Snapchat continues to grow in global dominance, but despite audiences being captivated by this social media phenomenon – brands and publishers struggle with how to incorporate it into their digital sales strategies. But now there’s a solution, with POPSUGAR CEO Brian Sugar developing a way to introduce commerce into Snapchat.
Welcome Emoticode – an ecommerce app that works with the common screenshot. The app converts links to a combination of two emojis and text characters which it can then read from a Snapchat screenshot. These Emoticodes can be added to the text bar of a Snap or the description of an Instagram post. Users are then able to take a screenshot of that post or Snap and, using the Emoticode app, can travel to the shortened link.
The app’s description explains this further: “An emoticode is a visual way to represent a URL. Think of it as a shortened URL for Snapchat, Instagram, and other apps that do not allow links. When you see an emoticode on your phone, take a screenshot of the screen. Then launch this app and the corresponding URL will be decoded.”
Discussing launching the app, POPSUGAR CEO Brian Sugar says: “It was clear that people wanted to take action from our Snaps and it wasn’t as easy as it could be. The lightbulb went off. It works for shopping. It will work for recipes, workouts, articles, really anything you want to engage more with beyond a Snap or an Instagram post.”
Allure Media group publisher Alison Rice adds: “If you read POPSUGAR, you’ll know we’re big on a life hack. And our always-innovating global partners take the same approach to emerging platforms our readers are engaging with.
“We all wanted to understand how to best monetise Snapchat, but furthermore for POPSUGAR and ShopStyle, leverage our influencer communities like ShopStyle Collective – the captive shopping audience. Screenshotting is a natural Snapchat behaviour. Brian Sugar’s lightbulb moment was creating an ecommerce hack and companion app to make money off that behaviour. Also: Emojis.”
Image: Digiday
