Instagram is striving to compete with major online shopping services with the release of its own payment platform.

Insta-booking

Instagram is currently testing a new payment feature to allow selected US and UK business accounts to accept payments traditionally used for booking restaurant reservations, salon appointments, and movies.

Regarding shopping, users may have already noticed a new “shoppable tags” link on select posts by which users can mark items within in an Instagram post to denote its availability for sale.

For many, Instagram has already proven fertile ground for curating new products and services and the platform’s most recent initiative is one more step toward that same goal.

Bring brands to the people

Company’s and apparel brands have already seen a great deal of success in promoting their items through Instagram and allowing users to make purchases by connecting through the app.

Essentially, the service makes shopping through Instagram even easier than it already was by saving clicks and avoiding digging through associated sites. A process that was already fairly efficient.

The platform has reported 800 million global monthly users as of fall of 2017 and has only seen more success since. We may have a very new form of window shopping on our hands and users couldn’t be happier.

Have you used Instagram to shop online? What do you think about the new ability to pay in app? Give us your thoughts in the comments below.