By Girish Ramachandra
Live stream commerce is the next big thing for marketers and companies. It has grown significantly, and it blends the effectiveness of live video streaming with online shopping, enabling firms to showcase their products/offerings in real-time. This category helps brands to interact with their audience directly. It combines two popular trends – live video and e-commerce – to create an interactive shopping channel for consumers. In a live-streaming commerce event, a popular host will showcase content that features products or services while engaging with their audience in real-time and helping them make purchases without leaving the live stream.
This form of shopping originated in Asia and has been adopted by large e-commerce platforms like Alibaba’s Taobao Live and JD.com’s Joybuy. This trend is rapidly spreading worldwide, with large platforms like Amazon, Facebook, and Instagram all launching their own live-commerce features. Live streaming commerce is particularly interesting to beauty and fashion brands where they can partner with influencers to showcase their products, enabling their followers to learn about its features and make assisted purchases.
Key Highlights of Live Shopping Commerce for Brands and Marketers:
- It fosters a feeling of immediateness and authenticity by enabling hosts and viewers to communicate directly in real-time.
- The ability for prospective customers to ask questions, request product recommendations, and instantly get answers promotes a more interactive and tailored buying experience.
- Live streaming shopping enables hosts to show off merchandise in action. They can emphasise features, show off functionality, and offer first-hand accounts, giving viewers a greater understanding of the product before making a purchase.
- It makes use of social media channels to let users share their experiences with friends and followers. The reach and impact of the live stream are increased by this social component’s ability to foster a feeling of community and peer recommendations.
- Limited time offers and promotions are frequently included in live stream purchasing, which makes viewers feel rushed.
- Conversion rates can rise because of impulse buying brought on by the fear of losing out on a wonderful deal.
- Celebrities and influencers frequently organise live-stream shopping events to advertise goods using their big fan bases and influence. They can dramatically influence consumer behaviour and boost sales by endorsing products and making personal suggestions.
Live-streaming commerce is also catching up in India, leading e-commerce players like Flipkart and Myntra offer live-streaming commerce features on their platforms. It helps cut the language barriers and adopt digital literacy. Live video allows consumers to learn and interact with products in real-time and seek live assistance from the host. Given the entertainment value of live streams, brands can leverage this new media to attract relevant audiences.
As more consumers embrace this trend, brands and retailers are likely to innovate and leverage this channel to connect with customers and drive sales. Its ability to merge entertainment, convenience, and social interaction has positioned it as a promising marketing tool in the ever-evolving digital landscape.
The author is the founder and CEO of Shopalyst, a digital ad and marketing platform