What you need to know
- Instagram is enabling fundraising and food order stickers to support small businesses.
- It'll partner with established services like ChowNow to enable food delivery in cities.
- The service will roll out in the U.S. and Canada first, with other countries earmarked to receive support in the coming weeks.
At a time where restaurants and small businesses are essentially out of business, Instagram is stepping in to help relieve the pressure a little and provide a small boost in cash flow. No, it's not donating funds at this time, but the social media company is making it easier for small businesses to use its platform to raise cash via their own customers.
The announcement came on Wednesday via blogpost:
Businesses can share new gift card, food order, and fundraiser stickers in Stories and on their profiles. When you see gift cards or food orders, you can tap to make your purchase through our partner's site. Fundraisers open on Facebook to a personal fundraiser created by business owners or their supporters. Gift cards and food orders for delivery and takeout are available in the US and Canada starting today and will roll out globally in the coming weeks, and fundraisers will be coming soon.
As an example of how these partnerships will work, TechCrunch reports that Instagram will work with ChowNow to enable food deliveries in Los Angeles. It'll probably do the same in other large cities, building on already established delivery services.
Instagram plans to bring this feature globally in the coming weeks, but it's starting with just the U.S. and Canada at the moment. It is not going to be nearly enough to make up for lost revenue brought in by organic foot traffic of bored workers, hungry students, and hungover clubbers, but restaurants and other small businesses will appreciate every little bit of help during these times.
