Facebook is launching new features that it says will make it easier for public figures to directly sell products, including branded merchandise, to fans through the social media platform.

While the features are only for public figures like musicians, bands, athletes, actors and authors, the rollout could serve as a bellwether of direct-selling capabilities that the world’s largest social network – 2 billion daily active users – will eventually offer to a broader spectrum of businesses and brands. As such, the promotional products industry would do well to stay on top of the developments.

In an announcement this week, Facebook said its expanding shopping options. “We’re coming up with more ways for public figures to sell directly to their fans, like the ability to tag products in Facebook photo and video posts, which we’re expanding to Facebook Stories too,” the company said in a statement. “We’re also simplifying the checkout experience for shoppable posts, making it possible for fans to easily tap on a tagged product to learn more about the product and then purchase directly on Facebook.”

But that’s not all. Facebook is also adding “swipe-up” links to Facebook Stories. This gives public figures the ability to link out to products or other recommendations they want to share with followers. “We want fans to be able to discover and buy products directly from the public figures they care about – whether it’s a creator’s new t-shirt, an author’s latest book or a musician selling concert tickets,” Facebook says.

Other new options for public figures that Facebook announced include Fan Reply Stickers, which enable people using Pages to create a call to action on a Story – the aim being to prompt followers to respond with a photo or video. Responses can be re-shared to the Story for all fans to see. Full details on the updates are available here.