Sociable: Unveiling the Meta-Amazon Partnership to Simplify Shopping on Facebook and IG

“Sociable” provides insightful commentary on significant social media developments and trends by industry expert Andrew Hutchinson from Social Media Today.

A recent conversation emerged this week regarding a fresh collaboration between Amazon and Meta. This arrangement will allow Facebook and IG users to conveniently buy Amazon products directly within their social media streams.

In this sequence shared by Maurice Rahmey on Threads, the latest Amazon/Instagram integration showcases how users can conveniently link their Instagram and Amazon accounts. This integration allows for effortless one-click purchases directly from Instagram, eliminating the need to navigate away from the platform.

Amazon has announced that customers can now conveniently shop their Facebook and Instagram ads without having to leave the social media apps. This new experience allows customers in the U.S. to access real-time pricing, check for Prime eligibility, view delivery estimates, and access product details directly on select Amazon product ads on Facebook and Instagram.

Which is interesting, though not a major revolution, as you can already purchase via most Facebook and IG ads when you tap through.

So it’s not that big of a deal, but then again…

Here's

The integration of data between Meta and Amazon is a crucial aspect, allowing them to share valuable insights for enhancing relative marketing strategies, improving ad performance (through sales data), and more. However, the current situation does not align with this.

The fine print in the explainer notes regarding the linking of your IG account states that Amazon can show current product prices on ads, taking into account information from your Amazon account, such as whether you are a Prime subscriber or not.

Amazon will provide Meta with limited in-app activity data to display more relevant product ads. The ads shown will be based on your interaction with ads on their platform. Although the data transfer is not extensive, the engagement activity may enhance the effectiveness of Amazon's ad targeting.

However, it is important to note that Amazon will not disclose your individual shopping activities, such as purchases, product views, or searches on Amazon, in order to enhance Meta's ad targeting. Therefore, the partnership will not lead to significantly improved ad targeting on Meta, and the shared data is restricted in scope. Nevertheless, this collaboration could potentially increase user interactions with Amazon ads on Facebook and Instagram, as well as boost in-app shopping, contributing to Meta's focus on commerce.

Similar to Schrodinger's commerce push, the existence of this phenomenon is uncertain, depending on the timing of inquiry. Meta has mostly abandoned its live-stream shopping plans and has removed dedicated shopping tabs on Facebook and Instagram. Nevertheless, like other social platforms, Meta is still attempting to establish a presence and perhaps develop a new avenue for in-app shopping by forming a more direct connection with Amazon. This is because Amazon has a considerable number of Prime subscribers in the United States, totaling over 167 million.

Though there was initial excitement regarding the potential data exchange and the ability to evade the impact of Apple's iOS 14 update, which has limited purchase tracking through Meta's apps, the actual flow of data is relatively restricted.

But it’s worthy of note either way, and could have some value for Amazon merchants.