Changes are coming to Instagram & Facebook Shops

Meta has announced that from 10 August 2023 all Facebook and Instagram Shops MUST use the checkout on Facebook and Instagram.

This means that your customers will no longer be able to click through from your Instagram or Facebook Shop, or a product tag in a post and checkout on your website. Instead, they will need to add their payment details to Instagram or Facebook and pay within the app.

However, there's a catch - the Facebook and Instagram checkout feature is currently only available in the United States.

So what does that mean for those of us outside the US?

Meta has said that they will be developing a solution for:

• Australia
• India
• Indonesia
• Japan
• South Korea
• Taiwan
• Thailand
• Canada
• Brazil
• Mexico
• Denmark
• France
• Germany
• Italy
• Netherlands
• Norway
• Spain
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• UK
• Ukraine

If you are in one of these countries you won't lose your Shop or Product Tagging functionality.

But for the rest of us... we're out of luck. It's goodbye Facebook and Instagram Shop and goodbye tagging products in post, Stories and Reels.

There is, however, a workaround - businesses can still use product tagging in the form of ads on Instagram. This will allow both new and existing customers to discover their products at scale. However, businesses will obviously have to pay for this service.

Do you think this will impact your business? As a user, do you tap on product tags in post? Do you visit Facebook or Instagram Shops? I would love to know!