Photo Sharing to E-Commerce

When I first found out about this app almost 2 years ago, I really wanted it because the filters and the idea of posting just photos is so cool. Just so you know, I'm a very frsutrated photographer. Mahehehe~ As far as I can remember, Instagram can only be downloaded on Apple products such as iPhones and iTouch (and iPad, not sure)... so I was kinda sad because I wanted the app so bad. I even had to borrow my friend's phones to just take photos and have a post in Instagram. But when it became available for other app stores like GooglePlay, I was jumping in joy. I first owned a Samsung P1000 tablet and I used that to take my first Instagram photos however, since it's like one of the pioneering tablets of Samsung, the quality of the photos were not so good and it doesn't turn out nice in IG.

Finally, when I had the chance to ask my parents for a gift, I asked an iPhone 5 (also because my Blackberry Torch was already dying). I imagined myself always taking photos of myself and the things around me and posting it on Instagram. Never did I imagine that I will be using it for something more... productive.

Remember how Multiply and Facebook started as a simple social networking sites and turned to an e-commerce site? That's what exactly is happening in Instagram. I believe that the reason why it is more profitable and easy for online shops to sell items there is because one can easily browse through the items. You only need a username to go to a shop's account to see ALL their products. Unlike in Facebook, one still needs to go through the timeline or the numerous albums before actually seeing the items. To cut it short: Instagram is more organized in terms of photo sharing which gives buyers convenience. Ooh! Not to forget the supposedly powerful and helpful hashtags. I used the word supposedly since most of the shops in Instagram doesn't seem to know how to use them properly. This makes the hashtag no longer useful for both buyers and sellers. If only the hashtags were used appropriately, I seriously believe that Instagram would be the best ecommerce site... for now. Let's see what comes up next. Hmm. I plan to fully blog about how useful Instagram and apps are (esp if you're an iPhone owner) for online selling. Will make a separate blog for it soon. Hihi. By the way, I have a few IG recommended shops listed at the side bar of this blog (just scroll downd a little more). These are the shops I will be featuring soon in this blog. Their products are wonderful and so are the sellers so watch out for it too. Anyway, I just wanted to blog about the evolution of the typical social networking sites specifically Instagram to an ecommerce platform. Uhm, do you have an idea of the next "in" site or app?