Selling Stuff on Instagram Is About to Get Harder
Instagram is killing its live shopping feature next month.
As of March 16, wannabe influencers will no longer be able to tag products during a live broadcast, though they can still set up and run a virtual store, selling items on their Feeds, Stories, Reels, and via ads. "This change will help us focus on products and features that provide the most value to our users," Instagram says in a help center post(Opens in a new window).
Amid a pandemic-era e-commerce boom, Instagram rolled out(Opens in a new window) live shopping in summer 2020.It then added(Opens in a new window) a Shop tab to the app's home screen for "a better way to connect with brands and creators and discover products you love," Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, said at the time.
By August 2022, however, Instagram parent company Meta dropped Facebook Live Shopping as "consumers’ viewing behaviors [shifted] to short-form video." Last month, the Shop tab was pulled from the Instagram app's homescreen. "The idea here is to simplify Instagram and focus it more on what we're trying to do," Mosseri said.
Other live broadcasting features on Instagram—including the ability to schedule a livestream, invite guests to join, and hold a Q&A—are not affected by this change.
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