KUALA LUMPUR – Meta Platforms Inc today announced that businesses in Asia Pacific (Apac) will no longer be able to host shops on their Facebook or Instagram pages, or use product tagging in posts beginning August 10, except in seven markets where it sees a future opportunity to bring checkout to those markets.
The seven markets are Australia, South Korea, Taiwan, India, Japan, Indonesia and Thailand.
“In those selected markets, we’ll continue to support shops without checkout on Facebook and Instagram to make the transition as easy as possible,” it said in a statement.
Meta said businesses with shops located in all other markets across Apac will no longer be able to host shops on their Facebook or Instagram pages unless the shop has checkout enabled Facebook and Instagram in the US.
It added that businesses without accessible shops will no longer be able to use features associated with shops including product tagging in posts, reels, or stories, and creating new custom/look-alike audiences derived from people who visit shops.
On Instagram, ads with product tags will continue to be available to enable new and existing customers to discover products at scale via an experience independent of shops.
“Businesses actively leveraging ads with product tags do not need to take any action and their campaigns will continue uninterrupted,” Meta said.
However, businesses with shops located in 11 markets – namely Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and Ukraine will continue to be able to use Facebook and Instagram shops until further notice.
Meta encourages businesses to continue using a mix of its most performant free and paid tools to find customers and drive sales, including businesses that can invest their marketing spend smarter by connecting with customers based on their interests.
“Now globally available, Advantage+ shopping campaigns help businesses get smarter and faster about which campaigns are converting to maximise the return of investment of their ads investment,” it added.
It noted that businesses can create short-form video content to get discovered by customers not already following their brands.
Meta said reels are the fastest-growing format on Meta apps, and together with the feed, stories, and messaging, the company offers a suite of tools that enable businesses to share their brand stories, build connections, and grow their businesses.
Meanwhile, with messaging across WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram, businesses can message and run click-to-message ads that help connect them directly with shoppers as messaging allows businesses to sell, support, and market their products without leaving the chat thread. – Bernama, April 27, 2023
