Instagram has rolled out several new features to help influencers make money on its platform, including digital badges, video ads and merch sales via Instagram Shopping.

“Providing a variety of monetization tools is crucial to support all creators on Instagram, from emerging digital stars to established entertainers and everything in between,” Justin Osofsky, chief operating officer of Instagram, said in a statement.

Instagram is rolling out new features, like digital badges that can be purchased by fans during live videos to support content creators.

With many parts of the country still under stay-at-home orders, Instagram Live has grown in importance, with many influencers using the video platform to broadcast fitness classes, cooking shows or other forms of entertainment for housebound followers. Instagram Live has seen a 70% increase in views from February to March, according to the company. “From fitness instructors to dancers, artists to chefs, Live has helped creators and businesses stay connected to their followers and bring people together,” the company noted in a blog post.

Through its new “badges” feature, Instagram will allow fans to sponsor creators and businesses by spending small amounts of money – from 99 cents to $4.99 – to buy a digital badge. Badges will show up as small hearts next to a person’s comments during a livestream. For now, all revenue from the badges will go directly to the content creator, though Instagram may change that model after the test phase is over, according to the New York Times.

Another new feature will begin showing up next week in the form of ads on IGTV videos. Content creators will receive at least 55% of the revenue from ads in their videos, according to WIRED.

Both features will be tested with a small group of influencers and advertisers before access is rolled out to all creators. Though new to Instagram, these monetization features aren’t a new idea; YouTube and Twitch, for example, both offer sponsorship models to help support creators.

In addition to these features, Instagram is also hoping to facilitate more merch sales directly through its app. Instagram has started offering “Live Shopping,” where creators and brands can tag products during their live videos. “And over the coming months we’ll expand shopping access to more creators who want to sell their own merchandise,” Instagram noted in its blog post.

These new Instagram features come on the heels of an e-commerce announcement last week from its parent company. Facebook rolled out several shopping features, positioned as a way to help small businesses make it through the pandemic.

With more people spending time scrolling social feeds – particularly during the pandemic – e-commerce solutions integrated directly into apps have become more prevalent. It’s a trend that has implications for the promotional products industry, especially for distributors that count online influencers among their roster of clients.