Canadian e-commerce company Shopify said on Tuesday it would expand its payment option, “Shop Pay,” to all users choosing to sell on Facebook and Instagram. The move marks the first time the feature will be available outside Shopify’s platform and will help the company tap into the rise of shopping through social media platforms during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The option would become available to Shopify merchants selling products in the US through Instagram on Tuesday and will be rolled out on Facebook within the coming weeks, the company said in a blog post. Social media shoppers will be able to use Shop Pay alongside other payment options on the social media company’s payments system Facebook Pay.
The company says consumers on Instagram and Facebook will see Shop Pay as a payment option in Facebook Pay with this integration, It says that Shop Pay pre-populates user details and speeds them through “the most efficient and secure way to pay on the Internet — directly on Instagram and Facebook”. After making the purchase, consumers will also be able to track orders and see the carbon emissions offset from their purchases. Shopify says that Shop Pay offsets 100 percent of the delivery emissions for every order.
“People are embracing social platforms not only for connection, but for commerce,” said Carl Rivera, General Manager of Shop at Shopify. “Making Shop Pay available outside of Shopify for the first time means even more shoppers can use the fastest and best checkout on the Internet. And there’s more to come: we’ll continue to work with Facebook to bring a number of Shopify services and products to these platforms to make social selling so much better.”