Dive Brief:

• Following the lead of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest, which have all shop-enabled their respective social media outlets, Snapchat is stepping into e-commerce.
• The messaging app is partnering with ShopStyle, which is using five style bloggers to create Snapchat stories on what they are wearing, in an effort to drive traffic to a “shop Snapchat” store on ShopStyle’s website.
• Utilizing Snapchat influencers is a tactic marketers have also used on other social media platforms.

Dive Insight:

ShopStyle, the shopping search engine and sales aggregator, is bringing e-commerce to messaging platform Snapchat. The brand has employed five style bloggers to create Snapchat stories on what they are wearing including captions with links to ShopStyle’s Snapchat store landing page. ShopStyle has partnered with online retailer FarFetch for this marketing campaign. ShopStyle VP Melissa Davis said style bloggers and influencers are shifting from Instagram to the disappearing message site because Snapchat is seen as a more casual platform for engagement with their audience.

Davis said style bloggers found their audience was curious about where to find items worn in video and photos shared on Snapchat and ShopStyle wanted to take advantage of this interest and offer an e-commerce element to those Snapchat stories. Conversations surrounding shop-enabled social media have peaked in recent months as sites like Pinterest and Facebook add "buy" buttons to their pages. Pinterest is taking it a step further, offering marketers an advertising opportunity on its platform via buyable promoted pins.