It looks like shopping might be a thing of the past for Instagram as Meta’s chief app refocuses on user-produced content.
You might remember our article talking about the debut of shopping on Instagram some time back. Well, it looks like that isn’t going to be part of things moving forward although shopping won’t disappear entirely from Instagram – at least not yet.
In what can only be seen as yet another retreat in the face of intense competition, Instagram’s decision to remove shopping from the user experience really boils down to what makes parent company Meta money and that is advertising. Apparently, shopping takes away from the advertising business and doesn’t make enough to replace what it consumes so it’s got to go, PetaPixel reports.
That said, it’s not going away entirely but it will definitely be a “smaller” experience moving forward.
From the blog post discussing the UI change:
“As part of this change, the Instagram Shop tab will be removed. You will still be able to set up and run your shop on Instagram as we continue to invest in shopping experiences that provide the most value for people and businesses across feed, stories, reels, ads and more.”
We have to hand it to Instagram in one respect: The service isn’t afraid of trying something new. Our previous stories tend to focus on the struggle between videography and photography, but we’ve also covered Instagram’s myriad attempts at becoming the “omni” app for users. Naturally, competition with TikTok has forced a narrower focus, as have larger issues at Meta.
Did you ever buy anything on Instagram? What feature would you like to see added to Instagram? Let us know in the comments.
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