Essence of Email Weekly - Instagram users can now buy products via DMs

What is it all about? At the beginning of this week, Meta's CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Instagram is introducing a new "payment in chat" feature in the US.

This new feature will give users the option to purchase products from small businesses and track orders in their direct messages. All they need to do is send a direct message to the brand that they want to purchase from and in the same chat thread, they will be able to pay and ask any follow-up questions they might have.

"You can now buy products from small businesses and track your order in chat on Instagram in the US. Pay with Meta Pay and checkout in a few taps," says Zuckerberg in his announcement post.

Once the buyer decides to make a purchase, the seller can create a payment request. When the buyer clicks on "Pay," they will be asked to add their payment information and shipping address.

This also proves to be a very convenient option for small businesses which don't use Shops since they will be able to discuss products, create orders, and accept payments without leaving the application. When they become ready to set up a digital storefront, they can use Shops on Facebook and Instagram.

All in all, let's not forget that buyers have been using Instagram for years to communicate with their favorite brands so this new feature facilitates even further the whole buying process. Also, it creates a more direct link between brands and buyers.

This just shows us that social commerce is booming more and more and it's soon going to become our normal way of shopping.



SOCIAL COMMERCE


YouTube's new shopping features + its partnership with Shopify


Source: Giphy
Zoom in: YouTube recently announced that it is launching several new shopping features. One of them is Youtube's newest partnership with Shopify. This integration will allow creators and merchants to feature their products on their channels and link their Shopify store to their YouTube channel.

Creators who link their stores will leverage Shopify's real-time inventory syncing. Additionally, creators based in the US can now enable onsite checkout so that viewers complete their purchases without leaving YouTube.

"Shopify is the commerce infrastructure of the internet, powering millions of independent businesses all over the world. We believe creators are the next generation of merchants, and YouTube has been a long-time leader in powering this new cohort of entrepreneurs. We're excited to partner with YouTube, and help scale the creator economy into its next phase of growth," says Kaz Nejatian, VP of Product at Shopify.

Additional deets: YouTube also announced that creators can now access live shopping features, such as the option to tag products to a livestream directly from the Live Control Room. Plus, they are introducing new tools within YouTube's Studio "Shopping" tab so that creators can easily manage how their products are tagged and appear across their channel.

All of these new features come as a result of YouTube's efforts to transform the platform into more of a shopping destination. For a more detailed overview of the new features, check out this article.



EMAIL DESIGN INSPO


Colors speak louder than words


Source: TheBetterCreative
Colors speak louder than words indeed.

The Better Creative used the theme of the campaign to create a REALLY amazing email design for their client Giften Market. The hero image especially caught our eye with its warmness.

They also successfully managed to transfer the idea of linking different product categories to colors and personality types. The design is clean and on-brand.

Keep up the great work, The Better Creative! ????