Tuesday, March 19, 2019

Instagram Announces In-App Checkout


On March 19, 2019 Instagram announced in-app checkout with 20 major brands. This feature, as expected, allows users to click on an ad within Instagram and directly purchase the item they are looking at. It allows them to review sizes and colors (among any other distinguishing features) before purchasing. From there they will enter their billing and shipping information, which of course will be stored for future purchases, and they simply hit a button to complete the checkout process.

Instagram, already a huge revenue producer for Facebook through ad sales, continues to push the boundaries of tying actual revenue to advertising. While Facebook has supposedly taken harder lines on privacy and security, this would certainly seem like a push in the opposite direction. It could go either way in terms of people’s comfort sharing their private information with Instagram. On the one hand, seamless checkout is a priority in the fast-paced world we live in and people are willing to share their data for that. The other side is that it doesn’t seem significantly more secure to share your personal information directly with Nike as opposed to with Instagram.

Adidas, Burberry, Michael Kors, Prada, H&M, and KKW are among the brands to be part of this beta launch.

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