What is Meta Pay?

Meta Pay, formerly known as Facebook Pay, is a payment method that customers can use to buy products online or via social media. Facebook, Instagram and other Meta app users who want to use Meta Pay add their payment, shipping and personal information to any Meta app. Then, when they go to purchase products on social media or your business website, they can choose Meta Pay at checkout. 

Companies that sell online must add the Meta Pay option to their business website to get started.

How does Meta Pay work?

Customers can automatically use Meta Pay while on their Facebook, Instagram or Messenger accounts. The process is seamless if users have their debit card, credit card or another payment option stored in one of their Meta app accounts. 

To use Meta Pay, customers check out, indicate they want to use Meta Pay and enter their PIN to complete the transaction. Users can also opt for biometric identification methods, such as a fingerprint or face ID. Either way, customers using Meta Pay don’t have to enter payment card information for every transaction.

Meta Pay is just as straightforward for small business owners. It integrates seamlessly with most payment processing and e-commerce platforms. Because customers only need to be logged in to their Facebook, Instagram or Messenger profile to use Meta Pay, online payments become much more efficient. You don’t have to enter payment information and addresses; a click or two is all it takes. 

Customers can use Meta Pay to buy almost all types of goods and services and cover other app-based transactions. Instagram users can donate directly to nonprofits and fundraisers, and Messenger users can send money to their loved ones within the United States via Meta Pay.

How much does Meta Pay cost?

Meta Pay is free. You and your customers can implement it without paying any money if you already accept credit cards. Your current credit card payment processor will handle all of your Meta Pay needs. Meta Pay costs are baked into your credit card processing expenses. 

How secure is Meta Pay?

In the realm of payment processing, credit card security risks abound. Still, most payment processing companies have trustworthy safeguards in place. On the other hand, Meta has been through several highly publicized data scandals and is a high-profile hacker target. This raises an important question: Is Meta Pay secure?

The answer is yes. Meta Pay boasts top-tier security. It encrypts all debit and credit card data added to Facebook, Messenger and Instagram. Similarly, Meta Pay will never share a user’s payment information with other parties without permission. All account data is stored separately from payment information. Meta Pay also sends you alerts if any suspicious payment activity occurs. 

Pros and cons of using Meta Pay for a business

As with any payment processing method, Meta Pay has pros and cons. (The same could be said of using Meta for business as a whole.) 

Here are some great reasons to use Meta Pay for your business:

• Meta Pay can bring in many potential customers. According to PYMNTS, 49 percent of customers used a mobile wallet for online shopping in 2022, up from 38 percent in 2021. By making Meta Pay available, your business may appeal more strongly to these customers. After all, because Meta’s apps store a user’s credit and debit cards, it’s essentially a digital wallet.
• Meta Pay enables fast checkout. When you optimize your online checkout process, you can increase conversions by nearly 36 percent. Meta Pay is a great way to do that. It’s more user-friendly and less tedious than entering payment information and addresses into an online form. If your checkout process is especially user-friendly, your reputation might strengthen, thereby increasing brand awareness.
• Meta Pay enables social selling. Selling directly via social media is another way to speed up the checkout process. Meta Pay makes social selling easy and seamless, helping you turn your social media accounts into sales tools.
• Meta Pay integrates with Shopify. If Shopify is your e-commerce platform, integrating Meta Pay is straightforward and adds another payment option for your customers.
• Meta Pay transactions have no fees. Unlike some other payment methods, Meta Pay is free to use, so you don’t have to worry about pesky fees adding up. 

However, Meta Pay does have a few drawbacks, including the following: 

• Not all customers can use Meta Pay. Although billions of people are on one or more Meta apps, some people don’t use them and, therefore, can’t use Meta Pay. Plus, some people with Meta accounts prefer to avoid using the platform. As such, if you invest in promoting your Meta Pay option, you might see a lower return on investment than expected if your customer base doesn’t use Meta’s app suite.
• Meta Pay can’t integrate with all websites. Meta Pay is available only to businesses that use one of Meta’s participating payment processors or platforms.
• Meta Pay’s market share isn’t robust. Meta Pay has yet to gain the same market share as other payment services, such as Apple Pay.

What you need to start using Meta Pay

Setting up a Meta Pay business account is easy; all you need to do is sign up via a Meta app. Before you do, you should probably have a Facebook shop, an active presence on Messenger, and a credit card processor.

With these pieces in place, you can link Meta Pay to your Facebook shop and website, if applicable. Your customers will see the Meta Pay option during checkout and can complete their purchases with just a few clicks.

Meta Pay vs. PayPal

Although Meta’s app suite has billions of users, its business payment processing platform has yet to become as ubiquitous as PayPal. That’s because virtually any customer can use PayPal, whereas Meta Pay’s audience is limited to Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Portal users. Unless your business interacts with customers primarily through Facebook or Instagram, you shouldn’t entirely replace PayPal with Meta Pay.

That said, Meta Pay has one significant advantage over PayPal: There are no transaction fees, whereas PayPal is notorious for its fees. So, while PayPal is accessible to all, Meta Pay is a great PayPal alternative for a tech-savvy customer base that uses social media regularly. In fact, many social media users might already be set up with Meta Pay.

Meta Pay can help your business grow

In the ever-changing world of e-commerce, it’s important to have many tools in your arsenal to keep customers happy. Meta Pay is an easy way to provide social-media-savvy customers with a quick way to purchase your products and services. That said, it should supplement, rather than replace, major platforms such as PayPal. Nevertheless, incorporating Meta Pay into your online sales strategy can help boost your sales and grow your audience in a meaningful way. 

Natalie Hamingson contributed to this article.