Instagram has added a ‘Shop Now’ button to its ads in efforts to expand the social media site into a functional e-commerce platform. By using data from Facebook, Instagram has been peddling ads for years now but I swear I’ve never seen one. In fact, I just power-scrolled for 2 minutes and wasn’t force-fed one single advert so I guess I’ll have to take their word for it.

The feature will appear beneath the bottom right of sponsored posts and if done well, could be a direct conduit to purchasing all the brands you follow or express interest in. How cool would it be to spot a new sneaker drop and be able to nab it immediately from your feed? Of course, that would be in a perfect world and it’s more likely that the Shop Now spots will be reserved for brands doing wider campaigns irrespective of who you follow. We can still dream.

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