Live Shopping: everything you need to know

Live Shopping is the new big trend coming from Asia market to innovate online shopping and e-commerce.  So far, the different social media platforms have been great channels to nurture your brand awareness, engagement and customer loyalty. But, when it comes to direct shopping, all of them show some limitations to become a relevant platform for companies to rely on.

However, it seems that such challenges are being overcome in other parts of the world, as is the case in China, where Live shopping is growing like wildfire. 

In this country, the Live ecommerce market already accounts for more than 10% of the whole ecommerce market. 

It may have taken a while for the Live shopping trend to grow but, the Covid-19 Pandemic has been the booster needed for this ecommerce trend to spread all over the world. 

What exactly is Live Shopping?

Ecommerce was born as a perfect opportunity for consumers to purchase products from anywhere in the world and get them delivered directly to their doorstep. There’s no doubt that the timing and location flexibility have been the greatest plus points of online shopping, making accessible the products that we want from the comfort of our home. 

However, we’ve all been in the situation where we want to purchase a product online but we wish we could get the same information about it that we could have in a physical store shopping experience; and we think twice before buying it. 

Well, let’s say that Live shopping promises consumers a shopping experience which combines the advantages of both, online and offline shopping.

Live stream shopping is bringing the sema concept of traditional home shopping into modern times and therefore to modern channels. 

Live shopping allows sellers to showcase their products to their communities at the same time that gives customers the ability to buy them in real time.  

It brings to companies a new way to trigger special promotions which are only available during the Live while their consumers share their thoughts about their brand and the shopping experience. Revolution in which you want your brand to be present. 

What benefits is Live shopping bringing to your brand?

Now that we know what Live shopping is, you may be wondering how your brand would benefit from it. So here collected some of the most relevant benefits: 

• Boost the engagement: there’s a blitz of content out there and your potential customers are constantly reached by new brands, ads, and promotional emails; which can turn into a huge challenge for brands to stand out of the crowds and keep a high level of engagement. 

The increase of Live shopping popularity only proves that customers are craving for new experiences, and they have found through the video content by this practice a very tailored experience in real time. It’s not a secret that video communication is the new star for digital marketing, and your brand can achieve higher engagement rates, and thus more sales. 

• Massive Sales generation: in just a few minutes, your products can reach hundreds or thousands of people by Live Shopping. Moreover, if you make sure that your audience has a great time, they may invite more people to join your streaming. In this way, you can create an exciting space where they can experience the “see now, want now” spirit.
• Build your brand awareness: if you aim to build your brand awareness successfully, you would need to get noticed by your target audience. And that’s exactly what Live shopping will help you do. Take your brand exposition to your target audience to the next level.  

Moreover, the interactive nature of live streams largely increases the likelihood of your audience remembering you.

• Encourage the shopping spirit: Live Shopping differs from e-commerce in that consumers feel part of something big. To feel part of a community may boost the “fear of missing out” (FOMO), and Live Shopping will allow your audience to witness how many others on the Live broadcast are purchasing the product. 

Moreover, you can launch special discounts which will last as long as the Live streaming or rely on a collaboration with an Influencer. 

• Help your underperforming products: Live shopping can be your best ally to turn underperforming products into top-performers. Sometimes the complexity of a product or its early stage in the market can slow down the sales.

If you want to improve figures of an underperforming product; first of all make sure that you understand the reason why it’s not performing as expected and then you can push accordingly through live shopping. 

• Expand your market: I bet you are wondering what people are buying exactly? From fashion products and home decor to locally farmed goods, live stream shoppers can pick pretty much anything they need or want. 

The variety of products available on live streaming platforms has grown and expanded to different fields. As long as you have a strong community on the live streaming platforms, you can do good.

Platforms for your Live Shopping

Now that we know what Live Shopping is and how it can help our brand, it’s time to understand how to choose the right platform: The options for Live streaming shopping are growing as fast as the audience into it. 

• Even social media platforms, such as Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, now allow users to host live shopping events. However, for example, Instagram live shopping is only available for U.S. based brands and creators at the moment, so we’ll need to wait a bit to see the potential of social media platforms in this regard. . 
• The undeniable leader is Taobao: this wide customer base is starting to attract the attention of companies from the West. Adidas, Samsung and Gap Inc are some of the brands which have already opened their live stores on Taobao. 
• Amazon Live, Twitch, ShopShops, and NTWRK: these are some of the other platforms which are worth taking a look at. Just consider that most live shopping apps will charge a commission on every sale you make (between 2% and 5%). 

The Logistic

It’s a must that you understand what products would be nice to showcase based on your immediate goals and, who’s the best person to present your Live Shopping. A person who knows and loves the product or, if you're looking for more exposure, an influencer, perhaps.   

If your product usage needs some technical knowledge, you can have yourself or someone from your team host the session to take the best out of it. 

Finally, define if you’ll host a long or shot live streaming and how the event will be structured. 

Establish if you will do a product demonstration or if you will have a Q&A instead.

To sum up!

• After Tiktok, Live shopping is the next big trend that is coming from Asia.
• Live Shopping is hitting the market to provide a new shopping experience.
• Live Shopping aims to offer the best of physical and online shopping at the same time.
• Big brands are already triggering their Live Shopping, which accentuates its relevance already in the West. 
• The Live Shopping platform options are rapidly growing, as much as the trend. 
• Although it is a very spontaneous shopping experience, it still requests some planning in advance.