Different social media and videos-sharing platforms are hell-bent on getting you to whip out your wallet. TikTok holds live shopping events in other countries. It partners with companies and influencers to sell products during live streams. It’s really popular in the Asian markets, but not in Europe or in the US.
Instagram lets you shop for items in the chat
Today in a blog post, Meta announced a new initiative to help businesses sell to customers in different ways. When you’re chatting with a business, you’ll be able to actually purchase items right in chat. You won’t need to leave at all during the whole transaction. How this works, you’ll talk about what item you want, and how you want it. After you decide on what you want, the business will send you a request for the payment, and that request will be in the form of a chat message. When you tap on the request, a payment window will come up in the chat where you can input the details you need to. After that point, the business will receive the money and begin processing your order. You’ll be able to ask any relevant follow-up questions about the order in the chat.
A couple of things to keep in mind
Now, don’t expect to talk 1-on-1 with Nike or Apple. This is mostly for small businesses. So, you’ll be communicating with the Mom & Pop T-shirt maker or baker for your orders. Now, in order for a business to sell products to you via the Instagram chat, it will need to be verified through Instagram. This way, you know that the business is trustworthy. When you process your payment, you’ll be using Meta Pay as the method of payment. After the end of the transaction, you’ll probably be in contact with the seller for updates on the order and the shipping information. This feature is available now for people to try out. If you don’t see the option, you’ll need to make sure you’re on the latest version of the Instagram app.
