Deeper Dive On…Nordstrom

Nordstrom Inc. has become the first retailer to launch the Like2Buy platform, which allows Nordstrom.com customers to directly purchase items featured on the retailer’s Instagram page. The commerce-enablement of visually oriented social platforms, such as Instagram, Pinterest and Vine, is an inevitable development as social media becomes more focused on photos and videos and less on text. The preference most Millennials have for visually oriented social media reinforces the value that commerce enabling these platforms has for retailers.

(See original story)



However, Nordstrom’s Like2Buy rollout has a couple of interesting wrinkles. As previously covered in “Deeper Dive,” both Facebook and Twitter are tinkering with their own direct e-commerce functionality, while to date Instagram can only be directly enabled for e-commerce via third-party solution. But considering Instagram is owned by Facebook, it is presumably a matter of time before this changes.



In addition, it is interesting that a retailer targeting an older, more established base such as Nordstrom is pioneering Instagram e-commerce, as opposed to a more youth-oriented retailer. But Nordstrom has also been in pioneer in tying Pinterest to the in-store shopping experience, so perhaps it is indicative of a broader willingness to innovate in the social/omnichannel space.