New Instagram Feature Will Tell Brands About Bookmarked Products

Instagram is working on a shopping feature that would tell brands which products users are bookmarking, according to a report by CNBC.

The Facebook-owned company has been giving users shopping-specific features for about a year now, including the ability to bookmark things in photos and videos they might want to purchase. Brands can tag items and users can get more details about them, with the goal of eventually being sent to websites to complete purchases. Instagram said about 90 million users regularly interact with tagged items every month.

Layla Amjadi, Instagram product manager, said the analytical tool should be released in the first half of next year. “It’s a difficult thing to maintain all of the products that have piqued your interests across these multiple sites,” Amjadi told CNBC. “That’s a problem that businesses told us they personally have and are excited for us to help them solve within Instagram.”

With the tool, users who bookmark items might eventually end up seeing ads for those specific products. However, that technology doesn’t exist yet. “We do not currently have ads retargeting based on saved posts [on] our roadmap,” an Instagram spokesperson said.

Amjadi noted that a user bookmarking something but not buying it is a “reconsideration problem,” where there could be a number of factors at play in the decision, like not having enough money or an item not being in style. “We can help with the reconsideration at the right time and the right place,” she added.

Instagram wants to make sure it’s “nailing the consumer experience” of its shopping component on the app. “We’re trying to build for people a personalized mall within Instagram,” Amjadi said, noting that she wants someone to feel like they’re window shopping from one store to the next with friends. This type of experience, she said, is something people crave.

“This is just an additional path right now to give people and businesses an opportunity to come closer together in a way that people want,” Amjadi added.