Live streaming allows merchants to showcase products in real-time. It gives a face to the brand and provides an opportunity to engage directly with multiple consumers, who react, ask questions, and receive product insights.
Live-stream shopping increases engagement and drives sales. This example is an Amazon Live recording from Cassandra Bankson, a seller of skincare products.
Live Stream Adoption
Address four key components before conducting a live shopping event.
Live streams build social proof via comments, shares, and likes. Retailers can gain shoppers’ trust, thus shortening the sales cycle.
Implementing Live Streams
Nonetheless, due to the time-limited nature of live shopping events, attendees make more impulse purchases, accelerating the customer journey from awareness to purchase.
- Platform. Businesses can host a live stream event from their website, a dedicated live streaming platform such as Twitch, or one of the many live streaming options, including Facebook, Amazon, TikTok, YouTube, and Pinterest. Several all-inclusive services — CommentSold, Bambuser, Buywith — cater to small businesses and automate time-consuming tasks such as invoicing and inventory management.
- Host. A good host is crucial for hosting a live stream event. The person can be an internal resource or an external social media influencer that suits your brand or product.
- Engaging content. The right content is critical for live streaming. Include an exciting introduction and a “hook,” a reason for viewers to attend. The hook could be a giveaway, a contest, a special offer, or a featured guest.
- Promotion, before and after the event. Live video has much more organic social reach than any other content. Further, social algorithms love live posts and will include attendees in future live-stream feeds.
Folks who purchase products during a live shopping event are significantly less likely to return them, according to Coresight. The return rate for live stream purchases is up to 50% lower.
China is the global leader in live stream shopping. According to eMarketer, live shopping accounted for nearly 12% of China’s retail ecommerce sales in 2021. Over 560 million people, about 39% of China’s population, will have viewed live streams in 2020, per a Forbes contributor. Statista projects that live-stream ecommerce will reach 0 billion in China by 2023.
Benefits
A successful live-stream event increases engagement and drives sales.
In the U.S., Coresight Research estimates the live-stream shopping market will reach billion in 2022 and grow to roughly billion by 2023.
