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  • Buy now, pay later becoming popular in Vietnam

    Buy now, pay later becoming popular in Vietnam

    Many buy now, pay later services have launched or expanded operations to meet the burgeoning demand.

    “Cash is necessary for daily expenses, so I choose to pay later whenever possible,” Minh Tien, 33, of HCMC said.

    He bought braces and a motorbike using pay later services.

    The braces cost him VND35 million ($1,495.92) but he needed to pay only VND5 million upfront, and can pay the rest over three years. The bike cost him VND25 million, and he paid VND10 and the rest will be paid over six months.

    Thu of HCMC bought a VND10-million TV two months ago for her daughter. “My salary goes really quickly since prices are rising, so I decided on a six-month installment scheme.”

    Buy now, pay later provides customers and sellers “a convenient and budget-friendly payment option,” Nguyen Hoang Long, director of online commerce platform Sendo, said.

    Demand for it is skyrocketing as it serves those who cannot access traditional loans, Moin Uddin, CEO of fintech platform SmartPay, said.

    Vietnam presents a positive outlook for buy now, pay later services thanks to the popularity of cashless payment and low credit card ownership here, Krishnadas, senior vice president of business development at digital credit platform Kredivo, said.

    Kredivo expects the market to reach $4.6 billion in value.

    “Buy now, pay later will be a popular payment method in Vietnam over the next three years.”

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  • 5 Signs It’s The Right Time To Start Investing In Gold

    5 Signs It’s The Right Time To Start Investing In Gold

    Gold is a precious metal with intrinsic value that can fetch you great returns. Aside from diversification, gold can serve as a hedge against inflation and protects your finances against market inconsistency. Moreover, it is believed to have high liquidity status, meaning it can easily be converted to cash.

    Investment in gold, good or bad, is the result of timing. When you buy when others are selling, you’re probably going to overpay. And when you sell when others are buying, you could be losing. So, you need to know when the perfect opportunity to start investing to avoid risks. The signs are always there, but how do you read them? Read on to learn more. 

    What It Means To Save In Gold

    People see gold as more tangible than money and less political compared to legal tender. Equity investors and traders could trade all day and not feel the weight of their money, which is often stored in the bank. But buying gold coins is different. The materiality it provides and that sense of natural objects like precious metals filling up your bag are incomparable. 

    Investment in gold is long-term, not short-term. Returns are regarded as mostly stable across countries. An increase in the value of gold is usually at the expense of falling equities. Therefore, investment returns build up over time when equities have started to lose weight. There are several benefits to investing in gold. Some of these include:

    • Store Of Value: Gold can be saved for future purposes due to its intrinsic value and be trusted to appreciate rather than depreciate.
    • Transaction Motive: You can easily convert gold to fiat money and exchange it for goods and services. 
    • Speculative Purpose: When you’re speculating, you’re trying to find gaps in the market for rewards. Gold is perfect for leveraging the rate of returns. 
    • Precautionary Purpose: The market is very volatile, so it’s wise to take precautions. Gold has proven itself to be a leveler against an uncertain future time and time again.
    • Little Maintenance: Unlike money invested in real estate, gold doesn’t require any form of maintenance from you. You can buy gold coins and keep them in your storage unit for many years.

    While other assets like money and real estate are risky at some points, gold has always maintained its standard and value. The returns are consistent and values remain largely appreciated. If you’re new at buying metals and need to get some gold coins, try online sources such as https://www.oxfordgoldgroup.com and others similar to it. Nevertheless, you still need to know when it’s time to buy or not.

    How Do You Know If It’s Time To Invest In Gold

    Although gold is a luxury good, it can still trade like stocks. In such a case, the precious metal is prone to market decisions. This is why you need to know the signs before buying or selling to make the right investment decisions. Not sure how to assess them? Here are tips to help:

    • Fall In Equities

    The response of gold to the stock market’s struggles has been positive. When there’s a fall in equities, there’s generally a rise in gold coins. This has been the case over the years. Hence, there’s an inverse relationship between gold and equities. 

    The reason for this is simple. The value of equities is mostly the worth of the actual printed paper which reflects political and economic uncertainties. Investors hold gold to protect themselves against these uncertainties as well as market volatility. 

    Gold value is stable across countries and isn’t easily affected by systematic and political risks. So, a fall in equities can only mean one thing for a gold investor like you—it’s time to invest in as many gold coins and other of its forms as possible.

    • Downward Trend In Other Investments

    A fall in equities leads to an attendant effect on other investments such as real estate. The slide affects almost every currency and investment tied to equities, except gold. This is because gold is the true standard of value; therefore, it reacts positively to changes in other assets.

    If you can’t easily read the signs of falling equities, you can look at other currencies to compare. There’s a positive relationship between equities and real estate, for example. Whenever the latter’s prices are up, influenced by the former, you should know it’s time to get gold. 

    • Gold-Silver Ratio

    The ratio of silver to gold is the proportion of silver you can hold at a certain amount of gold. For instance, if the ratio of silver to gold is 2:1, it means you can have two silver coins at the expense of one gold coin. 

    Being familiar with ratios can inform your gold-buying or gold-selling decisions. When the percentage of silver is higher compared to gold, it means you should buy less gold and sell more if you’re holding. But when it’s lower against gold, it suggests the perfect time to invest in more gold withholdings.

    • Decrease In Gold Prices

    Gold is an intrinsic value, meaning it can generate value for itself and be measured for what it’s worth. Consequently, the price of gold can determine if it’s best to buy or sell. 

    When the price of gold goes up, it shows the demand for gold is higher than its supply. It means many people prefer to hold gold rather than sell it. When this happens, gold is scarce, and inflation sets in. In that case, it’s wise to sell gold rather than buy.

    However, when the price of gold comes down, the primary reason is that the demand for gold is lower than its supply. Suppliers are selling more gold coins than people would want to buy. In this case, you should invest in as many gold coins as you want.

    • Point On Moving Average

    Where is the gold value located on the moving average in the last few days? If you must invest, you should put in the time to check information about the former. Moving averages are calculated by dividing the closing price of gold for the total number of periods by its number of periods. 

    So, if the price of gold is above the moving average, it’s a clear sign that you shouldn’t be buying. It’s probably saying demand is higher than supply. But if the price is at the moving average or below it, there’s little demand for gold. During these times is a good time that you should invest in gold right away. 

    Final Thoughts

    Investing in gold is a decision influenced by timing. If the timing is right, you should buy gold. But if it’s wrong, you’d probably be overpaying for a commodity that may bring you financial losses. Some signs help with the timing. You should be able to find them and learn how to properly analyze them before investing.

     

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  • Indian Consumers Prefer 3D Catalogues As Digital First Trend Takes Off Because Of COVID19

    Indian Consumers Prefer 3D Catalogues As Digital First Trend Takes Off Because Of COVID19

    Eccentric Engine’s One 3D platform has been powering the virtual showroom and 3D catalogs for various automobile OEMs has released a survey which reveals 7.6 million Indians chose to experience cars virtually in 3D on platforms enabled by its technology in 2020.

    It reports a 300 percent increase from 2019 for its visualization platform One 3D. The data is based on 100 million interactions and over 500 respondents spanning tier 1, tier 2 and tier 3 cities. Its platform enabled research for cars in a virtual 3D format.

    Eccentric Engine’s 3D configurator has been in the market since 2018. Most recently, it enabled the 3D experiences for MG Motors, Citroen and Tata Motors.

    “In India, we work with Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, MG, Citroen, Toyota, and Nissan. And also with the newly formed Stellantis (which is the whole PSA group plus FCA),” revealed Varun Shah, the co-founder of Eccentric Engine.

    Shah reveals his platform enables users to explore granular details about vehicles, including details that can’t be explored in review videos or online activations.

    The survey revealed that 51 percent of the sessions were from the 6 top-tier cities including New Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai. Even Lucknow broke into 3 percent of the digital sessions making its way into the top 10 cities in India. Interestingly, tier 3 cities accounted for 9 percent of the queries which is an impressive number.

    The survey also revealed that 91 percent of the users who experienced the car online ended up buying the same car offline.

    “By intuitively integrating the real and digital world with One 3D we are excited to create an unprecedented level of customer engagement for our OEM partners to understand evolving consumer needs and help them serve their customers better by offering world-class product visualization that can create surprise and delight and personalize their buying experience,” said Varun Shah.

    The survey also revealed that non-resident Indians were making buying decisions for their families in India digitally. 4.6 percent sessions were from NRIs out of which 31 percent were from North America, 32 percent were from the Middle East, 10 percent were from Europe, 5 percent from the UK, 4 percent from Australia, 2 percent Africa and 1 percent from Latin America.

    The survey also showed blue and white were the most popular shades by more than 40 percent. 35 percent people preferred the colour grey, brown and silver. Red, black and orange were preferred by 15 percent.

    Indian automakers have seen a sharp rise in digital interaction over the past couple of years and yes, it’s been largely driven by the pandemic. Audi India, Volkswagen India saw an uptick of 70% in online interface compared to pre-covid times and with new tech, enhancing that experience for customers is going to be paramount. More manufacturers are now getting into the game and innovation is at the top of everyone’s agenda.

  • South Korean retail sales record double-digit growth

    South Korean retail sales record double-digit growth

    Department store sales jumped 40 percent in February against a year-ago period in the biggest year-on-year gain since the data became available from 2005 to suggest a rebound in private consumption in South Korea.

    According to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance’s monthly economic review, department store sales jumped 39.5 percent on year in February, a record-high growth rate since monthly records became published.

    Sales at discount stores also gained 24.2 percent, the largest increase since the 34.8 percent gain in Feb 2015.

    Domestic credit card spending last month rose 8.6 percent from a year ago, rebounding for the first time in three months.

    The boost in consumer spending was spurred by the Lunar New Year’s holiday in early February in a pent-up demand after protracted social distancing measures, the finance ministry noted.

    The figure also goes against poor numbers a year ago when the country was swept up in the first wave of Covid-19 outbreak.

    In Feb last year, the department store sales fell 30.6 percent. Discount store revenue declined 19.6 percent, the biggest drop since Jan 2015 when the figure was down by 24 percent.

    An official from the finance ministry said that the low base effect from last year may have made the February figures look better than they really are.

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  • Buying Art Online Goes Mainstream

    Buying Art Online Goes Mainstream

    While overall art sales contracted in 2020 amid the Covid-19 pandemic, online sales doubled in value. Aggregate online sales reached a record high of $12.4 billion, doubling in value from 2019, while the share of online art sales grew from 9 percent of total sales by value in 2019 to 25 percent in 2020, according to the fifth Global Art Market Report, published by Art Basel and UBS.

    This was the first time the share of e-commerce in the art market exceeded that of general retail. This growth also came despite a 22 percent dip in sales of art and antiques globally, which stood at $50.1 billion in 2020

    According to Christl Novakovic, CEO UBS Europe SE, head wealth management Europe and chair of the UBS Art board, called 2020 a «turning point for digital innovation in the art market, which traditionally relies on discretionary purchasing, travel and personal contact.

    The crisis also provided the impetus for change and restructuring, the most fundamental shift being the rollout of digital strategies and online sales, which had lagged behind other industries up to now, said Clare McAndrew, founder, Arts Economics, who authored the report.

    The report incorporated a survey of 2,569 high-net-worth (HNW) collectors, of which 66 percent felt the pandemic had increased their interest in collecting, while 32 percent reported it had significantly done so. Some 57 percent said they planned on purchasing more artwork in 2021.

    And while the pandemic prompted the cancellation of high-profile art fairs – where the largest deals traditionally are sealed – some 45 percent of collectors also said they made a purchase through an art fair’s online viewing room.

  • Changing the Way Singapore Buys Wine

    Changing the Way Singapore Buys Wine

    With few people having wine cellars, the minimum order size required by many wine merchants in Singapore makes buying a case of each both time consuming and inconvenient. Wine. Delivery solved this issue.

    How can you replicate the pleasures of purchasing wine in a physical shop in the online space? Where can you go to get the personalized service and recommendations available from your favorite wine merchant while still having access to a vast array of diverse options?

    How can a specialized wine importer have access to a larger audience online without needing to develop expensive tech? These were the questions that Alex Caballero sought to answer in creating a specialized marketplace, where quality, user experience, and a love of wine are celebrated.

    The premise was simple: Create top-notch tech, get quality importers on board, ensure impeccable service, and improve the experience of wine and spirit drinkers everywhere. Amongst Alex Caballero’s first steps was acquiring the URL www.wine.delivery. Beautiful in its simplicity, the ultimate wine shop had just become digital.

    From the very beginning, Wine.Delivery was a tech company that sold wine and not the other way around. The goal was to build a platform that would provide seamless customer experience and make it easy for specialized merchants to sell their wine to the general public. The website launch was quickly followed by an app, making it even easier to order whenever and wherever.

    Building a marketplace from scratch was very much a learning experience. In-house developers allowed the company to quickly develop new solutions and adapt to the changing needs of both the end-user and the importers in real-time, with feedback from both sides being quickly put into practice.

    New functionalities allowed the consumer to explore different wine regions or grapes, much like in their local wine store. Recommendations were added to guide the novice wine drinker and sections were developed to steer the last-minute buyer towards wines available the next day, including weekends.

    Wine.Delivery Singapore soft-launched in 2016 with early-adopter importers keen to experiment. All saw the potential of the platform and the opportunity linked to the change in Singaporeans’ online purchasing behavior.

    Today the marketplace counts over 40 importers and showcases more than 1,500 labels from all over the world, with bottles ranging from the cheap and cheerful to exclusive collector’s pieces. Fully armed with the lessons gleaned in Singapore, the company is excited to expand its horizons.

    Today’s consumer is looking for a large variety of wines; a typical order could see a few bottles of Italian wine for a dinner party, a bottle of Champagne for a gift, some South African wine to reminisce over a past holiday, a Bordeaux for a romantic dinner and some Chilean wine for Saturday’s BBQ.

    With few people having wine cellars, the minimum order size required by many wine merchants in Singapore makes buying a case of each both time consuming and inconvenient. Wine.Delivery solved this issue, making it possible to find everything in one place, with free delivery on all orders, even for a single bottle.

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  • LG TV lets you shop fashion you see in TV shows

    LG TV lets you shop fashion you see in TV shows

    Video commerce firm TheTake has partnered with smart TV manufacturer LG Electronics and a range of media companies to allow viewers to “shop shows” for fashion, accessories, homeware, tech devices and even menu and recipe items.

    Beginning this spring, owners of LG’s webOS Smart TVs will be able to purchase hundreds of different products identified and tagged by TheTake’s proprietary technology, which has scanned and identified hundreds of items per television episode and film.

    “Shoppable video has been talked about since the days of Rachel’s sweater on ‘Friends’,” said TheTake co-founder and CEO Tyler Cooper. “Previous solutions haven’t addressed the long-tail opportunity where each individual viewer wants to shop for something different. Shoppable video isn’t just about Rachel’s sweater, but also Chandler’s jacket, Joey’s sunglasses, Monica’s couch and so on. To address the full breadth of consumer interest, we leverage machine learning to make more than 500 products shoppable in a given episode of television. We’re excited to bring our AI-powered solution to viewers with LG and our various content partners.”

    With a record amount of TV content produced last year, TheTake’s machine-learning algorithms enable product identification and tagging at scale. TheTake’s technology can currently identify several hundred million products from thousands of retail partners when and where they appear in various TV episodes and movies.

    “The ability to seamlessly shop for the items we see in our favorite shows and movies is something we’ve long wanted to bring to LG smart TV users,” said LG Electronics US head of home entertainment brand marketing Michelle Fernandez. “Now, in partnership with TheTake, we’re introducing the feature on LG’s 2020 smart TVs for the easiest and most consumer-friendly experience for shopping the looks from TV and movies.”

    TheTake’s AI feature will be available on all 2020 LG OLED, LG NanoCell and UHD smart TV models installed with the webOS smart TV platform. TheTake has negotiated an agreement with a large US MVPD to roll out the technology across millions of set-top boxes later this year. And TheTake has also partnered with WarnerMedia, A+E Networks, Crown Media Family Networks, NBC Universal and others to roll out the technology over their various channels throughout the year.

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  • Strong retail interest in Asia, but very little action

    Strong retail interest in Asia, but very little action

    More than 80 percent of Australian businesses have Asia on their radar, but most are failing to generate significant revenue from Asian markets, a new report from Asialink Business has found.

    Of the businesses surveyed, 83 percent generate less than half of their annual revenue from Asia, and 55 percent generate less than 5 percent of their annual revenue from Asia. This is because they haven’t taken the necessary steps to grow.

    These include hiring staff with the right language skills and experience to operate in Asia, keeping up with Asian customers’ fast-changing preferences and having a presence on the ground – three characteristics that top performers in the Asian market share.

    “The business opportunities that exist in Asia are well known and well versed. But while many Australians businesses are including Asia as part of their strategy, we know that majority of these organizations don’t optimize their operations to maximize revenue streams,” Jonathan Yeung, head of Asian business banking at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, which sponsored the report, said.

    One business that is tapping into the Asian market successfully is Australian health and beauty brand G&M Cosmetics, which was profiled in the report.

    The Sydney-based business, which has been manufacturing and selling to national and global retailers for over 22 years, first started exporting to China in 1998, and now exports 600,000 units of skincare products to the country every week.

    CEO Zvonko Jordanov said it is crucial to understand the customer in each market you sell in.

    For instance, Emu oil-based products are best-sellers in Taiwan and Malaysia, but Lanolin is preferred in China. This changes quickly, though, and Jodanov said avocado, goat’s milk, and manuka honey products are on the rise.

    At its laboratory in Australia, G&M also looks at the suitability of certain skincare products for different markets based on local conditions, including weather and humidity.

    “We’re all humans. The number one thing is that you respect the consumer. Give them a proper product and don’t promise the impossible,” Jordanov said.

    According to the Asialink Business survey, businesses that tailor and adjust their product or service and marketing earn, on average, more than eight times the revenue from Asian markets than those that sell the same offering using the same marketing.

    Businesses that always mention these Asian language skills and experience in the Asian market in job ads earn, on average more than five times the revenue from Asia than those that do not.

    And 33 percent of businesses that earn more than 5 percent of their annual revenue from Asia undertook in-country visits at least once a month – more than double that of businesses earning less than 5 percent of their revenue from Asia.

    The businesses most likely to be doing well in Asia were professional services firms, according to the report, followed by private education and training organizations.

    China was the top Asian market for 44 per cent of respondents, followed by the ASEAN countries, which include Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Brunei, Cambodia, and Myanmar, for 32 per cent of respondents.

    Overall business sentiment towards Asia remains positive, despite the ongoing China-US trade tensions, the report found.

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  • Ikea makes catalogues “shoppable” on Pinterest

    Ikea makes catalogues “shoppable” on Pinterest

    Global furniture retailer Ikea will start putting its product catalogue on Pinterest to give the print publication a longer lifespan and to allow customers to move more quickly from inspiration to purchase.

    According to a report in Digiday, Ikea has been working to monetise its presence on the social platform for some time, which has led to a shoppable version of its catalogue.

    “We didn’t want to just copy and paste – we already have a digital catalogue online,” Ikea media project manager Kerri Longarzo told Digiday.

    “But promotions in the past felt a little stale. We were running out of ways to show the catalogue to people online, so we sought out something different.”

    Pinterest differs from its social media contemporaries in that rather than sharing aspects of their lives, Pinterest users search for images of furniture, recipes, wedding ideas and more, and save it to their ‘boards’ for later reference. Essentially, it’s an online scrapbooking tool.

    “Catalogues have been a pretty big part of the Ikea concept from the very beginning,” Longarzo said.

    “As we get to 2019 and realise customer behaviours are shifting, the world is going more digital, having this print-only piece was becoming more challenging.”

    Ikea’s US Pinterest page boasts more than 10 million monthly unique viewers, while its Australian arm sees numbers closer to 350,000.

    On Ikea Australia’s Pinterest page, you can find boards ranging from bedroom ideas, recipes, and home inspiration – which when clicked through will take users to the relevant product page on the online store, allowing for further shopping or purchases. Adtech Ad

    The pinned images also automatically show other users’ images of the same product, allowing customers to see how the product looks in practical use.

    “People come to Pinterest in a shopping mindset open to discovering products, which creates a great connection between Pinners and businesses,” Pinterest wrote in a statement announcing its catalogue feature to businesses in March.

    “In the past year, we’ve been bringing together the worlds of visual search and shopping to make it easy to shop for anything you see on Pinterest, and for brands to reach people on Pinterest while they’re actively looking for inspiration.”

  • Alibaba’s 618 Mid-year Shopping Festival targets Specific China Regions

    Alibaba’s 618 Mid-year Shopping Festival targets Specific China Regions

    Alibaba Group has launched this year’s 618 Mid-year Shopping Festival from Taobao and Tmall, allowing brands and merchants to tap into China’s less-developed regions with 1.5 million new products and multiple promotions.

    This year’s festival aims to engage customers in emerging cities, counties and villages across China. To do so, Taobao and Tmall are boosting promotional resources to elevate excitement and help brands reach this rapidly growing market. Altogether, more than 200,000 brands and retailers will participate in the shopping event.

    The shopping event officially started on June 1 and will continue though June 18. Within the first hour, from midnight to 1am, gross merchandise volume (GMV) exceeded that of the first 10 hours last year. And at 11.23am, less than 12 hours after the start, total GMV surpassed last year’s full-day figure.

    Branded products are so far proving extremely popular. Top brands like Apple, Xiaomi, Haier, Aux, Midea, L ‘Oreal, Lancome, Nike and Adidas each notched more than RMB100 million in sales in the first hour. Among them, Apple sold over RMB100 million worth of products in two minutes and 45 seconds, while Midea and Nike both hit that mark in four minutes.

    “In addition to rising discretionary spending, consumers in China’s less-developed regions are becoming more-sophisticated shoppers who are looking for lifestyle upgrades,” said president of Taobao and Tmall Jiang Fan. “This increased consumption potential could mean bright prospects for our merchants. People in these areas might have less access to physical shopping facilities than those in big cities, and this year we are working closely with our partners to address their needs and offer them the same good quality products on our platforms with innovative and fun programs.”

    The number of people living in smaller cities and rural areas accounts for nearly 70 per cent of China’s total population, according to Chinese market-research firm Analysys. These consumers are catching up with first- and second-tier markets in valuing quality over price. Tmall’s figures also show that more than half of the sales generated on its Luxury Pavilion comes from customers outside China’s first- and second-tier cities.

    In view of this trend, Taobao and Tmall are leveraging Alibaba Group’s ecosystem and technology and an array of marketing channels and tools to build momentum from early June. Key initiatives to offer opportunities in fast-growing markets and enhance customer engagement include:

    Tmall product debuts – About 1.5 million products will debut on Tmall during the festival with customers enjoying heavyweight promotional offers on these items. Many were developed by brands on an accelerated cycle, thanks to consumer insights provided by Tmall. In addition to deals on the 1.5 million new products, brands are offering millions of other products at a discount. All products are available to consumers nationwide, but brands are paying special attention to the needs and desires of customers in lower-tier Chinese cities.

    Flash Sales – Alibaba’s flash sales channel, Juhuasuan, allows brands to offer deep discounts to reach new customers in fast-growing markets. Juhuasuan will organise dozens of 618-themed group-selling campaigns featuring must-buy items recommended by brands. Statistics show that Juhuasuan is a tried-and-true channel for brands to attract first-time buyers. Since last year, 80 per cent of the transactions for branded goods through Juhuasuan were from new customers, and nearly half were from lower-tier cities.

    Taobao Livestreaming – Few marketing tools have proved more effective than livestreaming for brands to introduce and recommend 618 products to potential consumers in less-developed regions. Last year, sales generated by Taobao Livestreaming exceeded RMB100 billion. This year, US brands, including Stadium Goods, the streetwear and sneaker resale store backed by LVMH Luxury Ventures; Korean beauty brands, like Laneige and Innisfree; and Japanese cosmetics brands Shiseido will host livestreams for 618.

    Daily Deals – This channel on the Taobao app provides special offerings directly from manufacturers and is highly popular among consumers from less-developed areas in China. Equipped with insights from consumer preferences and behaviors, manufacturers are able to adjust their production processes on a real time basis to meet consumer demands. These manufacturers will introduce 100,000 promotional items for the 618 celebration.

    With a reach of 654 million annual active consumers in China, strong technical support and in-depth market knowledge, Alibaba’s ecosystem is offering a strong growth potential for brands.

    Alibaba Group’s annual results this year reflect that growth potential, with more than 70 per cent of the more than 100 million new active users added during the year ended March 31, 2019 coming from less-developed cities.

  • Instagram users can now buy items from ads inside the App

    Instagram users can now buy items from ads inside the App

    Instagram is taking its Shopping ads one step further by making it possible for people to buy the products in the ads without leaving the app.

    The feature, called Checkout on Instagram, is currently being tested in a closed beta program by nearly two dozen businesses and is only available to users in the US.

    Retail News has asked for details about if and when the feature will be available outside the US but had not received a reply at the time of this writing.

    Adidas, Burberry, Dior, H&M, Michael Kors, Nike, Outdoor Voices, Uniqlo and Zara are among the 23 fashion, beauty and accessories brands now rolling out the feature. Others will be added in future, according to Instagram, which is owned by Facebook.

    When users tap on a product in a Shopping ad from one of these businesses, they now see a “Checkout on Instagram” button. By tapping the button, they can select the size and colour of the item they want and enter their payment and shipping details to purchase.

    Users receive notifications about shipment and delivery within the Instagram app, and the platform saves all their information for future purchases.

    In the past, if users wanted to purchase a product linked to a Shopping ad, they were redirected to the brand’s website. The new feature removes this step and – crucially for Instagram – keeps consumers in the app.

    “Social selling is really taking shape both in Australia and globally and it’s great to see Instagram leading the way through the next stage of the social selling journey. Giving consumers the option to complete a purchase right then and there in the app will simplify the shopping process and allow brands to connect more easily with shoppers,” said Jordan Sim, group product manager at BigCommerce, an e-commerce platform that has been active in offering integrations with Shopping on Instagram to its users.

    “We’ve seen our merchants both globally and locally in Australia have a great deal of success using BigCommerce’s integration with Shopping on Instagram and are looking forward to unlocking the power of this new integration for our Aussie retailers in the near future. We know the value of simplifying the checkout process to drive sales and this new function on Instagram will facilitate just that.”

    Many brands have said that Shopping ads drive sales, but there’s a trade-off: visibility and control over their customer data. As Instagram continues to make the purchasing process more seamless – that is, takes control of the process – some businesses will undoubtedly question whether the trade-off is worth it.

    It is unclear whether the Checkout feature applies to Shopping posts in Instagram Stories, or only to posts in the feed. Last June, Instagram revealed that of the 500 million people using Instagram every day, 300 million use Stories every day.

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