Meta may have abandoned its live shopping efforts on Facebook and Instagram, but the social networking company still believes in the potential of its apps as a shopping platform. That leads to today’s news that the company is now working with Amazon to let customers link their Facebook and Instagram accounts to their Amazon account and then shop via Meta’s social apps, where they can check payment information saved on Amazon and have it shipped to Amazon’s saved mailing address.
“For the first time, customers will be able to shop Amazon ads on Facebook and Instagram and check out Amazon without leaving social media apps,” Callie Jernigan, an Amazon spokesperson, confirmed in a statement to TechCrunch. “U.S. customers will see real-time prices, initial eligibility, delivery estimates, and product details on select Amazon product ads on Facebook and Instagram as part of the new experience,” she said.
Amazon also indicated that the new in-app shopping feature will be available for select products advertised on Facebook or Instagram and sold by Amazon or by independent sellers on the Amazon storefront.
To get started, this is a quick, one-time setup where customers will link their Meta account (either Facebook or Instagram) to their Amazon account. After this process is complete, they can review Amazon from the product ad itself, without leaving their Facebook or Instagram app. The default shipping address and Amazon payment information will be used to complete the sale.
News of the deal was first leaked by Meta and Google Ads partner and co-CEO of Disruptive Digital, Maurice Rahmi. In a post on LinkedIn, He explained the benefits of the deal, noting that Meta will get better targeting and optimization using information from Amazon and stores that offer Buy with Prime to show consumers ads. This can lead to better conversion rates too, as customers can check out more quickly. Additionally, Meta will be able to customize ad and product page messaging based on whether a user is a Prime member or not, and then adjust other information such as real-time pricing or shipping estimates, as needed.
Image credits: Screenshot from Maurice Rahmi Share LinkedIn
“While additional details are still scarce, this partnership could be a tremendous revenue opportunity for Meta, Amazon, and, more importantly, advertisers,” Rahmy wrote, adding that Meta will get more ad signals and more attributable conversions, while Amazon will get More transactions. One of the great discovery platforms.
Additionally, Rahmini wrote, “Because of this partnership’s shared data, this also bypasses any challenges to Apple’s app tracking transparency policy, meaning a true closed-loop performance engine.”
Meta has opposed Apple’s App Tracking Transparency, or ATT, feature since introducing the privacy feature in 2021, claiming it would hurt small businesses that rely on its personalized ads.
Elsewhere, among its e-commerce initiatives, Meta has converted its store sellers to use it A special checkout experience On Facebook and Instagram. dead It charges a processing fee on those salesExcept for Shopify-powered stores. Since Amazon is processing its own payments as part of this new deal, it doesn’t appear that Meta will be changing fees here.
Amazon benefits from this new arrangement as well. Over the years, the e-commerce giant has tried to create its own versions of social apps like Instagram and TikTok, but it has never succeeded. It shuttered its Instagram-like Spark service in 2019, then late last year launched a TikTok-like shopping feed that supported both photos and videos. The service, known as Inspire, became available to all US customers in May. But compared to TikTok itself, Inspire feels overly commercial, lacking the more impactful influencer content that drives sales.
The Meta-Amazon deal comes at a time when TikTok itself is now trying to compete with Amazon, serving as a discovery engine and e-commerce storefront. With the launch of TikTok Shop, which launched in the US in September, TikTok could reach more than 150 million users. Despite Amazon’s size and influence, this could be seen as a real threat, especially given TikTok’s reach to younger millennial and Gen Z (and even to some extent Gen Alpha) consumers.
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