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Like2Buy – Instagram App

By September 3, 2014 May 29th, 2015 Inbound Marketing, Mobile, Social Media

Instagram is one of my favorite social apps because it allows me to connect with my local area like never before. I love flipping through my connections and/or recommendations and running face first into an obsession I didn’t know I even had. Usually that freshly discovered treasure/topic/person is an interesting product, local artists, local businesses, or even a new tattoo artist that just moved to town.

Since Instagram’s framework naturally positions recommended content in front of users, it is only a matter of time before Instagram starts serving up recommended products and advertisements. Until then, a company called Curalate has taken one giant step toward monetizing insta-likes and is attempting to turn Instagram into a giant online catalogue with their application called Like2Buy.

What is Like2Buy

The application is called Like2Buy. Basically, a link is placed in the profile of the Instagram account.

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This link then takes users to an online catalogue that looks almost exactly like instagram.

 

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Then, if a user clicks on a pic, they are transported to the actual product listing on the retail site. Also, if you have liked images that are featured items, Like2Buy will bookmark those for you in their “My Likes” section.

 

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The Good

Like2Buy presents products to consumers in a native fashion. The app also enables consumers to bookmark or save images, so they can buy the product later.

 

The Bad

Like2Buy does not integrate with Instagram as seamlessly as you would think. Individual product information is not actually linked directly to each Instagram image. In fact, if I see some cool boots on a cool dude and I think I want those cool boots too, users have to “Like” the image, navigate to the company profile, click the Like2Buy link, click the “My Likes” button, click the image AGAIN, and THEN users will be on the retail listing….

I would prefer if there was a direct link to each product on each picture. Like this:

like2buy review

Secondly, since the referral traffic is browsing your products with the app (not your retail site) and only visiting your site when viewing the specific product listing, each site visit is counted as a Page Bounce if the visitor doesn’t traffic any other pages before returning to Instagram.

Finally, the only pictures displayed behind the Like2Buy link are the ones that have been tagged for use with the application. So, if you don’t use the extension very much, you risk sending visitors to an underwhelming catalogue. Or, even worse, showcasing sold out products will – AGAIN – send your Bounce Rate through the digital roof.

After reviewing Like2Buy, the app is great in concept, but underwhelming in application.

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For more info about Social Media and Digital Marketing, check out the Clix Blog.

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