Last updated: September 2026
Selling live on Instagram isn’t what it was a few years ago — and if you’re still waiting for the old Live Shopping button to reappear, you’ll be waiting a while.
If you thought the days of teleshopping were over, think again!
In this article, we are covering what actually happened to Instagram Live Shopping, and how brands and creators still drive real sales from live video today:
What happened to Instagram Live Shopping?
Instagram Live Shopping let brands and creators tag products from their catalog before going live during an Instagram Live broadcast. Featured products appeared at the bottom of the broadcast screen, so viewers could tap straight through to buy.
Meta retired it. From 16 March 2023, you can no longer tag products for sale in a live broadcast.
And the wind-down went well beyond Live. The dedicated Shop tab left Instagram’s main navigation in February 2023 and never came back. Meta then phased out native in-app checkout for US merchants across 2025, with the in-app purchase flow fully deprecated that August.
So the “buy without ever leaving the app” era is genuinely over. Product tags still exist — but tapping one now opens a product detail page, and the shopper taps through to your own website to actually pay.
That’s less frictionless than it was. It is not, however, the end of live selling. It just moved.
So how do brands sell on Instagram Live now?
The mechanic that replaced the tag is simpler than you’d expect: comment-to-DM.
You pick a keyword and say it out loud on the broadcast — “comment SERUM and I’ll send you the link.” Viewers type it, and an automation drops your product link straight into their DMs while you stay on camera and keep selling.
It’s a win-win on both sides. The viewer gets the link without hunting for it, and you get a direct message thread with a warm buyer instead of a one-off tap.
Alongside that, the pieces still very much alive are product tags in feed posts, Reels and Stories, your Instagram storefront, catalog ads, and Advantage+ campaigns. Discovery still happens on Instagram. The transaction happens on your site.
Why live selling still works
Instagram Live is still the best way to connect with your followers in a direct, transparent, and authentic way.
Unlike a polished Reel or a pre-recorded Story, a Live is an unedited stream your followers tune into and engage with in real time. It’s a relatable and personable experience — and that is exactly why it converts.
When the feature first launched, Tina Craig of @bagsnob used a Live to share the detail behind her @ubeauty product launch, giving her community a direct route to shop while she talked. The tagging mechanic behind that broadcast is gone, but the format is not — creators run exactly this playbook today with a keyword and a DM link.
Viewers still get to experience a product properly and make an educated decision, rather than judging it from a grid photo.
From product demonstrations to contextual styling tips, the opportunities are endless!
Who can sell on Instagram Live?
This is the part that genuinely improved. Live Shopping was restricted to eligible US-based brands and creators with Instagram Checkout access — a small pool, and one most businesses outside the US could never join.
Now that selling runs on links and DMs rather than native checkout, that gate is gone. If you can go live and you have somewhere to send people, you can sell — wherever you’re based.
What you do need is a product catalog connected through Meta Commerce Manager if you want product tags, a mobile-fast checkout on your own site, and a keyword automation set up before you go live rather than during.
Also read this- Instagram Transformation Of Shopping: A Digital Retail Revolution
The takeaway
Instagram spent years building native shopping, then walked most of it back. The lesson for brands is worth holding onto: features you don’t own can disappear on a month’s notice.
Your storefront, your email list, and your DMs are yours. Instagram Live is the shop window — and it’s still one of the best on the internet.
With that in mind, there’s never been a better time to level-up your Instagram strategy.
