Instagram Plans to Remove Its Shopping Features from the App

With the pandemic restrictions of 2020, it seemed that eCommerce will only continue to become more popular. As it turned out, the interest in online shopping decreased once it became possible to visit offline stores. Now, the creators of Instagram also noticed the lack of interest in their shopping features and plan to remove them completely from the app.

According to the reports, the ‘Shop’ tab will shortly disappear from Instagram because there is currently not enough demand for such features. Instagram based its decision to introduce such features on the Chinese market trends, but it became obvious that the situation is different in the western market.

Instagram introduced the ‘Shop’ element to the Explore page of the app in July 2020. In November, the company decided to expand the selection of features by adding a separate Shop tab. The decision seemed justified at that time, as eCommerce was on the rise due to the pandemic restrictions and lockdowns. Even though the interest in online shopping continues to increase, things went normal shopping-wise after the restrictions have been lifted or eased. People still enjoy going to physical stores, so eCommerce trends returned to the state they were in pre-pandemic.

In addition to Instagram, TikTok also tried using the same eCommerce-oriented business model in other regions besides China. At the moment, shopping on social media platforms won’t be a trend in western countries in the near future. There has been a decline in shopping interest also on Facebook and Pinterest.

Do you prefer online or offline shopping? What do you think about shopping features on Instagram? Please, share your thoughts in the comments below.