With 200 million monthly users and still growing around the world, Instagram tries their best to keep sponsored content to a minimum and does not allow any links in posts. However with such a large market using their service every month the marketing potential of the platform is hard to dispute to say the least. Because of this some services exist out there to help you make sales or buy things using instagram. Here I will introduce you to a couple of them.
Hashbag
Hash bag attempts to use the hashtag feature of instagram to identify things that are for sale. By using the #forsale hashtag a registered member of Hashbag can be contacted by a potential buyer through their software. However the execution of this idea is somewhat lacking. Since the system is still in its infancy there are still some errors that can occur and some thing do not happen as fluidly as you would like. However this company is trying their hardest to bring out the selling potential of instagram and you should keep your eye on them.
Soldsie
Soldsie attempts to use the comments section of instagram posts to facilitate sales rather than the hashtags.If a buyer likes a product all they need to do is comment “sold” on that particular picture and Soldsie will automatically send an invoice to the buyer. Soldsie is especially powerful for any company or person who already has a following on Instagram and wants to reach that market without trying to convert them to some external platform such as their website or a amazon webstore. This is extremely useful as it is incredibly difficult to achieve even a 50% conversion rate on those sorts of selling tactics. See more!
Curalate
Curalate attempt to provide the buyer with more privacy and discretion with what they choose to buy off instagram. It creates a “shoppable gallery that is analogical, allowing the buyer to buy things captured in the image. Nordstrom, one of their more notable clients, has a beautiful instagram gallery and asks follower who wish to make purchases to go to another gallery containing the same pictures but it is also connected to Nordstrom’s online store and checkout. This way users do not have to publicly express their interests on Instagram in order to make a purchase. However this process of buying things through Instagram seems a bit convoluted and it may seem just as offputting as having to navigate to the full website from instagram because of how many steps are involved. It also requires that you do not have more than one product in a single picture as that could be confusing and annoying for potential buyers.
Summary
Those were 3 different examples of services that are trying to make buying and selling on Instagram not on a possibility but a more convenient option compared to traditional webstores. Some of them maybe still need some time to be fully developed and flush out any bugs but I am confident that we will be seeing marketplaces fully flourishing on Instagram in no time. For more details, visit: http://www.socialpredictive.org/the-secret-to-selling-on-instagram-without-spending-a-dime/