Instagram: The New Edge of Online Retailing

Dr. Jas Raj Bohra, Mallika Bishnoi

With the increase in popularity of social networking, they pose immense potentials and challenges for the future of E-commerce. Latest developments have emerged to leverage the power of social networking with online shopping. Social Shopping is the resultant of Social Media’s impact on e-tailing. The use of social networking sites is now no more restricted to chatting, creating a page or making friends but has now moved to another level which involves Online Retailing. Social sites like Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, etc. have been adopted by the retailers and consumers as a shopping platform. Users on social shopping sites can post product recommendations, share photos, form social shopping communities and make purchases. Despite enormous business interests and potentials, little is known about whether the internet users will adopt such systems. This paper aims at determining the online retailing on Instagram and how customers are attracted towards this form of online stores on a social networking site. The paper also provides marketing suggestions for the retailers on Instagram and similar social networking sites.