EBay Inc. is preparing to join Meta Platforms Inc.’s latest push into creator-led commerce. The move comes as social media platforms race to bridge the gap between discovery and the final transaction.
Meta is adding the online marketplace to its affiliate commerce program, allowing Facebook creators to tag eBay listings directly within posts and Reels. When a user taps a tagged product, they are redirected to the retailer’s site or app to purchase. The creator then earns a commission.
The expanded program, Facebook Affiliate Partnerships, is already live with Amazon in the U.S. and Shopee in several international markets, Meta said in a blog post.
Meta expects additional partners — including eBay in the U.S. — to join in the coming months.
How Meta and eBay will work together
The move deepens a collaboration that has been expanding for over a year.
Since January 2025, eBay has used Facebook Marketplace to surface select listings to social shoppers. The new affiliate partnership represents a strategic effort to weave eBay’s massive inventory directly into high-engagement social environments.
In a company announcement, eBay’s global chief marketing officer, Adrian Fung, characterized the new partnership as a growth driver in the “evolving social commerce landscape.”
By integrating eBay’s inventory into creator storytelling, Fung said the move helps sellers “reach new, engaged buyers and unlock incremental demand” while providing creators a new path to earn commissions.
What the affiliate program does
While Facebook is already a hub for product discovery, the update aims to streamline the final mile. According to Meta’s blog post, followers no longer need to rely on “link in bio” workarounds or hunt through comments for a URL.
Instead, shopping is more native to the feed. To participate, creators can link their affiliate accounts through a central dashboard to view commission rates and search product catalogs in real-time. The system is also backward-compatible; if a creator already has affiliate links from a partner, Facebook’s tools will auto-detect them upon posting.
At launch, the program features a broad range of products, spanning “everyday essentials to top brands,” Meta said. Once products are tagged, the integration unlocks a “prominent and clickable” affiliate banner on the content. When a follower taps to shop, they are routed directly to the product page within the partner’s app or mobile website to finalize the transaction.
A phased global rollout
Notably, the affiliate partners – not Meta – handle the commission payouts, Meta said.
The feature is currently live for Amazon in the U.S., while Shopee is available across international markets, including Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Brazil and Taiwan.
In the coming months, Meta said it plans to add Mercado Libre in Brazil and Mexico, alongside Temu and eBay in the U.S. Additional markets are expected to follow.
EBay ranks No. 6 in Digital Commerce 360’s Global Online Marketplaces Database, which ranks the 100 largest such marketplaces by third-party gross merchandise value (GMV). Temu ranks No. 14, and Mercado Libre is No. 7.
Amazon ranks No. 3 in the Global Online Marketplaces Database and No. 1 in Digital Commerce 360’s Top 2000. The latter database is how Digital Commerce 360 tracks the largest North American online retailers by their annual ecommerce sales.
Meta scales social commerce tools
Facebook notes that it paid creators nearly $3 billion in 2025 — a 35% year-over-year increase and a platform record.
“People increasingly trust creators with product recommendations — more than half of consumers today say that their shopping decisions are influenced by creators — and affiliate partnerships make it easy for creators to earn from those recommendations,” Meta said in the blog post, citing data from a company-commissioned study conducted by Kantar.
Looking ahead, Meta said it plans to test “similar affiliate experiences” to Instagram this spring, starting with Amazon in the U.S. and Shopee in parts of Asia. The company is also expanding product linking on Instagram.
Creators can now share items from brand catalogs or product links directly within Reels. This spring, businesses in 22 countries will be able to provide product catalogs for creators to feature in their content, Meta said. Beyond the rollout, the company is also testing “insights” to show creators which posts drive purchases and resonate with audiences.
The rise of the creator economy in retail
Affiliate marketing now drives roughly 16% of all total ecommerce sales, according to data from Hostinger. User-generated content can increase conversion rates by 28%, while influencer partnerships boost affiliate sales by 46%, the firm found.
Brands are shifting their budgets accordingly. In 2026, 59% of brands plan to allocate at least a quarter of their affiliate budgets specifically to creator partnerships, according to impact.com’s State of Affiliate Marketing report. Nearly 20% expect to devote more than half of those budgets to creators.
“That level of investment tells you everything,” says Jeffrey Melton, senior director of global creator consulting at impact.com.
In a LinkedIn post discussing the report, Melton observed that creator marketing is mirroring the evolution of social media spending from 15 years ago. As investment scales, brands now demand rigorous attribution and sophisticated measurement, he said.
“That’s why the future is creator commerce: creators influencing every stage of the funnel, producing content that outperforms traditional marketing, and being compensated for performance — even at the top of the funnel,” Melton said.
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