Instagram scales back shopping features to focus on advertising

Instagram sent an internal memo to staff on Tuesday, informing them about its plans to significantly scale back its shopping features in an effort to put more focus on its priorities that drive advertising. 

As reported by The Information, the social media company told staff that it’ll eventually remove its existing shopping page and will replace it with a more basic and less personalized version of it, dubbed ‘’Tab Lite’’.

Instagram will launch the public test of the Tab Lite today, which will continue over the next few months. In addition, the company also shared that its current shopping tab, which replaced the Like button in November 2020, will be removed by March 2023. 

Meta, the parent company of Instagram, wrote in an earlier memo that the changes reflect ‘’a new northstar and goals for the commerce organization that are more directly tied to advertising revenue for Meta.’’

While the social media giant will now mainly focus on features that have more potential to boost its ad revenue, a company spokesperson said they ‘’remain committed to the goal of making instagram the best place for people to discover and buy products from brands and creators they love.’’

In mid-July, Instagram unveiled a new feature to allow users to shop directly in chats using Meta Pay, without having to visit a website to complete orders.