Instagram: Instagram to end this shopping feature on March 16 – Times of India

Popular photo-sharing service Instagram offers several other features including online shopping and more. The Meta-owned social media platform has now announced that it will soon discontinue its live shopping feature.
Instagram’s live shopping feature allows users to tag products in their live broadcasts. The company updated its official blog post to announce that this feature will be no longer available for users starting March 16. Earlier, this feature was also available on Facebook. The social media giant removed this feature from Facebook in October 2022.
On its support page, the company said: “Beginning on March 16, 2023, you will no longer be able to tag products in live broadcasts on Instagram. This change will help us focus on products and features that provide the most value to our users.”
Instagram live shopping feature to be discontinued: What is means
This feature allows verified businesses and creators to tag products when they go live on Instagram. Using live shopping, viewers can also buy or save products which are added to the live video. This feature helped businesses to show people how to use a product, provide a product review or recommendation and even answer questions from their audience. Instagram live allows users to directly interact with their followers.
Businesses can also keep their audiences up to date about new products and promotions using these features. Moreover, live shopping can also be used to drive sales for merchandise or product collaborations.

Instagram live shopping to be discontinued: How will it affect users
The company has promised to continue investing in “shopping experiences for people and businesses across the feed, stories, Reels, ads and more.” With the live shopping feature gone, Instagram users will still be able to set up and run their shops on the social media platform.
Instagram also mentioned that other live broadcasting features will remain unaffected. This includes the ability to schedule a live broadcast, invite guests to join the live broadcasts and hold a live Q&A.

Instagram live shopping: Things to remember
To tag products on Instagram Live the online store needs to be checkout-enabled. Users can tag up to 30 products before going live. Moreover, users can also demonstrate a collection or even pin one product during their live sessions.