Facebook adds shopping function to short video app Reels

According to reports, later this year, Facebook’s photo-sharing platform Instagram will conduct shopping tests through its short video feature “Reels” to achieve monetization . At the same time, starting this week, Instagram will also add shopping features to its long video platform “IGTV”.

Analysts say that these Instagram initiatives will attract creators and brands who want to monetize Instagram. In the future, they (creators and brands) can add shopping tags to their published content so that users can click on products and make purchases through the Instagram App or retailers’ websites.

In the past few years, Facebook has tested various shopping functions on Instagram. The most recent time was this summer, and I tested a dedicated “shop” tab on the Instagram home screen. Users can shop through regular Instagram posts, Live, Stories and Explore subscriptions.

Nowadays, although adding the shopping function to Reels is expected, the speed of Facebook is still impressive. After all, Instagram officially launched the Reels function in only about 2 months. Analysts said that the addition of shopping functions to Reels this time is to compete with TikTok.

In November last year, Instagram took the lead in launching the short video feature Reels in Brazil, launched in France and Germany in June this year, and then launched in India. Instagram Reels is highly similar to TikTok, such as allowing users to create and share 15-second video clips. In July, it was reported that Facebook will launch Reels in the United States and more than 50 other countries to challenge TikTok.

TikTok entered the e-commerce field very early. Last year, TikTok began testing new social e-commerce features, allowing some users to add shopping links to their profiles and videos, and retail giant Levi’s was the first to use TikTok’s new “Shop Now” (Buy Now) One of the functional retail brands.