Shop is the word

Estimated reading time: 3 mins 27 seconds

?? Facebook Shops

The newest update to Facebook (gradual global rollout) and Instagram (US only for now) aims to make shopping seamless and to empower small business owners and global brands alike.  Users can find Shops on a business page or profiles, or through stories or ads. Possible actions include browsing, saving products, sharing with friends, messaging seller (via Messenger, Direct Message or WhatsApp) and of course, purchasing.  Brands can build a lightly branded shop for free, but they chose to activate in platform checkout Facebook will take 5%. 

Why should you care? For brands this is a great opportunity to set up new store fronts, experiment and learn. But they should beware of losing clients to the platform; remember that Facebook is a tool but a website is an owned asset that should continue to provide value for clients, so they keep visiting. In addition, Shops ads a new challenge in the competitive landscape of e-comm suppliers (like Wix, Squarespace or an agency) and Marketplaces (Kijiji, eBay, MercadoLibre). Finally, as a marketer, I look forward to the promised next step, Live Shopping, which brings a new twist to content planning and creation. 

?? Pinterest launches more shopping features

Last week Pinterest began rolling out Shopping Spotlights, a feature that brings expert (a.k.a influencer and publisher) recommendations for fashion and home, to the search tab. In addition to editors’ picks, users will be able to easily shop curated ideas based on current Pinterest trends. Spotlights will be like articles featuring product Pins that link directly to in-stock retailer product pages. At launch, Pinterest is working with a handful of publishers only but plans to roll out Spotlights into an ad option. Seaking of ads, another addition to the platform's ad options is a new format that allows users to click on an image of a meal and move to Basketful (a third-party tech solution) to order all the ingredients and cook it at home.

Why should you care? Pinterest has recently (and finally!) been making lots of improvements and additions to its shop features and it's definitely a tool worth keeping tabs on. Considered more of a search engine than a social media platform, Pinterest users tend to have stronger intent and thus slide down the conversion funnel more smoothly, when served the right solution to their query, of course!

??? Shopify Reunite Happened

A whole suit of news form Shopify to support small businesses and small business shoppers in times of pandemic, and beyond. During Shopify Reunite we learned about:

• Access to more options for online shops, like collecting tips, offering curve-side pickup, and leveraging deep email capabilities. 
• Financial solutions for small businesses money management.
• The newly relaunched Shop app adding features like an easy way to track Shop Pay carbon emissions offset, real-time delivery updates and personalized recommendations.
• Payment options for shoppers who wish to pay for purchases in four equal instalments—interest-free and at no additional cost to them.

Why should you care? Keeping up with new solutions is not only useful if you want to take advantage of them, but also a good way to stay in touch with consumer trends and needs. I was particularly struck by the multiple payments option, which for years has been the only way to move the economy forward in third-world countries like my native Argentina, and is now suddenly a global need. What else can we learn about/for the future by looking around, attentively?

?? Cool example of the week 

Getting old but still sweetstory telling from Allbirds. A 30-sec below and a 60 sec here, and an audio version here. Also a great example of how a single brief with a strong insight can deliver many creative lives across formats and platforms. 

?? Keep your eyes peeled for

• The New York Times will no longer use Third Parties Cookies to target ads.
• YouTube continues to expand its TV offering, now with YouTube Select (ads product).
• One of the biggest Podcasts goes Spotify Exclusive
• BuzzFeed launches Quiz Parties so you can engage with friends on the site itself.
• Twitter testing new features: Fleets (stories) in Brazil and now new settings that let you chose who can reply to your tweets.
• Facebook Begins Testing Skippable Mid-Roll In-Stream Video Ads.
• #KeepItOn is a Twitter-supported campaign to end internet shutdowns globally.
• As Bap pointed out, The Bay is jumping on the Animal Crossing wagon.
• Instagram will share revenue with creators for the first time through ads in IGTV
• TikTok invests in a TV ad

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??I didn’t make any of this up! Aside from the hyperlinks in texts above, sources for this also include, Facebook's Newsroom, Marketing Land, Social Minds Daily updates,  Adweek Retail email, WARC, Pinterest Newsroom, Social Media Today, Shopify, Adweek artcile

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This is adapted from a newsletter I prepare for my colleagues at CloudRaker. Its goal, to highlight social media and content news or updates that are relevant from a digital strategy perspective. Here's last week's >