Instagram decided to close the Live Shopping service from March 16, which allowed brands to leave links to their products on bloggers' live broadcasts.
The social network added Live Shopping technology back in 2020, during the pandemic. Meta at its launch was based on the experience of the Chinese market, where shopping streams on WeChat, Taobao Live and Douyin (Chinese TikTok) are extremely popular. Experts called real-time shopping "the future of e-commerce" and had high hopes for the platform.
As part of the program, links to products demonstrated by bloggers and an "Add to Cart" button appeared under the comment block during broadcasts.
However, the function "did not take off". After the pandemic, it turned out that Americans, unlike the Chinese, are not accustomed to spontaneous online purchases. According to statistics, only 5% of online purchases in the US are made through features like Live Shopping.
The company says that from now on, instead of promoting live commerce, they will focus on advertising products in posts, and will make this advertising more effective. In February, the social network removed the "Purchases" tab from the feed.
Last October, Facebook also shut down its social commerce network, shifting its focus to developing video story service Reels. Facebook Live can still be used to stream events live, but you won't be able to create product lists or link to product pages in your videos.
