Instagram has changed exponentially over the last year, creating a simple path to purchase from grid image or Story, to checkout. And according to yesterday's Instagram keynote, going forward, it won't just be brands selling products on Instagram.
Head of product, Adam Mosseri, announced that starting next week, public figures, creators, athletes, publishers, and artists will be able to tag products in shopping posts as well.
It goes without saying that this is a major game-changer for influencers and their fans. The feature will also be a helping hand to brands who'll be able to better identify how much of their influencer marketing budget is being converted into sales (in the future, a small transaction fee will go to Instagram too).
According to Vogue Business, the feature will initially launch to a small group of content creators including Chiara Ferragni, Gigi Hadid, Hannah Bronfman, Huda Kattan, HypeBeast, Jen Atkin and Kim Kardashian West, with more to come.
Refinery29 also reported that US-based Instagram users will be able to add Donation Stickers to their Instagram Stories to raise money for certain causes. According to the publication, Mosseri posted a fundraiser for Black Girls Code in real time to his Story at yesterday's keynote.
Further updates include a Create Mode in the camera screen, where users can share non-photo or video content using Quiz stickers, GIFs, and other content-enhancing tools.
And finally, after multiple rumours, Instagram is rolling out a private like count test in Canada this week, where like counts on photos and video will only be visible to the user, not their followers.
