If we’ve learned anything over the last year, it’s that the online world has become more important than ever before. In nearly every regard, countries near and far have had to adapt to the pandemic and resort to online marketing, communication, and services wherever possible.
One trend that has exponentially grown is live video shopping. With many stay-at-home orders in place, consumers were forced to make purchases without touching, trying on, or experiencing products first-hand. As a result, live video shopping solutions came out in full force.
Though stay-at-home orders won’t be around forever, live streaming is likely to stay. Let’s look into how live video shopping can offer solutions for your business.
What is Live Shopping?
Live video shopping involves live video streaming of products and services that viewers can purchase with a tap of a button while still on the live stream.
What originally began with TV channels like QVC and HSN, live video shopping has been around for a long time. Live video shopping as we know it today, however, has evolved immensely and can be considered relatively new.
Today, the majority of live video shopping is conducted using a smartphone. Many popular social media platforms have integrated live streaming into their features to make video shopping available for audiences and sellers alike.
Top Live Video Shopping Platforms
The go-to platforms when a business transitions to live streaming are Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube. This is because of its low costs. It has enough features to interact with your viewers and collect the basic analytics after the live stream ends. Best of all, it already exists on a platform with a large user base.
Other popular live streaming platforms include:
- Amazon, who recently created a streaming service for the lifestyle, fitness, and cooking niches
- YouTube, which has been a traditional video monetization platform
- Google’s Shoploop, and more
However, selling on these platforms comes with limitations. The process of selling and buying is manual for both the seller and the end-user.
This means that the seller has to manually keep track of stock, who buys what, and settle invoices and payment afterward. Meanwhile, the user usually has to comment to purchase their desired item and bank transfer to the seller after receiving an invoice by the seller after the stream.
While this is not a problem for small businesses, the manual process isn’t favorable for those with larger stock.
An alternative to using mainstream social media platforms for live streaming would be to use white label live shopping solutions.
White Label Solutions
According to your requirements, a white label live shopping solution provider will create and customize the live streaming technology and platform which will be under your ownership.
While this comes with a longer invoice than using Instagram, having your own curated live shopping platform has worthy perks.
A curated live shopping platform would mean having a specific ‘shop’ button within the live stream that allows viewers to tap and open up the product catalog in-stream.
Here’s an example:
The above video is from a live shopping series for iShopChangi (Changi Airport Group, Singapore) powered by BeLive Technology.
The product catalog was easily controllable by the series’s producers as it only required a few clicks of the button in the content management system (which came with the live shopping technology provided by BeLive Technology).
The iShopChangi staff needed no coding or extra development as the live shopping solution provider settles all technological matters.
Benefits of Live Video
If you’re wondering how live streaming ecommerce solutions can benefit your business specifically, you’ll find that there are many ways that you can effectively monetize your live video platform.
You can use live videos to:
- Demonstrate products– tutorials for your products are an easy way to inform and engage your audience. Use your live videos to explore products that potential customers are interested in, and answer their questions as they appear in the comments section to help encourage purchases.
- Collaborate with others– another great way to engage your audience is by inviting KOLs to join your live video. These people have their own ‘followers’ that will likely tune in too, expanding your platform quickly.
- Engage followers– encourage your audience to make purchases by inviting them to participate in the demonstration themselves.
- Expand your online presence– a large majority of social media users use their smartphones to access platforms. This makes it possible for your business to monetize from a wider range of device users, extending your video marketing reach.
Potential customers want to know exactly how online products work. Since they can’t try them out in person before purchasing, live streaming gives an in-depth picture of the product. This makes buying decisions clearer and easier.
Live Video Shopping in 2021 and Beyond
Businesses need to establish and solidify their online strategy to survive during unprecedented times
Live shopping bridges the gap between your products, the screen, and the buying experience customers are looking for as they browse online.
COVID19 made a potentially irreversible impact on in-person shopping, making live video shopping a step forward as we slowly work to recover from its effects. For better or for worse, live shopping is here to stay.
