Instagram to scale back shopping features in ad drive | WARC | The Feed

Instagram to scale back shopping features in ad drive

The Meta-owned social network will shift its shopping page to a less personalised version and align the section’s goals more closely with a ‘north star’ of advertising revenue, reports suggest.

Why it matters

The move reflects a broader turn away from commerce – which is surprising given many other platforms and retailers’ eyes filled with dollar signs at its mere mention – and toward “a new northstar and goals for the commerce organization that are more directly tied to advertising revenue for Meta,” according to an earlier memo.

It’s important to remember that shopping features are free to use, unless businesses use Facebook’s Checkout feature to take payments – in which case they’ll pay 5%. It makes sense in times of financial difficulty to restrict what you’re giving away.

What’s going on

First reported by The Information, which obtained an internal memo sent to staff on Tuesday, that a public test of the new ‘Tab Lite’ features will begin as soon as Wednesday with the potential for the Shopping page as it currently exists to disappear and be replaced.

It’s important to remember that among Instagram’s numerous shopping features there are plenty that carry an advertising element, and therefore a revenue opportunity for the company. 

Both Instagram and TikTok have struggled to gain traction for shopping features and successfully move from upper-funnel discovery to lower-funnel conversion (forgive the funnel term).

The news comes as Meta experiences its most difficult year to date following the hit to its revenues brought on by Apple’s new privacy features last spring, which it blamed for its for some of its financial woes. In response, the Verge reported late last month, the company would explore “possible paid features” across its suite of apps – Instagram among them.

See a round-up of all our best practice on Instagram marketing here.

Sourced from The Information, WARC, Instagram, The Verge

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