Amazon has pulled the plug on Inspire, its TikTok-type, short-form video and photo mobile feed designed to help customers explore and discover new products by browsing various categories. Like TikTok, Inspire used a vertical feed and opportunities to purchase products used by influencers and other customers. The shopping giant is instead referring customers to its shopping chatbot Rufus. Amazon has since November 2023 partnered with Instagram to promote shopping within the app, and also has a deal with Snap, so it still has ties to social shopping. Inspire was launched in December 2022 and expanded to national availability in May of 2023.

“We regularly evaluate various features to better align with what customers tell us matters most, and as part of that, Inspire is no longer available,” an Amazon spokesperson told TechCrunch, which mused that the timing was notable in that “a feature that closely mirrored TikTok, especially as the ByteDance-owned platform faces uncertainty in the U.S. Inspire could have served as an alternative for American shoppers seeking product reviews from TikTokers.”

Digital Trends says Amazon plans to have its AI shopping chatbot Rufus take over some of the functions of Inspire and has been redirecting customers to that resource.

Rufus is an AI shopping assistant that Amazon launched in July 2024. Rufus answers customer questions and helps them find and discover products. Rufus was trained on the Amazon catalog and other Internet content, and draws from a wide swathe of information and topics, Amazon explained at the time of its release.

Specific to shopping, you can ask it questions like “What are some great gifts for someone who likes to cook?” And Rufus might then make further inquiry about their lifestyle and favorite foods and respond with suggestions.

“Amazon users received a message from the online retail company saying that the Inspire feed was no longer available,” Digital Trends reports. “While they didn’t further explain the reason why Inspire was shut down, it can be implied that it didn’t work as well as TikTok’s Discover page in converting sales and compelling influencers to post content on there more frequently, as they can earn income elsewhere.”

Amazon continues to experiment with shopping services, however, including ways to help customers “find products from other brands’ sites when they search in the Amazon Shopping app.”