Facebook To End Live Shopping on October 1

The social network giant Facebook won’t permit retailers to hold the new live events or those scheduled for later.

Facebook announced it would stop allowing users to hold live shopping events from October 1, 2022. Meta posted an article on its blog.

It cites a shift in preference for short-form video content among users as the primary reason it focuses on Reels Meta’s short-form video product that is accessible on both Facebook and Instagram.

Facebook introduced live-streamed shopping in August of 2020 to make shopping online more accessible and help sellers of all kinds increase their sales. It offered a more interactive method of selling products and connecting with customers.

Facebook Live will remain available. Facebook Live feature will still be available, but online merchants won’t be able to make playlists for products or tag items. That means retailers will need to explore other avenues to sell items through Facebook, which could mean buying display ads or creating collections.

The live shopping experience on Instagram is not affected.

The move highlights Meta’s Increasing Attention to short videos

To be competitive in the market with TikTok, Meta has been investing more into its Reels product, allowing seamless video sharing across the two principal platforms.

The video feature initially opposed by Instagram customers has now increased in popularity. Based on the Integrity Institute, a social Internet research institute, shorter-form videos made up one-fifth of all top twenty posts on Facebook during the fourth quarter of 2021.

This has allowed retailers to use videos to label items, make calls to action, and connect with their customers.

“If you’re looking to connect with people via video, you should try exploring Reels or Reels advertisements for Facebook or Instagram,” Meta suggested in her blog article. “You can also include products within Reels and Reels ads on Instagram to facilitate deeper exploration and consideration.”

Meta has increased the possibility for Reels to earn revenues for the company by permitting creators and merchants to expand their audience through paid ads.