Shopping via Snapchat may be on the way

By Ian P. Murphy | February 19, 2016

Dive Brief:

• Snapchat’s Discover—a page featuring channels of suggested content—may soon offer opportunities to browse and buy. 
• Produced by Hearst, the direct-to-Snapchat Sweet channel will “at some point” turn into an e-commerce platform, Cosmopolitan editor Joanna Coles, who sits on the Snapchat board, told Re/Code. 
• Snapchat so far has offered no e-commerce capabilities, but does offer a money-transfer product called Spring. 

Dive Insight:

Hearst’s hip Snapchat "magazine," Sweet, may look more like a catalog before long. Or as Joanna Coles told the Re/code Code/Media conference this week, Sweet will eventually “morph into an e-commerce platform so you will be able to buy from it.”

Coles further stated that Hearst was looking to build revenues online, but the technology isn’t there yet. Snapchat, too is looking to build revenues, and has introduced fee-for-service functions for advertisers looking to thwart the now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t nature that provides the app’s foundation.

Snapchat also offers Snapcash money transfers and has partnered with Spring on shopping. Already popular amongfashionistas and other tastemakers, if Snapchat can harness click-to-buy capabilities, the app could prove to be a powerful way to reach young millennials and the generation that follows.