Lots of businesses use Instagram as part of their social media promotions. But now you can actually use Instagram as an e-commerce platform. Spreesy is a social commerce solution that allows people to buy and sell items directly on Instagram.
Co-founders Spencer Costanzo and Braydon Batungbacal developed the service while working on another project.
“After spending months developing a marketplace app, we were exhausted and looking for ways to quickly scale with no money,” Costanzo explained in an email interview with Small Business Trends.
“We realized that were tons of people selling on Instagram so we brainstormed on how we could leverage that audience,” he added. “After a few hours we came upon a method that would simplify Instagram commerce, and Spreesy was born. That night we dropped the project that we’d spent so many months working on because we felt that we could have far more impact with Spreesy.”
To use the service, businesses and individuals can sign up with their Instagram account on Spreesy’s website. From there, they can simply post pictures of their products as they normally would on Instagram. Then anyone on the platform can buy products by commenting on the photos with their email address. Spreesy will send them a bill via PayPal. They pay. And the seller sends out the product.
Unlike other online selling platforms, Spreesy charages a flat $15 per month regardless of the number of transactions, the company’s website claims.
Before Spreesy, businesses could use a similar method to sell on Instagram. But they would have to bill customers manually. And using a more traditional e-commerce method would require customers to actually click a link in the Instagram user’s profile or perform a Google search.
Spreesy doesn’t require users to leave Instagram to complete their purchase, which can be a huge benefit since consumers tend to have very short attention spans. Any steps you can take out of the buying process means more potential for sales. So aside from being easy to use, this type of platform could lead to increased sales overall.
Batungbacal told Small Business Trends:
“Spreesy fully enables businesses and individuals using Instagram to sell directly to where their potential customers are the most engaged and receptive.”
Very cool concept, and I like the result.
But knowing the number of scammers & spammers out there, I’m hesitant to comment with my email address.
Is there someone from Spreesy out there for comment?
~Keri
Spreesy
Hi!
Thanks for the question. We haven’t found scammers to be a problem thus far, but we completely understand the concern. As soon as you’ve commented your email address on a Spreesy-enabled post and received your checkout link, you can then optionally delete the email comment.
Email us with any questions: Support@Spreesy.com
Thanks!
Annie Pilon
Thanks for the response! And great question, Keri. But I’m glad to hear it hasn’t been a problem thus far.
Aira Bongco
I’m pretty sure the IG shop owners will be excited with this. This is because there are so many sellers on Instagram that they are not able to sell on auto. I guess this is a nice way to automate their sales.
Annie Pilon
Yes, it definitely seems like this would make the whole process easier.
Roxanne
Looking forward to trying Spreesy out!
Nice and helpful information provided by you. Thank