Taking care of businesses – New features for brands coming to Instagram
Share
Instagram has announced plans to make it easier for businesses to trade and connect with customers on the platform, including preliminary implementations of contextual commerce – partnering with Eventbrite, ChowNow and Yelp Reservations.
Launching today, Instagram is launching new features for businesses on the platform, including changes to Direct Inbox and the addition of embedded call-to-action buttons on business profiles.
Additionally, Instagram is beginning its approach to contextual commerce – allowing users to make seamless transactions while remaining in the app’s environment.
Along with several other dining reservation apps, Eventbrite will be Instagram’s first live events ticketing partner, launching an embedded ‘Get Tickets’ feature available internationally to Eventbrite creators today.
In a blogpost today, Eventbrite says, “Not only is the ‘Get Tickets’ button much more actionable, it also drives to a streamlined checkout that automatically pulls in the buyer’s name and email from their Instagram profile. Fewer steps = more ticket sales.”
In April, Marketing spoke to Carolyn Breeze at Braintree about contextual commerce, “From a marketing perspective or a retail perspective, [the idea around contextual commerce] is you can sell anywhere on the internet, not just your own site.”
On Instagram’s ‘Buy Now’ button implementation, Breeze said, “It’s definitely moving along the steps and it’s much closer to where it needs to be, but it’s not in context.
Changes coming to Instagram’s Direct Inbox will include new customisable message prioritisation, filtered conversations and pre-formatted quick replies for common questions.
Instagram Direct Inbox
Today Instagram announced its latest partnerships with 25 different brands to introduce its ‘in context’ call-to-action buttons – including Eventbrite, Setmore, Shedul and Restorando. The platform teased that it may be expanding access to the call-to-action buttons to other businesses as trials continue.
Further Reading:
Image copyright: 2nix / 123RF Stock Photo
