users, and another 33% comes from the 30 to 49-age bracket.

Teenagers are wild about Instagram as well. About 63% of all teens from ages 13 to 17 use Instagram every day. That’s not just a few times per month!

With the reach of Instagram and how it can feature links for buyers, online shopping is now changing remarkably.