From launching new features to fixing bugs, social media platforms frequently update their apps, but sometimes these updates are more noticeable than others. In January 2023, Meta announced they will remove the Shop tab from Instagram’s homepage navigation in February.

Now that the app’s navigation bar is revamped, what does this mean for your business’s account and shop capabilities?

You can continue to run your Instagram shop as normal.

While the shop feature is no longer front and center in the navigation bar, the shop feature is still available, just less visible to your followers.

According to Instagram, “You will still be able to set up and run your shop on Instagram as we continue to invest in shopping experiences that provide the most value for people and businesses across feeds, stories, reels, ads, and more.”

Instagram is emphasizing Reels, which replaced the previous Shop tab.

The change could improve the customer experience.

Back in 2020, Instagram replaced the Activity tab with the Shop tab, which received poor feedback from users. Some experts believe this swap didn’t generate the results Instagram desired, and they are looking to help the platform feel more organic.

Instead of promoting products on the app’s main navigation, businesses can use the improved product tagging capabilities instead.

Small brands and individuals will be the most impacted.

According to Sue Azari, Ecommerce Industry Lead, EMEA & LATAM at AppsFlyer, “The majority of the bigger retail brands have focused on pushing their social following to their respective web and app channels, where they have the benefit of capturing more granular data on user behaviors.”

Now that the app has introduced the new Reels tab, industry experts believe Instagram is pushing users to consume and create this new TikTok-like content. However, shopping is expected to remain integral to Instagram’s e-commerce strategy, just less in-your-face.

But as we know, social media platforms are always making changes, so new Instagram commerce features are likely on the horizon. In the meantime, continue to tag your products in posts and use Meta’s Shop Guide to optimize your product catalog.

Sources:

• https://www.marketing-interactive.com/instagram-is-removing-its-shopping-button-could-this-be-the-downfall-of-social-commerce