VIth Sense: Ecommerce Business Changes in an Instant
Never go to the grocery market hungry. If you do, you'll come home with much more than you went for, and with some items that you would never buy. That’s because when you’re hungry, everything sounds good, right? And you’re not finished shopping until you’ve grabbed a few of the impulse items at the checkout stand. It’s too easy to grab the Kit Kat and throw it in your cart.
Therein lies the opportunity for marketers of consumer goods today - the impulse shopper. While Amazon has us getting used to the idea of buying anything and everything online, Instagram is making it even easier. Instagram’s shoppable posts have always allowed consumers to click out to a retailer’s site to make a purchase. Now, their ‘buy’ button, which is being selectively rolled out, allows for purchases without leaving the app (native payments). So, you see something you like, you immediately buy it — no entering your credit card info (it’s already loaded), no second thoughts because it's too late. Go warn that shoe lover now!
A great majority of the social influencers use Instagram as their top social platform. They show consumers what to wear, what to eat, how to garden, what they should smell like, what to cook, and what to clean with. And we follow their lead. Now, without hardly thinking, we can have everything influencers recommend, literally at our fingertips.
So, instead of using Instagram just to generate awareness for a brand and engage with consumers, it can become a legitimate sales channel. With over 900 million users, Instagram brings a direct ROI to social media marketing efforts. It also provides a tool for those consumer products marketers who have smaller budgets and fewer distribution outlets. Don’t fight the impulse to take advantage of this new opportunity. It can be a real game changer. In an instant.
