Snapchat is getting a shopping function, but here's why that's not a big deal
It's late to the shopping party
Snapchat is expanding into e-commerce. Which makes a lot of sense.
Speaking at Re/code’s Code/Media conference, Snapchat board member and Cosmopolitan editor Joanna Coles revealed that the app's Discover section will soon offer a shopping channel, allowing designers to post items that app users can tap to buy.
"Sweet is a channel on Snapchat that Hearst and Snapchat have done together," said Coles. "But at some point that will morph into an e-commerce platform so you will be able to buy from it."
Sound familiar? Snapchat is late to the game of adding a "buy" button to its social platform - with the Washington Post reporting as recently as January that only 1.8 per cent of Christmas sales came from app buy buttons, down 1.9 per cent in 2014.
Here are the groups who have already played around with buy buttons...
Buy Now
Launched in 2014 to a muted reception, Twitter pushed out its struggling buy feature again in 2015 with a larger number of retailers.
It's yet to appear on any feeds outside the US.
Buy
Launched in July 2014, Facebook's buy feature allows businesses to post products directly to their pages or feeds with a big fat "Buy" button, making it easy for users to hand over their cash.
Again, this is yet to receive a worldwide push, and still isn't available in the UK.
Shop now
Launched in June 2015, Instagram's shopping feature is very similar to their ads, with businesses paying for links to products to pop up in users' feeds. It's basically allowing Instagram to turn your "Likes" and following activity into revenue, as they help businesses target the right users for certain products.
Guess what? It's not available in the UK.
Buy it
Sorry if this seems like an echo chamber, but Pinterest also launched their 'Buy it' feature in the US in June 2015 - allowing users to buy products directly through Pins.
But this one does exist for UK users. So well ruddy done Pinterest.
[Via: Re/Code]
