Instagram To Remove Shopping Tab — Retail Bum

Meta-owned Instagram will remove its Shop tab next month from the homepage navigation bar.

The removal of the feature comes as an effort to accommodate how people share and connect with their friends and interests and simplify the app experience, according to a post on the company’s support site.

“We’re trying to bring people together over what they love,” said Adam Mosseri, the current head of Instagram, in a video posted on Monday.

The change also comes months after The Information reported that Instagram told its employees its shopping page would eventually disappear as the platform was looking to shift its priorities.

The removal backtracks various announcements the platform had previously made in relation to beefing up its social commerce offering, one of them being the expansion of its product tagging capability and enabling shoppers to make purchases via direct messages (DM) from qualified small businesses.

Meanwhile, Instagram’s parent company Meta also decided to discontinue its live shopping feature on Facebook in August 2022, as they found consumers prefer other experiences, such as Reels.

While the Shop tab is being removed, businesses will still be able to set up their shop on Instagram, and the app will continue to invest in shopping experiences that “provide the most value for people and businesses across feed, stories, reels, ads and more.”

Originally published at https://retailbum.com on January 11, 2023.