You'll be able to shop on Snapchat soon

Getty Images/Clemens Bilan

Snapchat has been working hard to develop its Discover feature, which is dedicated to third-party media content from major publishers, such as Comedy Central and Sports Illustrated.

Now, Snapchat board member Joanna Coles claims that the Discover feature will soon expand into e-commerce, allowing users to buy products from selected brands, reports Re/code.

Coles, who serves as the editor-in-chief at Cosmopolitan (which also happens to be a Discover partner), claims the e-commerce function will be introduced on the “Sweet” Discover channel.

“Sweet is a channel on Snapchat that Hearst and Snapchat have done together, and the tagline is ‘Love something new every day,’” Coles said. “But at some point that will morph into an e-commerce platform so you will be able to buy from it.”

Anyone who has watched Sweet’s content on Snapchat will understand why it makes a good fit for Snapchat’s move into online shopping. The channel often features products from brands, alongside short text descriptions and even the price. Therefore, it wouldn’t come as a surprise if Snapchat added a buy button next to some of Sweet’s featured items.

Cosmopolitan, which is part of the Hearst publishing stable, is also planning to go down the e-commerce route on the ephemeral messaging app. Speaking of Cosmopolitan’s efforts to generate revenue via its Snapchat channel, Coles said: “clearly [through] e-commerce but I don’t think necessarily the tech bit is quite there, quite yet for how we would like to do it.”

In regards to the tech, one advantage Snapchat has is that it already rolled out a payments feature in the form of its money transfer service, Snapcash. Access to its users’ payment information should make implementing the e-commerce function a lot smoother. We have reached out to Snapchat for a comment and will update the article accordingly.

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