In a move that’s likely more reflective of a concern for TikTok than for Meta’s own overall growth plans, Facebook has announced that it’s shutting down its experiments that include live shopping, effective from October 1 of this year.
As Business Insider reports, Facebook is decommissioning its native live stream shopping program, along with the ability to create product playlists and tag products on Facebook, as it continues to refine its focus and rationalize its development spend.
Ease Up The Shove
As per Facebook:
“As consumers’ viewing behaviors are shifting to short-form video, we are shifting our focus to Reels on Facebook and Instagram, Meta’s short-form video product. 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 to enable deeper discovery and consideration.”
So Facebook isn’t abandoning the process entirely as live shopping will still be active and remain in development on Instagram. It seems that the future of live shopping on Facebook is now close to non-existent, while this development also reflects the lukewarm response to live shopping in Western markets, which could be a significant concern for TikTok.
Facebook has been experimenting with live shopping implementations over the last few years, as part of its broader push to lean into rising eCommerce trends, which was only further reinforced by the pandemic as it caused online shopping to surge. As restrictions have eased, so has eCommerce demand, as expected by numerous experts. This has forced many to reassess their business plans in line with consumer trends, which has seen the likes of Pinterest lose out or were at least forced to scale back their eCommerce growth push.
As noted, this could also spell issues for TikTok, which has patterned its live shopping growth strategy after its Chinese version, Douyin. Douyin has been around longer than TikTok, hence its more refined and polished tools and systems. Over its viral American counterpart, Douyin’s real strength lay in its capacity to drive in-app commerce, driving $118 billion in product sales in 2021 alone. Live stream commerce has become a key trend for the app and is hugely popular in China, with predictions that estimate live shopping in the region to reach $400 billion this year alone. Live commerce has also been growing in popularity among younger audiences, with users under 27 seeing the fastest adoption.
This would’ve spelled big opportunities in other markets too, but given that Facebook decided to pull the plug on its attempt at integration suggests that it simply may not be catching on as much in the West, at least, not as similar as it did in Eastern markets.
It could be that this was a cultural trend and that Chinese users simply aligned more with new platform uses, similarly to how messaging apps became key connective tools throughout the region. In contrast, Western users have never adapted to messaging apps in the same way, but maybe that’s just a variation in approach. Some have also suggested that there are fewer opportunities to buy products online in China, which could help make live shopping a more appealing prospect. The issue with TikTok comes in because it plans to use eCommerce to make up for the gaps in its current revenue sharing program, which some of its top stars have already criticized. If even Meta dropped live shopping, then TikTok may have to seek out alternate solutions for revenue growth.
The Wrap
TikTok may be the app of the moment, but this development illustrates that patterning success based on the performance of identical apps in other regions does not guarantee the same results. There are simply too many factors related to trends and consumer behaviors that would call for a different approach to more effectively introduce the process and increase takeup. Tough TikTok is one of those that might heavily be affected by this in the future, other apps that were also diving into eCommerce might arrive at a similar conclusion as Facebook; adjustments will have to be made.
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