Social Commerce for Pharma and Healthcare: How Amazon’s Recent Changes Impact POP 

Amazon’s recent roll out of in-app shopping and checkout on social channels connects a user’s Meta Facebook and Instagram accounts, Snapchat, and Pinterest accounts directly to Amazon. This allows users to check out from Ads on the social channels without having to navigate out to Amazon. With the direct connection to the users’ Amazon account, the ads will be able to display real-time pricing, Prime eligibility, delivery estimates and product details on select Amazon product ads.  

This presents a shift in direction, particularly for Meta, where brands have been building and maintaining storefronts on Facebook and Instagram for quite some time, as the two walled gardens come together to merge Amazon’s intent-based and Meta’s discovery-based applications. What will really be interesting to keep an eye on is how the integration of data between the two platforms evolves. For now (at least) data sharing is limited to mostly engagement data to help inform Amazon’s ad targeting. Shopping actions from Amazon on the other hand will not be shared with Meta (again, for now.) 

But what does this mean for healthcare and pharma? Right now, there is the potential for future innovation that will require changes in how we view and interact with our health-related needs (not to mention advertising and privacy policies) and if any potential innovations will actually improve them. Online pharmacies are nothing new, including on Amazon. With integrations like this, we could see a future where a user’s Amazon Pharmacy account is also connected to their social media accounts, triggering ads for a user to refill their existing prescription with one click from their Facebook feed. Reminders to refill and ease of access could significantly improve adherence. Out of refills? Ads could also include the option to request a new Rx from your doctor.  

HCPs could benefit as well, with ads for point of care products such as rapid tests and supplies all available within one click in their LinkedIn feed. On the consumer OTC end, there’s also potential for ads based on purchase history for regularly used products like vitamin supplements, allergy medications or diabetes management.  

This is very much of course wishful thinking for now, but the potential is there and the groundwork to set the stage for advancements like this is being laid out. Will this partnership between Amazon and social platforms continue to grow? Will Amazon start to adopt some of Meta’s capabilities? At the least, integrations like this could inspire innovators elsewhere to ideate and develop technologies that move us in that direction.