The era of “purchase link in bio” on brands' Instagram accounts may soon be over! Next week, the Facebook-owned photo platform rolls out a new option for purchasing products directly in the uploads of 20 brands.
Available only in the US for now, this new functionality will first appear as a new variation of tags on the 'grams of brands like Levis, Abercrombie & Fitch, JackThreads, Coach, Hollister, J.Crew, Michael Kors, and more. Clicking on images that say “tap to view products” will present followers with tags, similar to the way in which you can currently tag other users. The difference: When you click shoppable photos, a new in-app screen loads with a description and solo product shots of the selected item. A quick and easy “shop now” link will take you to the brand’s website to check out while the back button puts you back in your feed.
The option is a definite upgrade from the “shoppable” Instagram accounts that included everything from third party apps, to DM messaging, and the aforementioned bio links. Sadly, though, outside of the 20 brands that the social media platform chose as launch partners for this functionality, no one else will get the upgrade yet. So, no, you favorite Yeezy reseller won’t be able to sell you the next drop via an Instagram click.
Over time, Instagram hopes to roll this function out to more brands. Perhaps we will one day see the same technology being used to allow all Instagram photos to contain links, too. Instagram says the tags will also be expanded to videos and photo carousels, too. In addition to more brands, Instagram plans to roll their new "buy now" tags in more countries and eventually rope in a “save” feature so you can keep a queue of Coach backpacks you may want to cop. What’s more convenient than that?
