In the last year alone, Instagram Shopping has expanded exponentially — with the integration of Shopping in Stories and grid videos, Shopping Collections where users can save their favourite products, and a new Checkout feature that lets users shop directly in the app without being directed to a third-party retailer site. But until today, these features been available only to brands looking to sell straight to consumers.
At today's keynote, Adam Mosseri, head of product at Instagram, announced that starting next week, public figures, creators, athletes, publishers, and artists can tag products in Shopping posts as well — which is a huge game-changer for both users who look to influencers to decide what to buy, and influencers who generate income from the platform with branded posts and sponsored content.
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The feature will begin with a small group of creators including (former Refinery29 editor) Alyssa Coscarelli, Alondra Ortiz, Chiara Ferragni, Gigi Hadid, Hannah Bronfman, Huda Kattan, HypeBeast, Jen Atkin, Katie Sturino, Kim Kardashian West, and Refinery29, with more to come.
Also new: starting today (sadly only in the U.S.), you can add Donation Stickers to your IG Stories to raise money for causes you care about, including Malala Fund, GLAAD, The Nature Conservancy, and more. Once your Story is live, you can also swipe up to view how much money has been raised, 100% of which goes to your chosen nonprofit. At the keynote, Mosseri posted a fundraiser for Black Girls Code in real time to his IG Story.
And what would a IG makeover be without a little camera upgrade? In the coming weeks, IG is incorporating Create Mode into its camera screen, where users can more easily share non-photo or video content using Quiz stickers, GIFs, and other content-enhancing tools.
And finally, after whispers of testing out the feature, IG is rolling out a private like count test in Canada this week — where like count on photos and video will only be visible to the user, not their followers — in an effort to pull focus away from the number of likes a post generates in favour of more authentic content on the 'gram. Similarly, IG is testing out featuring follower counts on profiles less prominently to make the platform a less pressurised environment for its users.