Instagram Tests Shoppable Tags on Photos From Leading U.S. Brands

Starting today, Instagram users in the U.S. will be seeing shoppable tags on photos from 20 retail brands, including Kate Spade and JackThreads, on their iOS devices. According to TechCrunch, a new “Tap to view products” button on tagged photos lets you select the product of your choice, see an in-app details page with a specific product’s price, description, additional photos, while a “Shop Now” button allows you to buy it on the web.

You can think of shoppable photos as Facebook Instant Articles for products. Since the product pages load inside Instagram, they show up quicker than immediately getting booted to a browser. And if the details don’t entice a shopper, they can swiftly tap back to their beloved feed.

Purchasing products entirely inside of Instagram, as Facebook is now trying with chatbots, isn’t something the company is working on yet. That might put it at a slight disadvantage to Pinterest, which is testing Buyable Pins with in-line checkout flow.

Instagram’s VP of monetization James Quarles said that the company does not plan to take a cut of purchases made through these tags, and instead plans to monetize the product by later allowing brands to pay to show their shoppable photos to people who don’t follow them. He added that shoppable tags will eventually expand to video posts, photo carousels, and other countries.

The full list of test launch partners is Abercombie&Fitch, BaubleBar, Coach, Hollister,  JackThreads, J.Crew, Kate Spade, Levi’s Brand, Lulus, Macy’s, Michael Kors, MVMT Watches, Tory Burch, Warby Parker, and Shopbop.

Here’s a video demo of the new stoppable tags feature in Instagram: