Some Instagram users have noticed that the shopping tab, which was formerly located on the bottom navigation bar, has been replaced with a notifications tab in recent days. Meanwhile, shopping has been relegated to a secondary menu, buried behind options such as settings and saved articles.
Anne Yeh, a spokesman for Meta, acknowledged the alterations as part of a limited test.
“As part of our continued work to simplify your Instagram experience, we are testing a few changes to the main navigation bar at the bottom of the app with a small number of people”, Yeh says.
Instagram’s choice to move the tab was deliberate, as the business shifts away from commerce services. According to an internal document, Instagram is modifying its approach to e-commerce, including removing the button that goes to the purchasing page in March 2023, according to The Information. Instead, Instagram shopping will be more focused on increasing Meta’s ad revenue, according to The Information, and the company will launch a less personalized shopping tab branded “Tab Lite.”
Instagram has been adding features like the shop tab in recent years in an effort to make the site a place where users can buy the things they see in their feed without leaving the app. And, while many people use Instagram to find new companies and items, it’s unclear how successful the shopping page was in the past.
Nonetheless, Meta has continued to roll out additional commerce features, such as an update to messaging that lets business owners to handle customer service via DMs.
“Commerce remains important for Instagram as we continue to make it easier for people to discover and shop products throughout the app from feed, stories, reels and innovations like live shopping and drops” , Yeh says.
Other platforms have tried, with varied degrees of success, to figure out how to monetize shopping. TikTok has experimented with product pages and live shopping, the latter of which is huge in China but apparently did not take off in Europe, prompting the business to scale back its expansion plans. Meanwhile, Twitter has provided features such as product release reminders and a store module for firms to exhibit what they’re selling, while internal records indicate that changes were rushed and faced content moderation problems.
