How live shopping is shaping the future of retail
Marketers, agencies and publishers/platforms are still in the early stages of testing live shopping features, but they believe it has the potential to shape commerce media and video content — especially for younger consumers.
The idea is similar to QVC shopping channels, but across social media platforms and oftentimes are hosted by content creators. In recent years, giants from Meta to Amazon have experimented with live shopping features.
In 2022, 20% of people in the U.S. participated in a livestream shopping event — which ranked second after Denmark, with 24% of participants, according to Statista. More than a third in the U.S. have heard of a live shopping experience but have not participated. And apparel and fashion were the most popular products in live commerce followed by beauty and food products, per McKinsey Digital research.
Publicis is among the agencies testing these commerce functions in the U.S. with clients, said Allysun Lundy, vp head of retail media strategy at Publicis Commerce. Publicis did not mention which clients are involved.
“Consumers are going to log in and watch [a livestream], versus going to… spend a lot of time on Amazon or Walmart and not have it feel so sales-y that it really drives that conversion,” Lundy said.
Different shopping cultures and emerging markets
While live livestream shopping, or live shopping, is still growing in the U.S. — reaching $20 billion in 2022 — China has seen more growth. In 2022, China’s livestream e-commerce market totaled some $497 billion, according to Coresight Research. The commerce growth appears to be steady in other regions of Asia, as well.
“I think China has more of where they’ve got people that follow influencers, and they are going to watch their video no matter how long it is,” Lundy said.
WARC and Google’s retail report in March found that livestream commerce accounted for 32% of digital purchase incidences across channels in the past six months. Social commerce accounted for 38% of these purchase incidences. The research considered livestream commerce, augmented and virtual reality and social commerce to be emerging and scaling commerce, whereas online marketplaces and retailer websites are traditional e-commerce.
Live shopping seems to be more mature in Asia, where it originated, compared to the U.S., said Ashik Ashokan, advisory lead of APAC at WARC. In Asia, the culture combines “shopping and entertainment” whereas live shopping in the U.S. seems more “structured and straightforward,” Ashokan told Digiday.
“In Asian platforms like Taobao, millions of dollars are traded on a daily basis across categories,” Ashokan said. “However, in the USA, this trend is still on an upward trajectory and is more focused on high-end products and not mainstream yet.”
The U.S. has the opportunity to make a distinction in niche markets, such as sports trading cards, in which fans enjoy watching livestreams of people opening their cards, said Ryne Higgins, senior director of digital strategy at digital agency Eyeful Media.
“For some, the thrill is having others watch you open your cards,” Higgins said. “With smaller makers that have built a …read more
Source:: Digiday
