Facebook’s shuttering its live shopping feature to focus on Reels

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The feature that lets creators broadcast and sell products to an audience is shutting down. The feature will be shut down on October 1st in order to focus on Reels.

As consumers shift their viewing behaviors to short-form video, we are shifting our focus to Facebook and Meta's short-form video product, according to Facebook. Live shopping will still be available on the photo sharing site.

Live shopping was first rolled out in Thailand. They can host their own live shopping sessions where they can show off and sell a variety of products. Around the same time it introduced a dedicated shopping tab, Facebook began to roll out the feature on a larger scale. Live shopping is popular in China, but not in other parts of the world. Last month, TikTok decided to stop live shopping in the US and Europe.

Facebook has increased its dedication to its short-form video feature, Reels, which it officially brought to the platform last year. Meta, Facebook's parent company, has already changed the look of its photo sharing service to make it more similar to TikTok. All of the videos on the platform are now called Reels.

The focus on Reels raised concerns among long-time users who have come to know the app as a way to share photos with friends. After Adam Mosseri told users the platform would become video-focused, he walked back some of the changes he made.