Fashion

You Can Now Use Snapchat To Shop

by Jessica Thomas

Snapchat has joined the leagues of social media companies that are taking advantage of bloggers and brands' massive followings to monetize their content. According to The Hollywood Reporter's Pret-A-Porter blog, Snapchat has teamed up with with ShopStyle to make shopping on Snapchat a reality. The social media app and the e-commerce giant are working with five major fashion bloggers to create an exclusive pop-up website for Snapchat shopping.

The Snapchat and ShopStyle collaboration is only around for a week, but if it's successful, it could mean more e-commerce initiatives for the app. The two companies enlisted Jacey Duprie of Damsel in Dior, Natalie Suarez of Natalie Off Duty, Geri Hirsch of Because I'm Addicted, Courtney Trop of Always Judging, and Christine Andrew of Hello Fashion to test out this project.

The bloggers are all considered "influencers" with huge numbers of fans on social media, including Snapchat. While brands are entering the Snapchat game, they have much better luck promoting their products on social media through bloggers who already have significant fan bases.

Each blogger in the campaign put together a selection of products they'll feature in their Snapchat stories all week, with directions to visit the Official Snap Hub to purchase those products. According to a Digiday article about the campaign, Duprie said followers would post on her Twitter or Instagram asking about the brands featured on her Snapchat. This collaboration was a natural progression.

Although exiting the app and typing in a web address isn't as simple as clicking a button to buy a product, this collaboration is probably the first of many steps Snapchat will take to make it more e-commerce viable.