top of page

What is live shopping really about?

Updated: Sep 5, 2022

How come one single person could draw an audience of 250 million and sell goods worth of $1.9B in 14 hours? ¹


We've previously been talking about how live shopping has become a growing marketing channel and how it can help pretty much any business. But what are the components behind it that makes people appreciate it so much?


Let's get down to science.



Live shopping in a nutshell

Live shopping consists of three core components:

1. Product promotion

2. Viewers can shop

3. Entertainment


Other features that commonly define the medium are that it’s live, time limited, contains exclusive offers, viewers can chat and typically there is an influencer or paid ambassador hosting the show.


There are many reasons why the above blend is relevant and holds enormous long-term potential.


Why it works


Dynamic vs. Static

The online experience has been pretty much the same static experience since the first e-commerce. Live shopping is without a doubt the most dynamic online shopping format yet to have been enabled. It goes way beyond simply clicking and filling up a shopping cart.


Social experience

Covid accelerated the migration to e-commerce by 5 years and continues to grow rapidly. While it’s convenient to shop online, the experience totally lacks engaging interactions which is now being changed by live shopping where potentially millions of people can communicate with each other.


Speed up decisions

People want social proof, as a matter of fact, 78% of online shoppers worldwide look for some form of second opinion before making a purchase. Rather than potential customers having to read product descriptions and scour the internet for customer reviews, they can now join a live video broadcast and have real-time conversations about products before buying directly from the broadcast.


The thrill of FOMO

Considering the live nature of the medium, content is likely to be perceived as time limited and exclusive, creating stronger urges to act and ultimately result in a really exciting shopping experience.


Live shopping is simply a natural next step in eCommerce. It works because it's closer to our social nature, compared to statically clicking around by yourself. Many new technical advancements make it possible to enhance the online journey fairly easy. If you're an online business today you can actually embed live video and shopping almost risk-free within minutes.

Sounds pretty enticing, right?


 

Read more:

 


Curious to learn more about social commerce?

More from the blog:


Comments


bottom of page