While the concept linked to eCommerce seemed to be a mighty endeavor and one that would generate revenue for many apps, the results have proved otherwise.
What we saw during the pandemic times was a major jump that had many users resorting to apps to shop online. After all, you couldn’t go out and you needed some form of activity to keep yourselves busy.
A lot of western apps tried to copy Fetch and hoped its success would pave way for a similar route on their platforms too. But it doesn’t seem to be working for Facebook, TikTok, and now Instagram too.
Yes, Instagram is the latest application to join the bandwagon in terms of taking one step in a backward direction in terms of its in-stream shopping program. The company says they’re reassessing their approach and hope to come back stronger. But in all reality, it wouldn’t be wrong to assume that they’ve potentially abandoned the program.
A recent report by The Information shed light on how Instagram was scaling back in a drastic manner from all of its shopping features. The firm mentioned this to its employees last week on Tuesday.
There is now a greater shift from the world of eCommerce to one that’s related to advertising directly. Moreover, we see how this sudden retreat by Meta is actually proving to many that it’s no longer interested in long-term ordeals. Instead, it wants to focus more on creating a better form of its business linked to short-form videos.
Hence, soon you’ll see the currently available Shop Tab on the app soon disappear as the app plans on making a move to adopt more simple and less specific versions of its product display.
Definitely, this is a huge shift away from the routine eCommerce that we are accustomed to seeing. There was certainly one point in time when Meta wanted to make the most of such revenue-inclined tools and more emphasis on different types of product development.
But as Meta has seen over time, the demand just does not seem to be over there. No matter how much they try, it’s not easy to replicate trends taking place in Chinese markets.
We believe Meta, out of all others, would be the ones to know this the best as they once tried something similar with messaging. Remember in 2016 when Meta gave in to the idea of turning its Messenger into a platform that encompasses everything? Well, it didn’t get the success that WeChat came with, despite it being deemed an essential tool for Chinese users.
Meta hoped that with the introduction of bots in Messenger, it would be able to get firms to have their own chatbots across the platform. But no one really cared about that.
Meta was seen adding its Shop tab to the Explore element in July 2020 and by November, it was on Instagram too. During that time, eCommerce was booming because global lockdowns were in full swing.
But now that the pandemic threat has eased, trends have declined and many are no longer interested. And Instagram isn’t looking at shopping as a profit-making endeavor.
