So, what is it?

The best way to describe Live Shopping to a newbie is the crossroad between the In-store shopping experience and Live Streaming. When purchasing something in a store, a salesperson or brand expert will present the product, answer your questions, give you tips, and a demonstration. With Live Shopping, the salesperson is a host, and they will be doing the same routine while live streaming to hundreds of viewers.  

If you are curious about a brand or product, simply join their Live Event and get the answers to all your questions in little time! Viewers enjoy the interactive features of Livestream shopping that are missing from traditional online shopping, such as chats, giveaways, polls, a community, and much more.  

The 3 Steps of a Live Shopping Event

Live Shopping does not start with pressing the “Go Live” button. A live event takes some preparation to ensure a successful show. To know the foundations of Live Shopping you need to understand the cycle of a live event. From an idea to the logistics, to finally going live; there are lots of intermediate steps. We have broken down the process of Live Shopping into 3 different steps:   

1. Pre-Live

The Pre-Live is the planning that comes before the day of the show. To establish a clear strategy, you should think of how you want to structure your Live Shopping shows, what is the objective of your shows? To inform? To sell? Who are you trying to target? After answering all the preliminary questions, you can build up your strategy from there. Think of your script, whom you want to recruit for the show, and when and where it will happen.

Another crucial part of your strategy is communication. Without advertising and marketing your show, you won’t drive much traffic. We highly recommend starting your communication at least 1 week before the show. We’ve crafted a social media promotion checklist you can run through before the event, so, no need to worry!

2. Live

Once you’ve got your strategy, your team, your equipment, and your audience, it’s time to go LIVE! We understand how scary it can be to go live for the first time but running one or several test shows with similar conditions to the actual event will help you avoid any unwanted surprises! For a stress-free experience, check out our Testing Guide.

During the Live, is when you need to engage your viewers the most, leverage all of the interactive features (chat, polls, announcement, questions, etc.) to keep your audience responsive and interested. Contrary to people’s beliefs, viewers usually don’t stay for the entirety of the show, they come and go, which is why it’s important to always welcome new shoppers to make everyone feel included!

3. Post-Live

Once you’ve finished your show, you can observe what worked well and what did not. The beauty of Live Shopping is receiving direct feedback from your customers which you can use to adapt the strategy for your next shows.

Additionally, Livescale provides analytics right after the show ends, allowing you to learn about your client’s behaviour and preferences. If you wish to learn more about Livescale’s features, check out our pricing page!

The 3 Benefits of Live Shopping

Now that we know how Live Shopping works, the real question is: Why is everyone doing it? There is no simple answer to that question but a few reasons explain the hype around Live Shopping.  

1. Brand Awareness

Unlocking brand awareness is one of the many benefits of Live Shopping. The spotlight is on your brand and no one else, you get to choose the content you produce all while your brand image stays intact and is communicated in every possible way.  

Your hosts

Pick your brand’s representative to best communicate your values and visions. Your host is the voice of your brand but also of the viewers. They will be presenting the products, answering viewers’ questions, doing demos, and bringing on the fun! Your host can be anyone, from the founder of the brand to an influencer. To learn more about the role of a host, you can read our articles on best practices for Live Shopping hosts.

Your Products

Select the products you want to display for your Live Event. Whether promoting your new product launch or bringing back a classic, the products you select will be at the centre of your show. The host showcases the products while the viewers watch Live and browse through the catalogue of products without leaving the video!

Your product selection can be a great opportunity to attract more traffic, many brands promote bundles and special offers to build hype and boost engagement. Beekman a long-time QVC legend and now Live Shopping adept, often advertises appealing bundles and collections. Read more about Beekman’s Live Shopping Journey.

Your Marketing

Include Live Shopping into your marketing strategy however you want, some see it as an additional sales channel and others as a long-term strategy, it’s up to you! A live shopping event is a simple link, which allows you to easily promote your event on all your existing social media platforms, website, email list, etc.

You can finally feel in control of your online store and have a better idea of your viewer’s progression in the sales funnel thanks to real-time KPIs. 

2. High Engagement

Viewers love the engagement that Live Shopping brings, they feel heard and appreciated by the brand. Not only does Live Shopping create a sense of community with the many gamification features, but the community also builds itself! We often see people in the chat helping each other or spontaneously discussing their favourite products!

You can finally know what your clients want in real-time and adjust your content accordingly. Every brand has a different strategy to keep its audience engaged. Some use the frequency of their shows, some put more emphasis on the host to ask and answer questions, and others do giveaways; there’s no right way to do it!

3. Boosts Sales

Live Shopping is today’s new sales booster. Some of our clients have reported making a day’s worth of e-commerce sales in only 1 hour with Live Shopping.

Displaying products in front of hundreds of viewers, allows your brand to have a lot of visibility and encourages higher conversions thanks to sales-trained hosts.

With promotions and deals, you can attract even more traffic and create a sense of FOMO for those who did not attend!

The Future of Live Shopping

We can assure you that Live Shopping is not a quick trend, it is only growing from here! According to McKinsey’s 2021 report on live commerce, “live-commerce-initiated sales could account for as much as 10 to 20 percent of all e-commerce by 2026.”  

Are you ready to join the future of e-commerce? If you are looking for a flexible and fast way to begin, Livescale is the right solution for you.