Facebook is shutting down its live shopping feature on October 1

Facebook is shutting down its live shopping feature on October 1 to focus on Reels, the company announced in a blog post. After that date, you won't be able to host any new or scheduled live shopping events on Facebook, the company says. The social media network notes that you'll still be able to use Facebook Live to stream live events, but you won't be able to create product playlists or tag products in your Facebook Live videos.

Live video shopping became publicly available on Facebook two years ago, following a series of smaller trials and beta tests. The feature was designed to give creators and brands an interactive way to sell items, connect with viewers, and potentially win new customers. However, Facebook says it is now moving away from live video shopping to focus on Reels.

"As consumer viewing behavior shifts to short video, we are focusing on Reels on Facebook and Instagram, Meta's short video product," the company said in the blog post. "If you want to reach and engage people through video, try experimenting with Reels and Reels ads on Facebook and Instagram. You can also tag products in Reels on Instagram for deeper discovery and consideration. If you have a checkout store and want to run Instagram Live Shopping events, you can set up Live Shopping on Instagram."

Facebook first launched live shopping in 2018 and has been testing ways to make the feature more seamless and popular over the past two years. Last November, the company began testing "Live Shopping for Creators." The launch allowed creators and brands to broadcast on both of their pages, instead of having to direct users to a single page. In addition, the company launched "Live Shopping Fridays" last summer to encourage major brands to try live shopping as a medium and to raise awareness of live shopping on Facebook. The program included brands like Abercrombie and Fitch, Bobbi Brown, Clinique and Sephora.

A live shopping platform could have ultimately been a significant source of revenue for Facebook, thanks to the seller fees applied at checkout. However, given today's announcement, it's clear that Facebook is rethinking its stance on live shopping.

Facebook isn't the only digital giant looking to scale back its live shopping plans, as it was recently revealed that TikTok has dropped plans to expand its "TikTok Shop" live e-commerce initiative in the United States and other parts of Europe. The company launched TikTok Shop in the UK last year, its first marketplace outside of Asia, allowing businesses and influencers to sell products through QVC-style live streams. However, the company struggled to gain traction with consumers and suffered from internal issues. The Financial Times reported that expansion plans were scrapped after influencers pulled out of the project in the UK.

Direct shopping is becoming increasingly popular in Asia, and particularly in China. However, with Facebook and TikTok rolling back their live shopping plans, it appears that general consumer awareness and adoption of live shopping is still low outside of Asia.