The theory is if all the users are already on Instagram looking at what their favorite celebs, influencers, and friends are doing, they are more likely to shop there not only because products can be surfaced - it's also because Facebook is perhaps the world's most effective personalization engine.

It's with this in mind that Instagram has started adding Shops and Reels tabs to its interface.

The short-form video format that Vine (acquired and then killed by Twitter), Snap, and TikTok have been so good at is starting to be more prominent on Instagram. In the past, Facebook has been relatively successful at adopting the top features of competitors and incorporating them, and that's not a knock.

With this, Instagram is closest of all the players to becoming a "super app." What is still not present is a way to order things, interact with the world, get customer service, etc. that is more common on platforms in Asia like WeChat. Perhaps North America will never get there, but the evolution is interesting.

Rhett Ullmann agrees, saying “Love this. Social commerce is becoming big, and this new adaptation will show to be extremely profitable in the long run. The Reels feature will keep users on the app for longer (even if the videos are largely just repurposed Tik Toks) and the shop feature (which for me is just integrated into the Explore page) makes it easier to find products based on the media we consume. Facebook never goes for first, but they go for most convenient. If I can go to one app for all my needs, I most likely will, and this helps them in terms of data collection. Looking forward to seeing where this goes.”

Michael Kuhney isn’t totally convinced yet: “Interesting theory my internal jury is still out on. Are they more likely to actually ‘shop’ there or are they just more likely to learn ‘what to shop for’ there (which they inevitably take to D2C, Amazon, Google, yada yada) I see an appersonality (™️?) fork ahead: At what point do they add a ‘browse/shop’ section so users can search for products, brands, celebs like Amazon but directly on their platform? The upside is obviously massive in terms of new revenue channels, entirely new business units (Instagram fulfillment!?), new data-set collection, better personalization, etc. But at what cost does that also make Instagram just another shopping app and open up a new white space for a less shop/more social disruptor? There are only 24 hours in the day and time (especially spent digitally) is precious. The downside is lack of (quality) engagement in droves to find more stimulating social engagement elsewhere.”