Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Tuesday (June 8) that the social media giant would be implementing new ways for content creators to make digital Instagram shops, Bloomberg reported.
Speaking during an event for social media influencers, Zuckerberg said Facebook plans to let creators add shops on their personal accounts and link merchandise from companies, including Fanjoy or Bravado, according to Bloomberg.
In addition, Facebook also wants to make it possible for users to get paid for promoting products via an affiliate tool, Bloomberg reported. That feature will let Instagram creators earn commission through purchases made through recommendations to followers, with brands selling at their own commission rates.
Facebook has spent the pandemic using its eCommerce offerings to draw in new customers while most brick-and-mortar operations were either shuttered or majorly slowed down, according to Bloomberg.
Both announcements come as Facebook and Instagram attempt to appeal to creators via new monetization tools amid an increase in competition from rivals, such as Snapchat and TikTok.
Other avenues to monetization that Facebook and Instagram announced in April include a marketplace for matching brands with creators who have markets that fit their content, PYMNTS reported.
As many social media creators get paid already for content, the new marketplace will strive to give Instagram a bigger role in matching the creators with brands. Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, said the company wants to be able to “help brands find creators that are uniquely aligned with the work they’re trying to do and vice versa.”
Last year, Instagram rolled out a Reels shopping feature. Reels are the short-form videos on Instagram.
“We don’t take these changes lightly — we haven’t updated Instagram’s home screen in a big way for quite a while,” Instagram said about the redesign in a November statement. “But how people create and enjoy culture has changed, and the biggest risk to Instagram is not that we change too fast, but that we don’t change and become irrelevant.”
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