Instagram’s latest UI tweak will remove the Shop icon from the main page. While it hasn’t been a wildly popular feature, some businesses do find it useful to be able to shop right from the main page. The Shop tab at the bottom of the page will disappear.
The Reels tab will shift one tick to the right, replacing the Shop tab, and the little plus-sign content creation tab will return to its prominent place in the center of the row of tabs.
Never fear, though. While the tab is being jettisoned off the main page, the ability to shop in the app is not going away entirely. Reels, Reels Ads, Stories, and Product Tags are sticking around for a while.
Back in March of 2022, Instagram gave all users the ability to tag products in their posts, helpful for online shops, artists, and other vendors.
Facebook also abandoned their in-app live shopping feature in October. Although you can still host a live event, you can no longer tag products during them.
Both apps jumped on the pandemic bandwagon adding these online and live shopping options, as everyone and their dog were shopping online. However, live, in-stream shopping never really took off on the platforms.
Social Media Examiner reports, “Instagram’s parent company Meta has conceded that it over-estimated its growth potential in this respect, which is one of the reasons that it was forced to cut 11,000 jobs back in November.”
Keep an eye on new features and shopping experiences on Instagram, as they are not giving up on the concept entirely; they are just trying to figure out the best way to support the app’s users. For now, the heavy focus is on Reels, and with this move, Instagram is conceding that people seem to want to use Instagram to share personal content as opposed to eCommerce.
They’re not giving up on it entirely, though.
Online shopping continues to increase, though at a much slower rate than during peak pandemic days.
Per Instagram, “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.” So, as ever, stay tuned and keep an eye out for updates.
Joleen Jernigan is an ever-curious writer, grammar nerd, and social media strategist with a background in training, education, and educational publishing. A native Texan, Joleen has traveled extensively, worked in six countries, and holds an MA in Teaching English as a Second Language. She lives in Austin and constantly seeks out the best the city has to offer.
amy lindroth
February 22, 2023 at 3:32 pm
This is ludicrous on instagrams part. Meta makes significant revenue of each transaction done on instagram. Its not almost impossible to find items unless you direclty follow a specific brand.The impact on smaller businesses is detrimental. Trying to force everyone into ads is ridiculous and I hope instagram back tracks on this soon.