Social media has always influenced the types of products that we buy. However, new platforms like Instagram Shopping have meant that we don’t even need to leave social media sites to make a purchase. According to PayPal, in-app spending surged by approximately 40% over the past year, as young Australians looked for more convenient ways to shop online.

You might be wondering, what does this mean for the traditional e-Commerce model? Is it worth having a website anymore? Or should I be putting all my time and attention into building my social media following? All very valid questions to ask, particularly if you have limited time and resources to spend on web development services and marketing.

Any web development company will tell you that despite the rise of social media shopping, your brand will struggle to compete without a ‘traditional’ online store. In terms of allocation of resources, the trick is identifying your target audience and understanding how they prefer to spend their time online.

Social media shopping

Social media and the rise of the influencer means that we are constantly being bombarded with advertisements. However, it’s only recently that social media platforms have removed several steps in the process of seeing an ad to making a purchase.

Instagram Shopping was first announced in 2016. However, it was only made available in Australia around 12 months ago. Instagram Shopping allows shop owners to set up their own store on the Instagram platform. From here, consumers can browse products through curated photos and videos, with small ‘tags’ (innocuous circles) linking them directly to the items they are interested in. Customers aren’t taken to your store. Rather, they complete their purchase on the Instagram app.

Instagram believes that their Shopping platform is particularly advantageous to small businesses, who might not otherwise have the marketing budget to invest in SEO or PPC strategies. You don’t actually even need to have an e-Commerce store to set up an Instagram Shopping page, making it accessible to all.

The rise of the e-Commerce store

Of course, people have been shopping online long before the invention of Instagram. Early forms of the internet, all the way back in the 1980s, facilitated transactions between two individuals — although today, we would hardly recognise the type of technology that was used.

Amazon was one of the earliest e-Commerce stores, originally opening in July 1995 as an online bookstore. Around 1998, the website expanded into other areas, including computer games and music. Now, of course, it is the global leader in e-Commerce, with an estimated 2020 earnings of $21.33 billion USD.

The success of Amazon has essentially paved the way for all other e-Commerce stores. Most have modelled their design and layout on Amazon’s, with a search bar at the top, horizontal header listing various product categories, and a homepage advertising top selling products.

Without Amazon, e-Commerce would look very different today.

Which should I invest in?

If you’re a small or growing business, you probably have a somewhat limited budget. You might be wondering where your money is best spent — growing your social media presence or developing a modern website?

Teams that provide web development services will tell you that the answer really lies in which platform you believe will allow you to create a seamless, personalised user experience. After all, this is what online shoppers are after.

Let’s break down some of the expectations of those who shop online. To start with, an estimated 2.14 billion consumers are expected to make a purchase online in 2021. Now, they all won’t be shopping at your store. But, this statistic does point to the fact that online shopping is incredibly popular and you want to be sure that the platform you end up using has enough power to support high volumes of users.

Around 50 percent of online shoppers do so on a mobile device and this number is only expected to rise. The advantage of using a platform like Instagram Shopping is that you are creating content specifically for mobile, so you don’t have to consider concepts like responsive web design. The user experience has already been taken care of for you.

However, in saying that, using social media stores means that you do lose some element of control over the functionality of your store. If Instagram goes down (which has been known to happen!), you are at the whim of their developers to get it back up and running again. It can also be difficult to curate your own brand when you’re relying on another company’s design team.

Finally, for those who have a brick and mortar store and are wondering whether it’s worth investing in any type of online presence at all, the answer is definitely yes. 74 percent of respondents in a global online survey said that before making an in-store purchase, they took the time to research store and product information online. Without a website or social media platform, you’re already far behind your competitors.

Ultimately, any web development company will tell you that the more places you can advertise your products, the better. If you have a limited budget, it’s best to start first with an e-Commerce store before adding your products to a social media platform. It can be difficult to stand out from the crowd on an app like Instagram, so you’ll have more luck if you can bring your pre-existing customers over with you.