All you need to know about Live Streaming Ecommerce

What is Live Streaming Ecommerce?

Live streaming e-commerce involves using live media to sell products and services. All ecommerce website businesses are eager to find novel ways to leverage live streaming to boost sales. The best online shopping sites use live streaming to engage customers through product demonstrations and live interactions like answering questions or getting testimonials in real-time. Customers get the feel of live tv channels like QVC and Home Shopping Network that sell through live telecast. Advanced engagement levels build excitement and enthusiasm for shopping sites or the marketplace. Businesses benefit from selling through live streaming where audiences can watch online like live tv.

 

The soaring popularity of live streaming may be an outcome of the intimacy it creates between shoppers and ecommerce sellers. It adds the necessary human touch to online sales. While ‘digital’ is people’s first experience of the world, selling platforms that foster connections strike a chord with buyers. A fully integrated, live streaming ecommerce app can ensure a seamless online shopping experience. All online shopping websites should make live streaming a part of their customer journey. This helps them with real-time conversions.

 

 

How is China Leading the World in Live Streaming Ecommerce?

China caters to the $1.934-trillion ecommerce market and represents 54.7 percent of total global ecommerce sales. The country is also home to the world’s biggest live streaming market with values that equate to $4.4 billion and 450 million viewers. Global shoppers shopping on Chinese ecommerce platforms can buy their hearts out on a single click while watching a live stream.

 

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has launched a global outreach program through live streaming. The business launched its live-streaming feature in Russia in 2017. Another Alibaba group-owned company Lazada is using live stream sessions in the Philippines, Thailand, and Malaysia.

 

The Chinese population seems to have developed a tendency to rely on live streams for shopping—moreover, Chinese key opinion leaders or influencers curate content to views through live streaming. Live streaming allows e-commerce shoppers to research new products and help them make purchase decisions. Curating online content in real-time replicates the feel of offline shopping for ecommerce shoppers enabling them to purchase online with convenience. For example, Taobao employs 4000 live stream hosts that serve more than 150,000 hours of content and broadcast over 600,000 products through the live stream every day.

 

China is also home to live streaming incubator factories that train hosts and provide them with the necessary equipment required. They teach hosts on how to come up with scripts and are even concerned about product quality control issues. Chinese businesses that use live streaming for selling lay great emphasis on how the personality of an online influencer matches with what their target consumers want. There are live streaming trainers that support brand partners in areas like ideation, preparation, and curating of engaging live stream episodes. The scripting part includes storyboard writing and dispelling strategies to achieve a particular objective. All this contributes to China’s unparalleled superiority in live streaming ecommerce.

 

Live Streaming Ecommerce: Current Relevance

In the unfortunate advent of the coronavirus pandemic, physical commerce is on a halt world over. Consequently, live streaming presents a unique opportunity for ecommerce sellers to connect with their buyers.

 

Even otherwise, the trend of online shopping has seen a sharp upsurge. The convenience of shopping from anywhere, 24*7, having access to knowledgeable salespeople, and to pay quickly and easily makes online shopping a hit. Coming to selling through content, we all know how videos can be engaging. Through live streaming ecommerce, customers can access knowledgeable salespeople remotely. Businesses can engage customers in fruitful conversations so that they feel heard and valued. Live streaming thus presents a unique opportunity to brick and mortar stores to leverage the digital era’s conveniences.

 

Live Streaming Ecommerce Challenges Faced by Brands

Even because of the multiple advantages of live streaming ecommerce, some brands remain hesitant to embrace the streaming culture for selling. Since brands can’t control a live stream completely, they are deterred by the risk involved. The unpredictability of a live event, whether it’s telecasted online or on T.V., makes businesses feel helpless about the outcomes. The fear of unforeseeable factors and situations like product malfunction to off-script deviations deter companies from taking a chance on live commerce.

 

 

However, brands need to realize that viewers are not driven by ‘perfection’, but by the organic nature of content that they live stream. Free-flowing content can make brands appear more authentic and are any day better than an overly polished presentation. Brands should leverage live streaming to build their confidence in the new sales and marketing channels. This kind of marketing allows companies to demonstrate the use of products to audiences. They can create excitement around your product, educate the target audience, and build trust through product demonstrations and customer testimonials all by live streaming ecommerce.

 

Further, to successfully live stream ecommerce, brands need to have a captive audience available at the exact time of the streams. The companies that do not have a pre-existing set of audiences may need pre-event marketing to ramp up their viewership. This is what discourages small businesses and start-ups from leveraging the various perks of live streaming for online sales. Some companies are also double-minded about storing live videos. The value of the novelty of the live video content and do not want to lose it post the live streaming session.

 

 

The Future of Live Streaming for Ecommerce Platforms

Intense competition in the ecommerce world has driven the customer acquisition costs sky-high. Live streaming ecommerce presents a viable and highly cost-effective engagement avenue for businesses. Taking inspiration from the T.V. shopping channels of the 1980s, live streaming allows companies to sell online with convenience.

 

Various online shopping sites and ecommerce businesses in countries like Japan, South Korea, and the U.S. are adapting live streaming to reach out to their target market. LF Corp and TVON are some Korean companies that launched live chat features for sellers to communicate with customers. Japanese apps like Mercari and Rakuten are also leveraging video-streaming features.

 

The US-based furniture ecommerce platform Wayfair introduced its first live streaming event for its annual Way Day event in 2019. Soon after, Amazon Live became the platform that lets sellers live stream ecommerce. Live streaming can be a brilliant way to drive sales on amazon online, according to the company. Some amazon brands offer shoppers a demonstration of products for sale on amazon app. However, amazon online shopping through live streaming ecommerce is nothing like Chinese shopping experience through opinion leaders. The company is also promoting live streaming ecommerce through a new app called Amazon Live Creator.  The app allows a brand to stream its video content directly to Amazon.com.

 

Even social media selling platforms like Facebook are gearing up to leverage the superior live streaming ecommerce experience. Such features help brands to interact with their shoppers in real-time and to chat with them during a live stream. Facebook also began testing a new feature in Facebook Marketplace Community for live streaming that enables merchants to sell items more efficiently. Introduced in Thailand currently, it provides customers with a screenshot button that will allow them to take photos of items being demonstrated by a seller. Instagram sellers can live stream with the Instagram Live feature in Instagram Stories.

 

How to Build a Live Streaming Ecommerce Experience for Your Brand?

A strategic alliance between the world of ecommerce and live streaming would bring dynamic synergies in terms of customer engagement online. It’s time for all modern businesses to use live content to address leads on their journey towards becoming customers. Despite proven results, the wave of live streaming ecommerce is yet to reach Europe, the U.S., or Australia. There are several ways you can leverage live streaming to achieve distinct business goals and be a pioneer. The advent of AR/VR technologies opens up avenues to endless possibilities and innovations in live commerce.

 

We at Promatics are a team of pioneer mobile app developers with experience in building live streaming apps for businesses. Our team believes video content like behind-the-scenes live videos can bring out the human side of brands and effectively resonate with target audiences. Moreover, companies that videostream interviews and Q&A sessions effectively engage and inform their customers and promote communication. We recommend online shopping sites in india use live streaming for product launches to boost sales through flash sales. All in all, businesses can create relevant content like training sessions and initiate community-centered discussions through live streaming to create value for their customers.

 

Are you an ecommerce business still trying to integrate live streaming into your marketing model? Promatics is an app development company that has expertise in custom ecommerce development and helps ecommerce businesses leverage the benefits of live streaming through proficient apps.