INTRO 👋
Nowadays, lots of social media develop towards eCommerce, while eCommerce platforms include social features like 'Feed'. Merging social media with eCommerce seems to be a trend. Indeed, according to the research, more than half of online shoppers discover products from social media. Instagram, one of the leading examples of social commerce, brings the stores to the mass users. The Instagram Shop not only helps the small business attract more attention but also removes friction from the purchasing process by making it easier for shoppers to browse the catalog, check prices, or learn more about a particular product. The trending social commerce interests me and this is the reason I started this case study.
As far as I know, Instagram's seller platform has a lot to do with Shopify and Facebook. Therefore, in this case study, I intend to redesign from the buyer's points of view, identifing problems, setting goals, and establishing measurable improvements for buyers.
DISCOVER 👀
In the research stage, I mainly divided into two parts: App Research & User Research. I hope to understand the overall structure of Instagram, the positioning of Shop in Instagram, and the characteristics and pain points of different types of users.
For App research, I looked up to Google Play and App Store to review user feedback, in order to understand what users think about the Instagram Shop. Then, I researched other social commerce platforms and compare them to Instagram.
For user research, I interviewed 5 existing users from different age range, learning about their impression on Instagram Shop and the process of how they click on the product page and purchase products.
APP RESEARCH
After scanning the App and reading the reviews on the App Store and Google Play, I believe Instagram Shop is still at a very early and testing stage. Lots of users even don't know Instagram has shops and its check out system. At this moment, there are only two paths that can lead users to in-App product pages. The majority of Instagram stories and post ads direct users leaving the App to the retails' website even when the retail has an in-App store, which largely decreases the possibilities of purchasing the products on Instagram.
The graphic below reveals the paths of users clicking into both in-app as well as retail' website product pages.
USER RESEARCH
I I interviewed five people of different ages and regions. I had an general idea on users' understanding and acceptance of Instagram Shop. The following chart is made according to their answers:
Key Insights:
4/5 of users do not know Instagram has in-app stores.
5/5 of users see the ads from posts and stories.
4/5 of users take action after seeing ads from stories & posts.
3/5 of users won't buy directly from Instagram due to a lack of trustworthiness of products and protection of privacy.
3/5 of users make decisions to buy products based on influencer's posts.
FEATURES ✨
With a clear idea of who I need to design for and what their needs are, I embarked on an iterative design process to develop a meaningful solution.
FOR THE RATIONLIST & INFLUENCER
Increase Shareability & Trustworthiness
This feature allows users to simply tag existing products to the posts and share thoughts on products to their friends, families, or followers. It is also easy to see the posts of the users who also share the product during the purchase process. In result, buyers feel at ease to purchase after seeing others reviews.
