Instashop
Instashop is an e-commerce derivative where a payment option is integrated for shopping quickly on Instagram.
Project Overview
Challenge
Instagram is home to a lot of brands and it boosts their sales by driving traffic. However, the payment for these services takes place outside Instagram through UPI apps or net banking. This delay in shifting from Instagram to payment platforms kills impulse buying. People get distracted and most often skip or forget to buy the items that they wished to buy. This is a challenge for business owners and influencers marketing products on Instagram.
Solution
A feature for sending money through Instagram
- In order to take full advantage of impulse buying, a payment integration to Instagram is necessary.
- Not only it benefits the vendors, but it also helps the users by making the payment quick and smooth.
Studies show that, with the introduction of Instagram checkout, we could see a 46% figure rise or even higher purchase rate. After all, people will be much more inclined to purchase when they can do so right from Instagram, instead of having to navigate to another website.
Role
Time
Design Process
EMPATHIZE
Understanding user
The report released by Facebook stated that 87 per cent of people surveyed had said they’d taken action after seeing product information on Instagram. Forty-six per cent of those people actually made a purchase online or off. The user interviews and further researches led to the conclusion that most Instagram users are annoyed that they want to use a different payment app to buy a product that they liked on Instagram. Moreover, the sellers are also losing customers due to this same problem.
Even though the two user groups, the buyers and sellers, are benefitted if a payment feature is added, this case study is only focusing on the buyers. Therefore, the user group comprises people who regularly use Instagram for entertainment and who would like to buy products while viewing any Instagram posts.
Persona
Clara: Teenager, impulse buyer and food blogger.
User story: As someone who likes to shop, I want easy ways to shop through Instagram on the go,
so that I don’t want to take the pain of opening another app.
Goals
- A quick way to shop and send money within Instagram.
- Hassle-free payment
Frustrations
- “It’s frustrating to close Insta and open a new app or website and again come back to Insta for offers and coupons. It would be better if Insta come up with something like WhatsApp Pay or similar…”
DEFINE
Pain points
- Mental energy drain in using different apps for shopping
- Time-consuming to shift from one app to another
Problem Statement
Clara is an impulse buyer who needs to shop easily through Instagram because she wants to save time and get rid of the hassles of visiting another app or website.
IDEATE
Competitive Analysis
Direct Competitors
There are no direct competitors for Instashop. This is a new idea where a social media app is extending as an e-commerce app. Hence, this is a harbinger for the future.
Indirect Competitors
Design Ideas
After brainstorming using the Crazy Eight method, I came up with various ideas to tackle this problem and the surrounding uncertainties :
- Including a payment option for business accounts verified by Instagram
- The verified accounts for safe payment are indicated with a purple tick rather than a blue tick
- There will be an option to raise disputes regarding payment or improper services and Instagram can deactivate a business account in case of frequent complaints
- Setting up the payment feature will be intuitive and similar to that of any other UPI apps
PROTOTYPE & TEST
Wireframes
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Usability Study findings
Conducting the first level of usability studies and preparing affinity diagrams threw light on various loopholes.
Gaps :
- Limiting payment options only to Instashop will lessen the accessibility
- Introducing a new payment feature like Instashop will cause uncertainties regarding its safety initially
Opportunities :
- In order to bridge the gap related to accessibility, the traditionally used payment methods can also be included
- Instashop should come up with coupons, discounts, rewards and credits for transferring money to attract more customers
Takeaways
What I learned
Even though Instagram is not a proper e-commerce app since it lacks search filters and sorting options, adding this feature will help send money securely to vendors, thus improving the popularity and usability of Instagram. Since Instagram is a trusted application, shopping through verified accounts on Instagram is going to make the user journey smooth.
Next steps
If needed, search, filtering and sorting options can be added to Instagram business profiles for a better shopping experience. Further research has to be conducted for understanding the use cases of setting up these features.
