Meta announced three new commerce initiatives ahead of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, expanding its live shopping infrastructure, introducing virtual card checkout, and broadening its creator affiliate program across new markets and platforms.

The company said 3.5 billion people across its apps experience AI-enabled product discovery daily. The new tools are designed to convert more of those moments into purchases.

Live Video Ads

Meta is bringing Live Video Ads to Instagram and expanding the format globally on Facebook, enabling businesses to promote live video content and reach new audiences. In the United States, the company is partnering with live commerce platforms, including CommentSold, Firework, LiveMeUp, Sprii, and TalkShopLive, allowing sellers to convert eligible livestreams into ads targeting customers beyond their existing followers.

On Facebook, marketers can pair live video ads with Live Shopping Tools to create an in-stream experience where viewers browse products, check pricing, and make purchases without leaving the livestream.

Virtual Cards at Checkout

Starting this summer, Meta will roll out a virtual card checkout feature on Facebook and Instagram in partnership with Mastercard and Visa. The feature generates temporary, one-time card numbers from a shopper’s existing account, allowing transactions without requiring the direct sharing of credit card details with merchants. Meta said the feature aims to enhance consumer security and increase purchase confidence.

Affiliate Program Expansion

Meta is adding Flipkart in India and Mercado Libre in Brazil and Mexico to its Facebook affiliate partner network. Lazada will come to Facebook creators in Asia, and Flipkart will expand to Instagram creators in India. Creators can connect affiliate accounts to both Facebook and Instagram and embed affiliate product links directly into their content. When a viewer completes a purchase through a creator’s post, the creator earns a commission from the affiliate partner.

Creators in 22 countries can now add affiliate links or tag products from a brand’s catalog directly on Instagram, building on an affiliate tagging feature the platform introduced for Reels in late March 2026. When viewers tap tagged products, they are redirected to the brand’s app or website to complete purchases. 

The expansion marks Instagram’s return to affiliate commerce after a series of program closures between 2022 and 2025, during which the platform shut down its native affiliate program in August 2022, removed its Shop tab in January 2023, and ended live shopping in March of that year. Brands can make catalogs discoverable for creator search and tagging, and purchases can occur as viewers browse Reels and Feed content.

Product Data as Campaign Infrastructure

This summer, Meta will integrate product data as a foundational input across all Sales campaigns. Instead of selecting ad types manually, advertisers will supply product data and creative assets, and Meta’s ad system will assemble the best-performing ad format for each viewer in real time. Meta said product data will also enable products to surface in Meta AI Shopping mode, available to U.S. users in the Meta AI app, and in recommendations from Business Agents.

Image source: Meta

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