Dive Brief:
- Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg told investors last week that the company's Instagram platform will soon deliver the capability to buy directly from its ads.
- Banana Republic is testing a feature that takes shoppers to a checkout page from its Instagram ads upon click-through.
- Facebook reported lower net income of $719 million for the second quarter of 2015, due in part to increased long-range expenses.
Dive Insight:
Instagram is set to be the first major social platform to offer purchase directly from ads, according to information released during an investors’ briefing last week. While the details are unclear, new advertising formats that permit purchase directly through the photo-sharing platform could ease transaction friction and produce sales for retailers, especially via mobile.
Banana Republic has used Instagram’s Carousel ads to link directly to product pages and checkout since April, but Instagram has stopped short of promising a “Buy” button even as Facebook has forged ahead with the development of its own. With more than 300 million users worldwide, Instagram’s mobile ad revenues are projected to reach $2.81 billion by 2017, or more than 10% of its parent's advertising revenues.
