Meta just killed another service and, maybe with it, some shopping potential
Meta closes another service. This time Facebook Live Shopping will go offline on October 1, 2022.
From that date (opens in new tab), no one will be able to host new or scheduled shopping live streams. Facebook Live will continue to exist, but according to the announcement, you won’t be able to tag products in those videos or create product playlists. The social media platform encourages people to save their previous live streams and links to a series of instructions on how to do this (opens in new tab).
Live Shopping is being discontinued as Meta wants to focus on Reels as its main video platform. Facebook claims that people watch short videos more often and is adjusting accordingly. For merchants who still want to livestream, the company tells people to use Live shopping on Instagram (opens in new tab), instead of. It also recommends that people try Reels and role ads (opens in new tab) to tag their products in their videos.
While live ecommerce isn’t dead on Meta’s platforms, it certainly took a hit.
Short life
Facebook Live Shopping is another short-lived product that, according to some, was discontinued prematurely. Live Shopping first arrived in 2018 when it was tested on a handful of pages in Thailand before being rolled out in a year official capacity in 2020. And it’s also not that Live Shopping was ignored, as it saw quite frequent updates.
November 2021 saw the addition of Live shopping for creators (opens in new tab) which allows content creators and product brands to cross-stream on their respective pages without forcing their audience to choose one live stream over another. The platform also experimented with weekly events via . last summer Live Shopping Friday (opens in new tab). Major beauty and fashion brands joined the platform to promote their new product lines in an interactive live stream.
What makes Live Shopping’s sudden shutdown even weirder is that it had a lot of potential to succeed. Watch Live Shopping’s own company page on the Meta . websitethe platform was expected to generate $500 billion in revenue by 2023.
It seems that Meta really believed in the platform, so what’s the point?
Analysis: Support roles
There is a lot of growth potential for live ecommerce shopping as the industry continues to grow. A Statista Survey (opens in new tab) revealed that live e-commerce sales reached $6 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach $11 billion in 2021. And sales are predicted to reach $35 billion by 2024. These numbers seem plausible when you consider how successful live e-commerce has been in China. Consultancy group McKinsey Digital said in a 2021 report: (opens in new tab) that China’s live e-commerce sales could reach $423 billion this year.
In addition to the growth aspect, the closure will certainly have a negative effect on businesses that depend on Live Shopping. In a Business Insider Report (opens in new tab)Mimi Striplin, owner of The Tiny Tassel boutique, revealed that sales for her store were up nearly 50 percent after her first Live Shopping stream.
Those numbers question Meta’s insistence on making Reels a bigger part of its platforms. Yes, Facebook Marketplace and Live will continue to exist and yes, you can still have ecommerce live streams on Instagram. There are options indeed, but is shutting down a platform people depend on and with growth potential worth pushing Reels?
Perhaps Meta believes that live ecommerce shopping is not worth it and Reels is. But there are many users pushing back against short videos taking over platforms.
TechRadar’s own Daryl Baxter is tempted to delete his Instagram account after a fairly recent Reels update. We recommend seeing what he had to say.