Instagram already has over 25 million business accounts out of which two million are advertise their products on the platform.
Instagram is currently working on a new standalone shopping online application called IG Shopping according to a report by The Verge. Citing two people familiar with the development the report stated that the upcoming IG Shopping app will allow users to browse product catalogues from merchants they follow, and then make the purchase directly within the app.
According to the report, there is no set timeline for the launch of the app, and development is currently ongoing. The report states that Instagram is very confident about the project and feels well positioned to get into the e-commerce market. Instagram has over 25 million business accounts out of which two million are advertise their products on the platform.
The report also states that Facebook is also looking to expand into paid tools for businesses on Instagram to take on other online shopping platforms like Shopify. A few third-party companies do offer business users paid tools for performing various tasks like scheduling posts on Instagram, which if directly integrated into the platform will make the user experience much more pleasant.
The company also recently began testing a new feature, which lets businesses tag Instagram Stories with individual products to shop directly.
IG Shopping isn’t the only standalone app the company seems to be working on. According to earlier reports, Instagram has been testing a new messaging app named Direct since late last year. This app will be similar to how the Messenger app is for Facebook.