Facebook, one of the largest social media platforms that has successfully bridged the fissure in social interaction between distant and close family and friends, recently released a notice informing users of the move to suspend live shopping indefinitely, slated to be implemented on October 1st.
Meanwhile, Facebook Meta Business has shown increased online business activities and online shopping in the last few years. Live shopping was presumably adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic as a safe alternative to shopping, curtailing the spread of COVID-19.
The big question now is, will this be good news for online shoppers?
Facebook stated via the platform that there would be no hosting of live shopping events. However, it stated that live events can still be hosted, but the accessibility to create product playlists or tag products in the live video will no longer be provided.
Meta Business Help Center did not leave users in a quandary; the company stated that users who may be affected by the intended development could reach and engage people on Reels and Reel ads videos on Facebook and Instagram.
It also added that Reels on Instagram grants users the environment to tag products to enable more intrinsic product discovery and consideration.
Although Facebook stated the reason for this decision was to shift users’ viewing behavior from short-form videos, it may infer that the COVID-19 lockdown policies are gradually softened, and business can be as usual.
TikTok announced a similar decision to end live shopping a few weeks ago; with the recent happenings in the social media space, a restructuring of the online marketing approach may be necessary.
However, what holds for live shopping-based businesses?
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Photo by Dima Solomin
