Amazon looks set to start buying ad space on social media platform Snapchat in the US.

According to a statement from Amazon sent to Reuters, the ecommerce leader will allow Snapchat users in the US to buy products directly through the app. Users will be able to shop directly from Snapchat ads and check out without leaving the app.

The report notes that the partnership will present users with details like real-time pricing, Prime shipping eligibility, delivery estimates and product details.

The news, earlier reported by The Information, would serve as a boost to Snapchat owner Snap after the company posted better-than-expected revenue and user growth in its latest quarter.

For Amazon, the deal will serve as its latest attempt to utilise social media at a time when TikTok is aggressively expanding into ecommerce. TikTok Shop launched in the US in September, a market where the app has over 150 million users predominantly in the millennial, gen z and gen alpha age brackets.

Last week, Amazon announced a similar deal with Facebook owner Meta. Amazon customers can now link their Facebook and Instagram accounts to their Amazon account to shop through Meta’s social apps and check out with their saved Amazon payment and shipping information.

That tie-up in particular has raised alarms with privacy-conscious critics, who have noted that the integration of the accounts circumnavigates Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) policy which was introduced in 2021. This policy, which Meta has historically opposed, compels app operators to ask users for permission to share their data if their app collects data about end users and shares it with other companies for purposes of tracking across apps and websites.

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