The use of video to build brand awareness has been known for years. Recently, brands have also benefited from a new trend that combines online entertainment with sales – in the form of live broadcasts.

Live commerce is a new phenomenon – a live meeting where products are sold. Such “live” with products can be conducted by an influencer or a store seller, and the transmission itself can be carried out on the channel of the brand or an online creator cooperating with it.

E-commerce continues to grow and evolve

It is a truism to say that the e-commerce market is growing year by year. The global pandemic has made online shopping the only option to obtain a product, thanks to which the online market has grown to include people who have not used this type of opportunity before. Customers who only bought electronics or clothing in this way are now extending their online purchases to new products, even the basic necessities.

That’s why it’s hard to break through

Companies must look for new channels to reach and sell. At a time when e-commerce is no longer an advantage, brands are finding new ways to attract customers and improve the user experience.
Currently, chatbots and mobile applications allow online retailers to provide appropriate customer care and convenience. Machine learning allows you to adjust and recommend products based on your purchase history and other parameters. Next day delivery to the door is no surprise to anyone.
However, e-commerce still lacks some experience from a traditional store, and it is this gap that is perfectly filled by live commerce.

It started in Asia

In 2014, the Chinese fashion platform Moguji began an experiment with selling its goods during a live broadcast. Soon after, Taobao of the Alibaba group also took advantage of the channel. Both brands targeted their clothes at clients aged 18-23. The costumes were presented live during the broadcast, and potential customers could ask questions in the chat. They were interested in the quality of the material, as well as the configurations with various accessories. As a result, they saw all the features of the product much better than in a photo session prepared by experts and were more willing to buy. They could get to know the product better and buy it conveniently. For the company, it was a scaling-up of the entire presentation process and referring to the questions of thousands of users during one live.

The instant gratification mechanism also worked here. When watching live and talking about the product, you can make your purchase more spontaneously. By operating in the community and receiving answers to their questions, customers appreciated the value of the product more and more easily justified the choice and the purchase itself.

The boom in live commerce took place in 2019. The functionality is currently most active in Asia, both in direct sales, between users on the Taobao platform, owned by Alibaba, and with the use of influencers, even for American brands such as M.A.C., Levi’s, Ralph Lauren, Sisley and Burberry.

At the moment, three rival companies from China: JD.com, Kaola and Xiaohongshu plan to create their own livestreaming ecosystems to make the purchasing process even easier.

Kim Kardashian and livestreamer Viya sold 15,000 bottles of her new perfume KKW Beauty in minutes. The session attracted over 13 million viewers.

International expansion

Following the development of live commerce in China, Japan and South Korea, Alibaba is targeting more markets. New investments are contributing to the creation of sales tools during livestreaming in Russia, the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia.

So it’s no wonder that more and more copies and clones of tools are being made to replicate the success of live commerce from China.

In the US, Amazon and Wayfair use livestreaming to attract customers’ attention. In 2019, the Wayfair furniture platform streamed for the first time during the annual Way Day event. Amazon launched its livestream features in January 2019. Live streams are available to retailers and support them effectively, and general Amazon broadcasts are organized.

In 2016, Maybelline, during the launch of a new product, the promotion of its new line of lipsticks streamed on 9 different platforms, reached over 5 million people. Over 10,000 lipsticks were sold in 2 hours for a total of $ 210,000.

Meanwhile, the Swedish startup Bambuser recently collaborated with Monki, owned by H&M. Monki’s testing of the live commerce tool sets an interesting precedent for other fashion retailers in Europe and North America. The live broadcast that took place on the site was promoted and available in both Europe and Asia, which set it apart from Western brands’ previous live trading activities that focused solely on Chinese consumers.

Will it be like that in Poland? Very likely

The combination of several trends can make live commerce successful also in Europe. Youtubers and influencers mostly shop online and gather crowds of followers. Brands that will be the first to take advantage of the new trend will have a chance to stay ahead of the competition and show themselves from a new side, closer to customers.

The potential for fashion, beauty and design brands is huge and many companies can benefit from it. Brands that understand the possibility of combining entertainment, online meetings and sales are sure to earn large sums.

If you want to conduct an effective live broadcast with the possibility of live purchases, but you do not know where to start or are looking for tools that will allow you to expand your broadcast, write me a message.

Sources:
https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/2020/03/31/how-livestreaming-will-transform-global-ecommerce-in-2020/
https://www.isentia.com/latest-reads/how-to-generate-sales-through-live-streaming/
https://www.contagious.com/news-and-views/Live-commerce-where-shopping-meets-entertainment