• Facebook is shutting down its live video shopping feature on October 1.
• The feature, released two years ago, let influencers and retailers host live shopping events on Facebook.
• Parent company Meta will focus instead on Reels on Facebook and Instagram.

Facebook is shutting down its live video shopping feature on October 1, two years after releasing the feature.

The feature let influencers and retailers host live shopping events directly on Facebook, where they could invite their followers to purchase from a carousel of products. The platform is shutting down this native live stream shopping initiative, as well as the ability to create product playlists or tag products on Facebook, parent company Meta confirmed to Insider, adding that it will focus instead on short-form content.

“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,” the company wrote in a Tuesday 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 to enable deeper discovery and consideration. If you have a shop with checkout and want to to host Live Shopping events on Instagram, you can set up Live Shopping on Instagram.”

Facebook began beta testing its native live shopping tools in 2018, according to TechCrunch.

In mid-2021, Facebook launched a weekly live shopping event where consumers could buy new items from brands such as Sephora and Abercrombie.

Boutique owner Kelley Cawley told Insider in 2021 that her team began hosting occasional Facebook Live events in May 2020, then daily shows starting in November 2020 that boosted her sales by 88%.

Mimi Striplin, who owns a boutique and online store based in Charleston, South Carolina, told Insider in February that she hosts live shopping events on Facebook once or twice a month, for about 30 minutes.

This isn’t the first monetization tool that Meta has changed recently. In July, Instagram sunset its native affiliate-marketing program after more than a year of testing. Over the past year, several Instagram bonus programs, like the Reels Play Bonus, which pays creators for meeting certain benchmarks, have either drastically changed or been retired.