- Facebook will shut down its live video shopping feature on October 1.
- Launched two years ago, the feature lets influencers and retailers host live shopping events on Facebook.
- Parent company Meta will instead focus on Reels on Facebook and Instagram.
Facebook will shut down its live video shopping feature on October 1, two years after the feature was released.
The feature allows influencers and retailers to host live shopping events directly on Facebook, where they can invite their followers to buy from a product carousel. Parent company Meta confirmed to Insider that the platform is shutting down this native live-streaming shopping program, as well as the ability to create product playlists or tag products on Facebook, adding that it will focus on short-form content.
“As consumers’ viewing behavior shifts to short videos, we’re turning our attention to Reels on Facebook and Instagram, Meta’s short video offering,” The company wrote in a blog post on Tuesday“If you want to engage and engage people with video, try Reels and Reels ads on Facebook and Instagram. You can also tag products in Reels on Instagram for deeper discovery and consideration. If you have a Stores with checkout and want to host Live Shopping events on Instagram, you can set up Live Shopping on Instagram.”
Facebook began testing its native real-time shopping tool in 2018, As reported by TechCrunch.
In mid-2021, Facebook launched a weekly live shopping event where consumers can shop new items from brands like Sephora and Abercrombie.
Boutique owner Kelley Cawley told Insider in 2021 that her team started hosting an occasional Facebook Live event in May 2020 and then ran daily shows starting in November 2020, which boosted her sales by 88%.
Mimi Striplin, who owns a boutique and online store in Charleston, South Carolina, told Insider in February that she Facebook Once or twice a month for about 30 minutes.
This is not the first monetization tool that Meta has changed recently. After more than a year of testing, Instagram canceled its native affiliate program in July. Over the past year, some Instagram rewards programs, like the Reels Play Bonus, which pay creators who meet certain benchmarks, have either changed dramatically or been eliminated.
