Instagram Updates its UI, Kicking the Shopping Tab Out of Home Feed

Instagram recently announced that it would remove the Shop tab from its main navigation bar. Technically, Instagram is making a few minor tweaks to the app layout and thereby updating its UI.

Beginning in February, the navigation bar at the bottom of the app will include a shortcut for creating content in the middle, replacing the current Reels shortcut. The Reels button will be moved to the right, and the Shop tab that is currently in that location will be removed.

Adam Mosseri, Instagram's CEO, said in a reel that the move will "simplify" the app and refocus its priorities to "bring people together over what they love." The new navigation bar order will be Home, Search, Create, Reels, and Profile.

It is noted that, in September 2022, Instagram started testing a main feed without a shopping button.

With the increased adoption of online shopping during COVID times, Instagram, like other platforms, has invested in shopping tools.

But Instagram's parent company, Meta, itself has admitted that it overestimated the company's growth potential in this regard. Hence, Meta has now abandoned this as a key component of its growth strategy.

Needless to say, Meta has discontinued its Facebook live-stream shopping campaign.

Undoubtedly, Instagram shopping plays a crucial role in allowing businesses to provide an immersive storefront for people to explore their best products.

Globally, the pandemic has hastened the transition to a more digital world and caused changes in online shopping. E-commerce sales increased by $244.2 billion, or 43%, in 2020, the first year of the pandemic, rising from $571.2 billion in 2019 to $815.4 billion in 2020, according to the 2020 Annual Retail Trade Survey (ARTS) release.

Although online shopping activity has been steadily increasing over time, it is not happening at the rate it once did. To be exact, after the pandemic, once the physical stores reopened, it gradually started to taper down.

Now, with the announcement that Instagram has kicked out the shopping tab, we don’t see it as a loss of opportunity.

Instagram still holds its door open for in-app shopping, just without the prominent shortcut on the home feed. Hence, the current move only reflects that shopping on Instagram has yet to become a bigger thing.

On the other hand, Instagram has been constantly rolling out multiple new features and updates. All these new updates aim to simplify the user experience and emphasize the focus on pushing content creation.

Video marketing has become undeniably vital in the marketing world. Thus, instead of whining over Instagram’s timely decision, it is beneficial for marketers to focus on refining their content strategy by leveraging content distribution features available in this popular image and short-form video sharing app.

Thereby, it will help brands pull in more audiences to discover their products and build credibility rather than pushing them to shop on an impulse.