Is Your Business Ready? Meta Commerce Changes Are Just Six Months Away.

Entrepreneurs, don’t dawdle. Meta’s eCommerce changes kick in soon.   

What does it mean for your business?

Starting in April, if your Facebook and Instagram shops don’t let users make purchases via in-app checkout (put another way, if you send users to a third-party website or platform to complete their purchase), your shop – that is, your product catalog – will no longer be accessible to users.

Losing your shop means losing your ability to:

• Tag products in posts (especially critical on Instagram, where links aren’t allowed in posts – only stories)
• Identify and create qualified ad targets
• Pursue catalog-related remarketing efforts
• Run campaigns utilizing your product catalog
• Let users easily click through your post and make a purchase from your catalog without using ad dollars – huge opportunity loss for your business considering Meta has 3+ billion users worldwide and is free.  

The timeline

Meta shopping updates take effect on April 24^th, 2024, when Facebook and Instagram shops without in-app Checkout will be shuttered. Per Meta, “This includes shops that use Checkout with messaging and shops that direct people to an eCommerce site to complete a purchase, rather than allowing people to make a purchase directly through Facebook or Instagram.”

At a high level, though, changes have already begun. This past June, onboarding of new shops via Meta eligible partners Commerce Manager and Shopify was limited to shops with in-app Checkout. The same limitation was applied to new shops via other eligible partners on August 10^th.

What to do?

Already have Meta in-app Checkout up and running? No action is needed.

If Meta is part of your larger marketing strategy and sales funnel but you don’t have in-app Checkout, don’t wait. Check that you meet Meta’s Commerce eligibility requirements. Then head to Meta Business Suite and set up Checkout immediately.

The silver lining to this Facebook and Instagram shopping update? Meta in-app Checkout has many inherent benefits. Customers enjoy a more seamless experience with Meta than with other apps and platforms. Checkout is also likely to provide a more secure option for payments and payment processing than other platforms you might be currently using. Plus, users who already shop on Meta are therefore familiar with Checkout and will be more willing to make purchases through this system than with an alternative.

Need help with Checkout – or with larger eCommerce success?

Plenty of businesses know they need to implement Checkout but are hesitant to activate it on their own. This is where Hammer Marketing can helps. We’ll get your shop up to speed before April. Even more, can get your shop ahead of the rest.

And remember, Meta is an important piece of the eCommerce puzzle, but still only one very small piece. If you have an eCommerce store but limited marketing knowledge (or time!), or if you lack strategy, hand our team the reins. We can help you decide the best outlets for online advertising (including, when applicable, other popular platforms, like TikTok), set up those marketing streams, maintain them, and make sure they’re performing at or above their goals, which evolve as your business grows.

In short, a digital marketing retainer with Hammer Marketing offers you all of the above via a dedicated digital marketing architect who strategizes and implements the utmost in digital marketing tactics, all customized to your exact business.

Not sure you can afford this? Another perspective: You can’t afford not to. One Hammer Marketing client increased their eCommerce revenue between 2022 and 2023 as follows:

Transactions: 45.47% increase

Google Ad return on ad spend (ROAS): 15.7% (for every $1 spent on ads, Google returned an astounding $9.95 in revenue)

Google Ads revenue (total brought in by Google Ads alone): 76.32%

Need to make changes to meet the new Meta checkout requirements – or want to elevate your eCommerce outcomes overall? Reach out to our team of paid social experts today.

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