Meta may have abandoned its efforts around live shopping on Facebook and Instagram, but the social networking company still believes in its apps’ potential as a shopping platform. That leads to today’s news that the company is now working with Amazon to allow customers to link their Facebook and Instagram accounts to their Amazon account to then shop through Meta’s social apps, where they can check out with their saved Amazon payment information and ship to their saved Amazon mailing address.
“For the first time, customers will be able to shop Amazon’s Facebook and Instagram ads and check out with Amazon without leaving the social media apps,” an Amazon spokesperson, Callie Jernigan, confirmed in a statement. “Customers in the U.S. will see real-time pricing, Prime eligibility, delivery estimates, and product details on select Amazon product ads in Facebook and Instagram as part of the new experience,” they said.
Amazon also noted 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 Amazon’s storefront.
To get started, it’s a quick one-time setup where customers will link their Meta accounts, either Facebook or Instagram, to their Amazon account. After this process is complete they can check out with Amazon from the product ad itself, without leaving their Facebook or Instagram app. Their default shipping address and payment information from Amazon will be used to complete the sale.
News of the deal was first leaked by a Meta and Google Ads partner, and co-CEO of Disruptive Digital, Maurice Rahmey. In a LinkedIn post, he explained the benefits of the deal, noting that Meta would gain better targeting and optimization by using information from Amazon and stores that offer Buy with Prime to show consumers ads. This would result in better conversion rates as well, as customers can check out more quickly. And Meta will be able to tailor the ads messaging and product page based on whether or not the user is a Prime member, then adjust other information like real-time pricing or shipping estimates, as needed.
Image Credits: screenshot from Maurice Rahmey’s LinkedIn post
“While additional details are still scarce, this partnership could be a massive revenue opportunity for Meta, Amazon, and most importantly, advertisers,” Rahmey wrote, adding that Meta will get more ads signal and more attributable conversions, while Amazon will get more transactions from large discovery platforms. (Amazon has tried over the years to create its own versions of social apps like Instagram and TikTok, but they have never really taken off.)
Plus, Rahmeny wrote, “Because of the shared data of this partnership, this also bypasses any challenges with Apple’s App Tracking Transparency policy, meaning a true closed loop performance engine.”
More to come…