Snapchat taps into social selling boom with launch of dynamic ads

To tap into the swift shift in D2C and retailer ecommerce brought about by the coronavirus pandemic, Snapchat has joined the social media foray into ecommerce with the launch of dynamic ads.

Piloted in October 2018, the offering makes it easier for retailers and brands to set up shop on the picture messaging app and will allow anyone with a dynamic product catalogue to serve up dynamic product ads anywhere in the world.

The service will be free and is designed to allow retailers and brands to showcase their products and services in a professionally laid-out way, with a range of custom formats – saving advertisers time when building campaigns and allowing them to more easily respond to the rapidly changing consumer habits exemplified by the lockdown.

The move comes as Facebook made a play to tap into the burgeoning mobile ecommerce market last month with the launch of Facebook Shop and comes hot on the heels of Amazon and Google ramping up online shopping strategies as more shoppers than ever switch – and look likely to stay switched on – to ecommerce.

Facebook Shop allow retailers to create a single online selling presence on the platform and to sell from user’s feeds. It also will be closely allied to the company’s other social media selling tools on Instagram, which it launched last year.

It is also believed that the Shops tool will also work with the company’s proposed cryptocurrency, Libra, announced last year and which has failed to gain any real traction since.

Social media is poised to play a key role in marketing and selling in the post-lockdown world, giving brands, retailers and D2C players the ability to not only reach and engage with consumers, but to make that engagement now shoppable.