Instagram Scaling Back Shopping Features Amid Commerce Retreat

Instagram is planning to drastically scale back its shopping features, the company told Instagram staffers on Tuesday, as it shifts the focus of its e-commerce efforts to those that directly drive advertising. The retreat shows how Meta Platforms is moving away from some long-term projects as it focuses on building its short-form video business.

In an internal memo on Tuesday, staff were notified that Instagram’s existing Shopping page will eventually disappear, “given shifts in company priorities.” Instagram isn’t abandoning shopping altogether: over the next few months the company will test a simpler and less personalized version of the shopping page known internally as “Tab Lite,” according to the memo, which The Information has seen. The changes reflect “a new northstar and goals for the commerce organization that are more directly tied to advertising revenue for Meta,” the company told staffers in an earlier memo.