Instagram users will be able to shop directly from posts starting next week, its parent company Facebook announced during its annual F8 developer conference today (April 30).
The announcement should be a big deal for brands, influencers, and creators, who will now be able to see exactly how many sales or clicks a given Instagram post generates. Users won’t have to leave the app to buy a product they like in their feed or Instagram stories, but they will have to give Instagram their credit card information.
The news comes after Instagram announced the “checkout” feature in March, which allows brands sell products directly from their feeds. Making the functionality available to influencers feels like a natural next step for the platform.
For now, making direct shopping posts will only be available to a select number of creators, including members of the Kardashian-Jenner clan, several fashion magazines, and founder of athleisure brand Outdoor Voices Tyler Haney, and only to brands who are part of the “checkout” beta program.
In perhaps worse news for influencers, Instagram’s CEO Adam Mosseri announced today that the platform will start testing making how many likes or views a post gets private, to limit the harmful obsession with metrics. It is also testing making follower counts in profiles less prominent. “We don’t want Instagram to feel like a competition, we want to make a less pressurized environment,” he said.