The future of online retail has been quite expansive since the introduction of the dynamic world of live-stream shopping. Today, the world is on the internet like never before using it for communication, entertainment, education, and almost anything else. Shopping is another important use case of applications of the internet and livestream shopping has redefined the way people are shopping for products on the internet.
What is Livestream Shopping?
livestream shopping or simply live shopping is a process where products are sold live on the internet usually by an influencer or a celebrity who promotes the product, explains the product, and takes the queries for the viewers live. The primary difference between livestream shopping and traditional online shopping is that buyers interact with the promoters in real-time where buyers can ask questions and sellers can promote the product in a much more effective 1:1 interactive way creating an immersive and interactive experience for both sellers as well as buyers.
Reshaping the digital landscape, live-stream shopping first became popular in China which still has the highest number of live-stream shoppers in the world. The process is quite simple. An influencer or a promoter goes live with the product. Then they talk about the product, explain to the user why they should buy it and then answer queries. These sessions are then streamed on various Live Streaming Commerce platforms such as Amazon, Alibaba, and many more.
Alibaba’s Taobao Live launched in May 2016 was the first Chinese retail leader who came up with an online live broadcast with the e-commerce store allowing people to watch the content as entertainment and shop for the products they like during the stream. In 2020, the first 30 minutes of Alibaba’s Singles’Day pre sales on Taobao Live generated US$ 7.5 billion in revenue thus solidifying its claim as being the next revolution in e-commerce.
Key Livestream Shopping Insights Your Must-Know
- The US livestream shopping market is estimated to grow to US$ 68 billion by 2026.
- Livestream shopping app downloads have increased by 77% in the first half of 2022.
- According to Babbuser, livestream viewing minutes grew by 240% between 2020 and 2022.
- Clothing and fashion accessories account for more than 36% of all livestream shopping events.
- Coresight’s CEO Deborah Weinswig adjusted this prediction to $50 billion for CNBC, with an estimate that livestream shopping will account for more than 5% of total ecommerce sales in the US by 2026.
Benefits of Live Stream Shopping
For Sellers
Live stream shopping is a game changer for sellers who can sell online just like they sell offline, that is by showing the product to the customer, having a conversation with them, and then convincing them to buy it. Live stream shopping saves cost as the seller no longer needs to set up a shop to welcome all their customers and reach the global audience and thus add a new source of revenue to their business.
For Buyers
For consumers, Live Stream Shopping offers a personalized and thrilling experience. Real-time feedback, interactive Q&A sessions, and the excitement of spontaneous discovery make this a shopping journey like no other. It’s like going into a shop, selecting a product and then buying only when fully convinced.
Elements of Livestream Shopping
Livestream shopping comprises 3 key elements that combine to deliver a good live-stream shopping experience to the user. Let us understand them one by one.
Host
Anyone can be a host but not everyone can be necessarily successful at it. The host plays a very important role in creating a comfortable environment for these livestream shopping events. Essentially influencers and celebrities can be very effective in selling a product but then it will always vary from product to product and you cannot put a one-size-fits-all strategy to it. For example, tech reviews are not essentially done by any random influencer but by influencers who excel in tech. Similar approaches go for a lot of other product categories such as food, clothing etc.
Choose your host wisely as a good host has the potential to increase your sales. Select a host who is from the industry, has a good outreach, and can convince people to buy your product just through an online session.
Product
Fashion dominates the livestream shopping industry and just like fashion, other industries such as food and technology also have their fair share of the market. So next to the host, the next important factor to excel at livestream shopping is the selection of products. Not all products are meant to be sold online. For example, you can always promote commercial or wholesale real estate ads through video tours but people will always prefer to look at the location in real-time (not virtually) before making a purchase.
Popular products can be sold via livestream and at the end of the day, the sales depend on the host as well as the product. Refining the host is important but refining the product to ensure that it is market-ready in terms of its pricing and quality is important too. So sort out your product and then start your livestream shopping journey.
Platform
Last but not least, select the right platform to promote your product. Selling products on social media websites such as Facebook and Instagram Live can be a good option to begin with but there are more long-lasting solutions to your livestreaming needs. A platform plays a very important part in determining the outcome of your livestream shopping campaigns. Free-to-use platforms come with their limitations.
For example, how will I go live on Facebook and Instagram simultaneously? Or what if I want to run my shopping website and I want to start live streaming on that platform? Also, what if I want to start live streaming from mobile directly at a professional level without compromising on quality?
So the third and the most important element in your livestream shopping platform creation is to deploy the right live streaming platform that your audience can interact with and multiple influencers can use it seamlessly to broadcast globally.
Muvi Live: Empowering Livestream Shopping Like A Pro
Muvi Live is a live-streamer dream come reality live streaming software solution built to cater to live-stream sellers like you. As read before, the platform or the software that you use to live stream plays a very crucial role in the success of your selling campaigns. Muvi Live is a broadcast-ready platform built by Muvi to cater to all your streaming needs.
Features of Muvi Live
Start Instantly
Muvi Live is a DIY setup that lets you start multiple live streams without writing a single line of code. It delivers your live streams all over the world seamlessly thanks to its ultra-low latency and global content delivery network.
Live Chat
Audience interaction, an important aspect of livestream shopping is effortlessly handled by Muvi Live using its live chat feature that lets the audience interact with the host in real-time solving all queries and doubts about the product.
Online Video Player
Gone are the days when YouTube branded your original content. With Muvi Live, you get a cross-platform, cross-browser, and cross-device compatible HTML5-based player with your own branding.
Muvi Live SDKs
Integrate live broadcasting capability or build a live streaming app from the ground up using a suite of SDKs and APIs for any platform thus giving customization to your live stream platform like no other platform ever.
Muvi Meetings
Connect with your selected audience instantly using the Muvi Meetings plugin of Muvi Live which lets you host meetings instantly on any browser or platform. This enhances communication and can be used to communicate in-house or with your bigger clients.
Pay As You Go
Using Muvi Live does not come with hefty monthly subscription charges. Instead, the platform is completely based on a pay-as-you-go approach where users get billed on the streaming minutes and the bandwidth that they consumed thus making Muvi Live a much more economical choice for live streamers.
Social Media Integration
Muvi Live enables you to live stream on multiple social media platforms concurrently. With social media integration, you can reach out to millions of viewers without spending much effort and resources. This enables you to directly interact with your audience, engage them with your content, and grow your audience base.
Final Thoughts
The future of retail is interactive. Muvi Live stands as a catalyst for sellers looking to not only adapt but thrive in this ever-evolving landscape. The fusion of entertainment and e-commerce has opened up new possibilities, and Muvi Live is here to help sellers seize these opportunities using cutting-edge technology with a human touch.
Start using Muvi Live today.
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