Recently announced by Facebook (or Meta, depending on how old you are) founder Mark Zuckerberg through an Instagram post, users in the US will soon be able to make purchases on Instagram through a DM – from inquiries to payment. This streamlining of the entire process creates more e-commerce opportunities for small businesses and retail giants on the platform.

According to Meta, billions of people communicate using their services on a daily basis. While a lot of these are mostly for personal relationships, Meta and its subsidiaries also act as the ground for a multitude of business transactions. As such, they want brands to be able to communicate more easily with their consumer base and are willing to develop new features to accommodate requests and address pain points in usage.

Making purchases has never been easier. The transaction can be finished end-to-end without ever leaving the chat. An order can be placed, and even payment and tracking can be done through the Instagram DM feature. This includes both requesting from the seller side and sending from the buyer side of things.

Expectedly, not just any Instagram store can access this new feature. They must pass a certain list of qualifications set by Meta in order to avail of this service – and with enough transactions done, an official Instagram or Facebook Shop can be launched if the owner so desires.

Payments can be done through Meta Pay, which is covered by certain protections, security, and privacy settings.

We can now see that Meta is moving forward by allowing Instagram shops to accept payment through DM features on the application. Beyond this, it is even protected by the app’s security itself.

Hopefully, this feature (as well as Subscribers) makes its way to our country to make online shopping a lot easier – if that’s not a bad thing for you and your wallet.