The concept of livestream eCommerce is turning extremely widespread in 2024. Thanks to social media, businesses and even ordinary people can stream live to showcase and sell items online. This all started when big social platforms decided to provide the Go Live feature for their audiences.
Accordingly, it became inevitable that our shopping experience will follow suit too. On the electronic commerce front, this concept has roots in China. Some online retail portals in mainland China introduced the concept of live-streaming into digital eCommerce.
Since then, livestream eCommerce has become a trend for online shopping. Now almost every business globally and in the United States is doing it. Also, billions of users are following it and taking benefit from it.
You probably notice giant online sellers such as Walmart, which live stream shopping events on TikTok. Even, Amazon has released a live platform for influencers to promote items and chat with customers. Meta platforms have launched a Shops feature that allows small businesses to have a single storefront on Facebook and Instagram.
COVID-19 has accelerated this phenomenon across the world. Startup companies and SMEs can also consider the concept of livestream shopping for their businesses. That’s where professional eCommerce developers can help them in setting up their live shopping offerings.
Digital shopping is getting better with live selling
Businesses always seek ways to get better user interaction with their customers. It gives them a higher chance of showcasing their products. In turn, this means a bigger possibility of making sales.
People love going to the shopping malls and having salespeople hover around with that whisk of perfume. We all observe the mannequins adorning the latest fashion to envision what looks good on us. The goal is the same, how we can better ourselves with those products.
Livestream eCommerce does it better with affiliates who sell products for you. The social world calls them influencers. Usually, loads of people avidly follow these personalities, with top of the cream boosting millions of fans.
Whenever they use products, they give their reviews with recommendations. It helps boost sales for the products, as their followers love to try these items themselves. Companies behind these products pay compensation to influencers for their coverage.
Moreover, influencers, hosts, or their guests in these live shows can interact with the audience. Even, they can do promotions with free giveaways. This can also help other users get a chance of winning the product live on the show.
The time for building deeper, and more exciting connections with customers is here. Live shopping helps build greater traction with users for products. Just like products, businesses can use this concept to promote their services too.
Imagine, technology companies giving away their products/services in the live launch. The first hundred buyers with the promo code get a concession on the purchase. Tech firms can use such tricks to excite potential customers. Together with branding, they boost sales of services/products through social media simultaneously.
Live streaming is evolving modern online retailing
More and more retail brands are live streaming products with offers on their websites. Big fashion brands such as Burberry, Louis Vuitton, Tommy Hilfiger are taking the livestream eCommerce road. They get celebrities to host live shows on their websites.
This enables direct engagement with users while showcasing their items. Additionally, users can purchase these products during the live stream at discounted prices. Some items are limited editions, which makes purchasing them a very coveted experience.
Companies like Alibaba, Amazon, and eBay regularly conduct live shopping events for their users. They put on various products of different categories in their stores on live sales. People worldwide and in the USA greatly await these events, as these stores have a wide array of products available.
Features like same-day delivery make it possible to purchase items and get them at your doorstep without any delay. Therefore, we can safely say that online delivery management systems are growing with live stream shopping. As they are further elevating online shopping experiences to give audiences a larger room for holistically purchasing favorite items.
Realize how metaverse and web 3.0 are completely evolving our perception about the Internet and our lives in eventuality. On average, people prefer watching visual content in context to reading content online. Livestreams pose a very important factor by allowing companies to make a useful connection with online audiences. This helps in creating a user-centric environment for the sales of your products and services.
Integrating social media in websites for live shopping
One aspect of livestream shopping is to directly use social media platforms for marketing and selling your products. Another way is to continue with your brand identity and have social features right there. You can achieve this by embedding social media plugins on your very own eCommerce website.
Social media feeds are widgets that the majority of social networking websites themselves provide. For the social networks that don’t offer this feature, you can generate feeds with social media aggregators. This sounds like a very technical thing to say, but let’s give you a workable approach.
Display all your brand’s content from different social media platforms in a wall-type layout on your website. Also, this helps in getting information about users who are mentioning/tagging your brand on various social media sites. The objective of adding social media to your website is to update existing as well as new users.
This makes them understand your branding theme (that’s why most businesses keep it uniform). Also, it enables them to grasp positive messaging about your products. After all, knowing the views of other users regarding your product can greatly influence their decision on buying it.
Similarly, when users see real-time social feeds, they also empower them to see any live shopping opportunity. By getting aware early, they can participate in future live selling event as it takes place on the social media platform. Also, his way your website is helping users stay connected with the latest happenings and product offerings.
Mixing technologies for greater shopping experiences
Digital shopping and livestream eCommerce are among the biggest futuristic trendsetters for online retail companies. However, these companies prefer to launch their e-commerce websites and mobile apps first. Then, they extend their reach through pop-up stories, standalone stores, and showrooms.
For example, consider Glossier. This is a makeup brand that was launched as an online company and sold its products exclusively online too. Since it’s a completely online brand; the customers are not able to touch, see or feel what they are buying.
To overcome this problem, the company decided to have a completely immersive shopping experience. Glossier keeps hosting regular pop-up events to promote beauty products. The result is they have face-to-face contact with keen fans in real life. This helps in brand awareness; making Glossier a household fashion brand around the world.
Other brands are also following this trend for getting strong at online retail. Incorporating social media marketing with livestream eCommerce is fetching way more success. Features such as in-app purchases, fans’ recommendations are all crucial factors in bringing traffic to e-commerce apps or websites.
It’s time to grasp reality and understand how consumers behave. So, thanks to the new wave of smartphone technology, consumers are extremely tech-savvy already. Embracing online shopping to the core, they are open to ideas like livestream eCommerce as well. Likewise, advancements like visualization and virtualization can take online retail businesses to the next level.
Adapting to changing eCommerce dynamics is crucial
Realize that the electronic commerce landscape does not hold a set boundary. Dynamics in the online retail industry keep sifting. So, utilizing the latest trends like livestream eCommerce is vital for everyone during 2024.
That’s what many large or small businesses, startups, and individual sellers are doing. eCommerce startup Popshop Live has closed $20 million Series A funding (a source puts the valuation at $100 million). Livestream platform Whatnot has acquired $50 million Series B funding to improve its infrastructure.
Businesses can also use SaaS tools such as Bambuser. Brands like Klarna utilize it to test native live shopping directly within branded apps. Furthermore, you can also build a custom live stream environment in your eCommerce website or app.
Unfortunately, many companies did not adapt to the changing times. That is the reason they faced irrevocable losses. Even, some brands were eventually forced to go out of business.
The ambitious entry of the US departmental store chain Target into the Canadian market was not fruitful. So, they had to retreat by closing Target Canada after a $2.1 billion loss. The retail apocalypse had a toll on big brands like Sears and Toys”R”Us causing tough financial challenges. American grocery chain A&P was liquidated in 2015 after 156 years of business.
Conclusion
Let’s face it, the shopping habits of people are ever advancing. So, the retail landscape globally is rapidly changing too. It’s turning into an open inviting ground for businesses to explore different ways to reach out to more customers.
More and more companies are getting on this route for online shopping and delivery platform services. Consumers can get products without having to even lift a finger. Companies are becoming user-centric to allow different possibilities that did not seem favorable to their business a few years ago.
Paperless transactions had popularized online shopping in the first place. It’s only a matter of time before concepts like livestream eCommerce become a central show for retail businesses. Subsequently, they will greatly enhance the shopping experience for users as well.
A fully operational flow for allowing users to immediately click to buy the product through the live stream pays dividends. It allows customers to purchase items without any deviation from the main show, or the company’s social wall. Consequently, online retail businesses are doing a great favor to their sales.
The seamless shopping experience is the key that holds greater avenues for the future. Any company that misses out on this aspect is likely to lose a great deal in the coming years. Hence, together with visualization, modernization such as virtualization can propel online retail businesses to success.
Are you looking to incorporate the live shopping feature into your eCommerce website or app? You are at the right place, and just a click away from connecting with experts. So, let’s get started now as Techliance knows what it takes to catapult an online retail business to new heights.
