Though Meta no longer offers live shopping on Facebook and Instagram, its apps still hold great promise as an online marketplace. Thus leading us to this announcement: Meta and Amazon Team have joined forces so consumers can shop using Meta by linking their Amazon and Facebook accounts allowing for seamless checkout that delivers directly to an Amazon postal address with protected payment data.
TechCrunch was informed by Callie Jernigan of Amazon that for the first time ever customers can now shop Amazon ads directly within Facebook and Instagram without leaving these social media apps and check out with Amazon directly without ever leaving these social networks.” U.S customers will see real-time pricing information such as Prime eligibility statuses and product details directly in these social networks, improving experience.
Amazon recently announced that their in-app shopping feature will soon become available for products advertised on social media, sold either by Amazon directly or independent merchants participating in Amazon Marketplace.
Customers need only complete an easy one-time setup process to connect their Amazon account to either Facebook or Instagram Meta accounts (Facebook and/or Instagram), then complete purchases directly through Amazon product ads without leaving either platform – using default mailing and payment information, rather than having to leave either app at all!
Maurice Rahmey, partner at Meta and Google Ads as well as co-CEO of Disruptive Digital was first to reveal details about this transaction on LinkedIn. In his post he highlighted its advantages – noting how Meta can gain from improved targeting and optimization by showing ads based on information provided from Amazon as well as merchants that offer Buy with Prime programs.
Meta can quickly accelerate checkout times for customers to increase conversion rates and modify other data as required, including delivery time estimates or real-time pricing, while adapting messaging and product pages according to each user’s Prime membership status.
Rahmey believes this partnership could create massive revenue opportunities for Meta, Amazon and most importantly advertisers.” She anticipates an increase in trackable conversions and signals while Amazon should see an upsurge in transactions across major discovery platforms.
Rahmeny also stated, “this partnership’s shared data helps overcome any complications with Apple’s App Tracking Transparency rules, providing a true closed loop performance engine”.
Meta and Amazon Join Forces on In-app Shopping App:
Meta and Amazon team up on new in-app shopping feature on Facebook & Instagram https://t.co/4Tx93OQbxd by @sarahpereztc
— TechCrunch (@TechCrunch) November 9, 2023
Meta has consistently opposed Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT), alleging it will harm small businesses reliant on personalized ads for revenue generation.
As part of its e-commerce operations, Meta has encouraged its Shop sellers to use its Facebook and Instagram checkout process instead of Shopify stores’ checkout process for sales transactions. As Amazon processes payments under this agreement, however, Meta won’t increase processing rates in this instance.
Amazon stands to gain from this new agreement as well. Their massive e-commerce business has attempted several times in the past to replicate popular social media apps like Instagram and TikTok; but these efforts never really materialized into success.
As part of its 2019 restructuring plan, Inspire announced it had discontinued the Instagram-esque Spark service and introduced an Inspire retail feed similar to TikTok that allows users to post videos and photos. All American subscribers to Inspire had access to it starting May compared with TikTok which relies more heavily on influencer marketing in order to grow revenues.
TikTok operates as an alternative storefront and search engine to Amazon known as Meta-Amazon agreements. Since launching TikTok Shop in September in the U.S., they now reach over 150 million users despite Amazon being substantially larger and powerfuler; particularly considering TikTok’s impact among younger Millennials and Gen Z (and to some degree Gen Alpha) consumers.
