Moltin, a Boston-based technology developer, has launched social commerce technology that will allow retailers to integrate their e-commerce platforms into Facebook and Instagram.

The platform allows brands to use Moltin APIs to integrate their catalogs directly into the Facebook Shop. Moltin automatically synchronizes information from the platform into the social media shop and executes updates in real time.

"For a brand to be able to seamlessly extend their product catalog to Facebook and Instagram makes it easier for them to manage their inventory across channels, and to make the inventory they have on their own branded commerce site available to be discovered and transacted natively within those two social platforms," Greg Lord, vice president  of marketing at Molton, told Mobile Payments Today via email.

Facebook has more than 2.3 billion active users monthly, while Instagram has 1 billion users total and 500 million active users daily.

Lord said the massive audiences that use Facebook and Instagram make it advantageous for brands to get their goods and services in front of potential or existing customers while they are using the social media platforms. He said the company is in active discussions to launch with various companies, but he was unable to name them yet due to legal restrictions from the brands

He confirmed that Facebook and Instagram do get a cut of the proceeds for transactions which include a 2.9% payment processing fee plus a surcharge of 30 cents. On a transaction of $100, the fee would amount to $3.20 transaction. If a brand wishes to extend its product catalog but conducts transactions on its direct pages rather than through Facebook or Instagram, the fees do not apply.

Last month, Moltin launched a technology that allows retailers to convert their checkout process to a frictionless, Amazon Go-like cashless experience that does not require customers to pay a cashier at a sales counter.