Instagram just made it a whole lot easier to shop your favourite influencer’s wardrobe

Shop looks from the likes of Chiara Ferragni and Camila Coelho direct from their feed 
Chiara Ferragni is one of the influencers trying out the new feature
AFP/Getty Images
Amelia Heathman1 May 2019

Since the dawn of Instagram, influencers have been making a living by wearing clothes and accessories that they know their followers will want to buy too.

The ability to shop an influencer’s choices has just become a whole lot easier.

Announced at Facebook’s F8 developers' conference on Tuesday, Instagram is launching a new “Shop Looks From Creators” feature. Now, influencers and the like can tag products in their posts, so their followers can buy said products on the spot, without leaving the app.

This removes the need for long captions detailing an outfit’s make-up, as instead, the tag functionality will make it easier for brands and people to tag the specific product and away they go.

How Instagram's new shopping features will look in your feed
Instagram

There are a few influencers that will be trying out the features over the next few weeks, including Kylie Jenner, Camila Coelho, Gigi Hadid and Chiara Ferragni, as well as some major publications including GQ, Hypebeast and Vogue. The types of brands that will be available to shop in this format include Nars and Michael Kors.

Speaking about the launch, Instagram said: “No matter when people are inspired, we are committed to making the shopping experience simple, convenient and secure. This is yet another important step in our shopping journey and we'll continue to listen to feedback from our community on how we can make the experience even better.

The platform has long been moving shopping features more to the forefront with click-to-shop functionality in Stories, as well as shopping in video.

Earlier this year, Instagram’s product lead for Shopping, Ashley Yuki, told the Standard, that it’s all about making Instagram the window shop of the Internet.

“Instagram was organically this place for serendipitous shopping. The moment of discovery is such a magical moment – I follow a lot of fashion bloggers and for me that’s one of the best things I can get from Instagram. But we also have an opportunity to make it about window shopping,” said Yuki.

This new feature certainly brings the platform's shopping experience front and centre.

It’s interesting that Instagram is adding this direct buy functionality for influencers, particularly as the platform is making moves to remove the visibility of the like count on posts, something that will direct affect its creators and how they use the platform.

On the one hand, Instagram is removing the visible validation that creators will show to brands, whilst also adding functionality for an additional revenue stream. This all contributes to the question of what does the future hold for the Instagram influencer?

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