In an attempt to commercially advance TikTok in its unstoppable ascent, Instagram has launched Reels purchases in record time – four months after the format’s release. Testing began in October 2020, and it seems that Instagram is already well aware of this, so Reel Shopping is now available worldwide. This means that both content creators and companies will be able to label products when creating their videos.
How Reel Shopping work
When the user clicks on the labels, he will have the option to save the products in his favourites or buy them. This represents a new leap forward in eCommerce by Instagram, as Reels comes to swell the list of different formats for shopping that offers the social network: its main feed, stories, IGTV and live, and now Reel.
At a time like the present, when video-based shopping is booming, the new Instagram launch is a great success. And what was created quickly, is continuing just as quickly: a wealth of content is now available on Reels with content that can be bought, including fashion, aesthetics and other emerging business products such as handmade ceramics, hammocks, bags, or hand-woven baskets.
Brands such as MAC Cosmetics, Rare Beauty or NBA are already using Reels. They will also be able to add a branded content label to their publications to indicate when a recommendation is being promoted.
The pulse with TikTok for leading eCommerce
In 2020 TikTok surpassed Instagram as one of the world’s most downloaded apps, and recently partnered with Shopify to extend new shopping features on its platform. The partnership is currently in its infancy, but is expected to become much stronger as 2021 progresses. For the time being, Shopify users can use the integration with TikTok to create campaigns and more accurately track the resulting conversions in their shops.
With this in mind, Instagram could not sit idly by – hence the speed with which it has launched Reels to integrate shopping into its application. Often, having to compete with something or someone is the driving force behind your success, although it remains to be seen whether, in the case of Instagram, your new launch will be as successful as expected.
For years, fans of this social network have made it serve as a source of inspiration to find products of interest to them. If Instagram now offers them the possibility to buy these products directly through its application, companies will expand their borders and reach their users more easily.
Will they do so, and will Instagram even surpass TikTok in the race to become the “Total eCommerce” champion? We’ll have to wait a bit to see it, and in the meantime, maybe one or the other will surprise us with some new launch. In the case that it is this way, We will comment it also 😉