Instagram is the ultimate inspiration board. People use it to collect places they want to go, people they wish they could meet and products they hope to buy.

In fact, Instagram is the social network that people say influences their purchases the most, according to a 2017 Dana Rebecca Designs survey. 72 percent of people said they bought an item after seeing it on Instagram.

The latest research, which was just released by Facebook, details exactly what people are buying and what their shopping journey looks like. Conveniently, this research debuted a day after Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, rolled out new shopping features.

Read on to learn how your business can take hold of this trend.

How People Shop on Instagram and Facebook

Note: All data below unless otherwise noted is from Facebook IQ’s September 2018 report.

What do they buy the most?

38 percent of people discover new household staples, 35 percent opt for media and entertainment purchases and 33 percent are looking for new apparel and accessories.

How do they decide if they should make the purchase?

First, they tap. More than 90 million accounts tap to reveal tags in shopping posts every month on Instagram, according to 2018 Instagram data.

From there, people want recommendations before splurging. They’re asking their friends, family and personal social following for their opinions.

Specifically, people want to hear about others’ past purchases and product recommendations. They may also shoot a message to the brand on Facebook Messenger.

When they’re ready to buy, where do they go?

Surprisingly, most people still opt to buy in-store (except for those making a media or entertainment purchase). If the mobile shopping experience was better or if people could buy with one click, they’d do more online shopping. For now, though, they’re still trekking to the store — but not before they check out the product online.

How You Can Make It Easier for People to Buy on Instagram

People want to shop online, but they want it to be as easy as possible! Use Instagram’s latest features to make that happen.

Instagram shoppable tags

You can now add a product sticker to your Instagram Stories, which will display product information and link right to the purchase page.

The feature already launched, so you can start doing this right away — if you’re an approved business. That means you’ve got to have a business profile that sells physical products and connects to a Facebook catalog.

Once you’ve done that, you can tag products in your Stories and on posts on the feed. Cha-ching!

Instagram shopping channel

After you start publishing shoppable content, Instagram may feature you! They just launched a shopping channel that will appear in users’ Explore tab.

There, people can tap "Shopping" and discover products personalized to their interests and tastes. It’s a whole other way for people to find your company’s products. Plus, if they like what they see, all they need to do is tap to order.