Eva Chen Explains Instagram's New Shopping Features

It's no secret that mobile has changed the way that people shop,” Eva Chen tells Vogue upon the release of Instagram’s shiny new shopping channels. The platform has certainly facilitated window shopping in the past – 90 million people tap the shopping tag on Instagram a month – but, now, a designated “Explore” shopping channel and shoppable Stories will ensure that Instagram users proceed to purchase.

First up, “Explore”. Within this personalised “Topic”, users will be able to browse dedicated shopping posts from the brands they follow, and discover new labels they might like on a global scale. Secondly, Stories. Now, when users view behind-the-scenes Stories from brands, they will be able to tap on the product to learn more. With one third of the most-viewed Stories coming from businesses, this will allow a brand to give information about its products to customers in bite-sized Insta snippets.

“We've heard from the Instagram community that they want to be able to learn more about the products they discover on Instagram the moment that they are inspired by a post or Story,” Chen explains of why Instagram is so keen to help its users spend money. “People always ask me why I love working at Instagram – one of the reasons is that the team listens to feedback. I have worked here for three years and not a day goes by when someone doesn't ask me about shopping.”

It was the fur-lined Gucci loafer that sparked Chen’s thought process, as director of fashion partnerships at Instagram, initially. “I saw it on my feed, then a few months later – after it was everywhere on Instagram – I saw people wearing it,” she remembers. “With the latest updates we are helping complete the cycle from seeing something and being inspired to purchasing.”

Brands that do shopping well, according to Chen, are Strathberry, Danse Lente, Rixo and Burberry. But she encourages more to join the party by converting their accounts into business profiles, and, as always, she'll listen to community feedback so the visual-networking service can improve its experiences. It pays to have a self-described "overly enthusiastic shopper" in charge of our social shopping habits.