Instagram plans to venture into online shopping

Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, has laid out his long-term vision to ramp up retail and tap the desire of the photo app’s 1bn users to indulge in “window-shopping”. In his first interview about Instagram’s business strategy since taking over last October, the 36-year-old former Facebook executive said he was aiming to “connect the dots thoughtfully” between shoppers, sellers and the app’s huge number of “influencers”. He said that by introducing functions such as “native checkout”, where shoppers can buy goods on Instagram without leaving the app, and “shopping bags”, where they can hold items in a cart, “we can unlock a lot of value from everyone involved”.

Mr Mosseri stressed that shopping was a long-term plan that would require significant infrastructure. Instagram needed to work with payments providers in each country, for example. Buyer-protection features and inventory systems management integration would also need to be introduced, he said.

Financial Times

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