Instagram will permanently stop live shopping
The phenomenon of live shopping is being canceled by more and more social media platforms. With live shopping, products are introduced and sold during a live stream on social media. Instagram has also stopped doing so from March 16, 2023.
The future of e-commerce, or not?
In the past few years, live shopping has become very popular in Asia, after which the trend also moved to Europe and the US. It was called ‘the future of e-commerce’. But Meta, the parent company behind Facebook and Instagram, among others, notices that this expected popularity is not forthcoming. Facebook stopped this service months earlier. Live streaming, hosting Q&As and other services related to live shopping will continue to be possible on both platforms. Options for selling products, on the other hand, can only be activated after such live events.
What is the cause of the lack of popularity?
Experts speculate about the cause of this unexpected trend shift. Many point to the pandemic as the cause. People stayed at home and made massive use of online retail. But now that all corona measures have been released, everything is (slowly) returning to normal. So-called social commerce occupied only 5% of total US e-commerce last year. The many cultural differences and differences in the use of digital environments also seem to explain the lack of success in the west.
Removed tagging products in live streams
Instagram is now completely stopping this service. Businesses and creators can no longer tag products in their live streams and events, and the shopping tab has been removed from the home screen. Meta has announced that Instagram will now focus more on advertising and will strive to promote only the products and services that have real value for users.
Instagram and Facebook will continue to use automated tools like Shop Ads and Advantage+ shopping campaigns to help improve ad performance. They will also continue to use Checkout, which allows users to easily purchase products through other content on these platforms. Meta does this because the majority of Instagram users often still follow one or more companies.
