Amazon Partners With Meta and Snap to Revolutionize Social Commerce

By Ranjit Mulgaonkar and Maya Mulgaonkar

In November, Amazon announced another ground-breaking partnership with Meta (Facebook’s parent company) and SNAP to revolutionize social commerce. Social commerce, the fusion of social media and e-commerce marketing, is being chased by Meta with Instagram and Facebook, as well as by Tagshop, Snapchat, Google (YouTube), Pinterest, TikTok, Bazaarvoice, and many more companies.

Social commerce is driving an increasing portion of marketing-driven revenue for e-commerce businesses. According to McKinsey, retail social commerce sales in the U.S. amounted to $45.7 billion in revenue in 2022. Experts predict that number will hit close to $80 billion by 2025.

With the seamless integration between Meta/Snap and Amazon, customers can now buy Amazon products on Meta’s Facebook and Instagram and Snap without leaving the apps. By partnering with Amazon, Meta can make it easier to allow shops to sell goods on Facebook and Instagram without creating custom storefronts on those apps. Amazon extends their reach and helps merchants selling on Amazon find new customers that maybe haven’t searched for them.

As explained by Amazon: “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. 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. 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. 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.”

Why Now?

These partnerships allow Meta and Snap to compete directly with TikTok, which is introducing shoppable videos and live shopping through TikTok Shop. It allows Amazon to compete against Chinese e-commerce rivals like Temu and Shein as they increasingly try to break into the U.S. and global markets.

Both Meta and Amazon stand to benefit from the partnership in terms of revenue. Meta can get better ad signals and more attributable conversions. Amazon can secure more transactions from a large discovery platform. 

User Experience

Clicking on an Amazon ad on Facebook or Instagram now reveals a stripped-down version of the Amazon product page, complete with a prominent “Buy with Amazon” button. That means less friction for shoppers and more conversions for sellers. For shoppers, however, linking their Amazon and Meta accounts is an optional process. They can choose whether to connect their Meta and Amazon accounts together to experience a more unified shopping experience. 

Image credit: Meta

The ads on Meta/Snap will display the up-to-date pricing information from Amazon. Amazon will share limited activity data with Meta but will not share a consumer's specific shopping actions "like purchases, product views, or searches" on Amazon.

Benefits for Shoppers

There is a seamless shopping experience directly within the social media apps they are already using to browse products. Shoppers can get real-time pricing, Prime eligibility, accurate delivery estimates, and product details without leaving Facebook or Instagram. With fewer clicks, the checkout process is also streamlined. 

Benefits for Sellers

Sellers can create data-driven marketing campaigns by measuring external traffic, clicks, add-to-cart metrics, sales, and more using the Amazon Attribution tool.

Final Thoughts

This partnership between Amazon and Meta marks a pivotal moment in social commerce. By merging e-commerce and social media, the partnership aims to provide users with a more integrated and efficient shopping experience and sellers new channels and new customers to sell their products to.

Image credit: Meta

Both Meta and Snap announced partnerships with Amazon to introduce shopping features to Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. The collaborations are a competitive step against TikTok that encourages users to shop spontaneously while they use the site.

Ranjit Mulgaonkar is founder and CEO and Maya Mulgaonkar is vice president of client services at Flatworld Group, a full-service Amazon agency that helps brands to be successful on Amazon. They can be reached, respectively, via email at ranjit@flatworldgroup.com and maya@flatworldgroup.com. For more on Flatworld Group, click here.