Have you ever bought something on social? Seen a great product online and thought you need it right now? Back in the stone ages we would have to click on the product - be taken to the product page - asked to add item to a basket - confirm bank card details - finish purchase... BORING!!
You may have pressed cancel or back by now and left the purchase, not any more! Facebook has had this 'buy now' or 'shop now' feature for a while, you can view the product and spec on Facebook, press a button and be taken to checkout for an easy finish. Now Instagram and Snapchat are playing shop, nifty.
Snapchat recently launched it's own store to be able to purchase Snapchat swag, only available in the US at the moment but we're sure to see it in the UK very soon, the benefits to retail outlets with large followings on Snapchat is the disappearing snaps feature or stories to you and I.
Think if you saw an offer on the River Island snapchat story, this offer finished in 24 hours. Could you just leave it? No probably not and it's a sale!!
A shop feature on Snapchat could help the struggling social network, bring back users and open another revenue stream, not only in ads but through sales.