Instagram to redesign home screen, ditch the Shopping tab

In the past two years, Instagram has aggressively pushed online shopping on the app. Scrolling through the app meant someone was always selling one thing or another. From shoes to phone accessories and clothing to food, shopping on Instagram is great. However, the Meta-owned app seems to be changing its approach to shopping. In a blog post, Instagram announced that some changes are coming very soon.

"Starting in February, we'll be changing navigation on Instagram to make it easier for people to share and connect with their friends and interests," Instagram said in the blog post.

What’s changing for users

The navigation bar at the bottom of the app will now have the "+" content creation shortcut in the middle and the Reels tab on the right. As part of this change, the Instagram Shop tab will be removed. It's not that those who have set up shop on Instagram can't sell. "You'll still be able to set up and operate your Instagram Shop as we continue to invest in the shopping experiences that deliver the most value to people and businesses across the feed, stories, reels, ads and more,” said Instagram in the blog post.

Why the change

An earlier report from The Information indicated that Instagram was looking to scale back its shopping features. The main reason was that the company wanted to focus on its advertising business, the bread and butter for Meta, rather than its e-commerce business.

Instagram first announced shopping features in 2018. During the pandemic, Instagram offered more features to businesses to attract more shoppers. Meta as a company has had a rather testing 2022 with a loss of revenue, employees and more.

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