Barneys Flips The Social Commerce Switch

Barneys is gearing up to join the next trend in retail fashion: shoppable social commerce.

The luxury retailer announced last week that it’s going to soon be using Like2Buy to rollout its shoppable content via the retailer’s Instagram account. Barneys said the shoppable option will be available starting tomorrow (June 23), Luxury Daily reported.

Like2Buy lets customers click on a product image on the retailer’s Instagram page and purchase items. Users can simply click on a link and be directed to a gallery of items to ship from Barneys’ website.

Another luxury retailer, Nordstrom, was the first retailer to launch the Like2Buy platform, which lets customers click on a product image on the chain’s Instagram page and purchase it immediately from Nordstrom.com.

When the platform was rolled out in September 2014, it was part of a partnership between Nordstrom, Target and visual marketing and analytics firm Curalate. Target announced it was also rolling out Like2Buy the day after Nordstrom went live with it last year.

The reported designers that will be included in the initial promotion of Barneys Like2Buy features include Jennifer Meyer, Jennifer Fisher, Lisa Marie Fernandez and Solid & Striped. Those designers will also promote the retailer on their own Instagram accounts.

Recently, Instagram has slowly shown the commerce world how it plans to join the race to turn social media products into commerce engines. That started with early rollouts of its clickable, interactive ads that allowed it to promote items.

Instagram has also revamped its ad strategy, aiming to make it a bit more effective for online advertisers who want to directly connect with shoppers. Instagram rolled out new “Shop Now, “Install Now” and “Sign Up” buttons that allow companies to better integrate an interactive experience into their Instagram posts. Instead of simply promoting a brand, Instagram is now putting it in the hands of developers to help retailers target and connect with consumers.

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