Live stream shopping is the combination of live streaming and eCommerce (or traditional commerce) where viewers can watch live product showcasing and purchase the products straight from the live video.

Why is it so successful? Because it takes the best from both in-store and online commerce. 

While in-store retailers need to find the best solutions to digitally recreate the customer journey, eCommerce professionals are looking at ways of adding a human touch in their sales funnels.

For in-store retailers, it’s important to use their main assets, the knowledge and passion of the shop assistants. The ones that create the personalized shopping experiences we all enjoy. But how can they do it if their shops are closed or have low traffic?

eCommerce professionals have spent years and years optimizing their platforms. But how can they add a human touch to their platforms without altering years of hard work?

Live stream shopping came and solved both of these issues, helping businesses to digitally recreate the in-store shopping experience. 

To better understand how this applies to a business, let’s take the case of Jim, our imaginary friend. 

Jim was passionate about photography since we were little kids. When he grew, Jim transformed his passion into a business. Starting by offering photography lessons, Jim moved into commerce as well. He started a little shop, where he sold cameras. What made it unique is that, at his store, each camera comes with a “personal onboarding” from Jim himself. He became famous amongst photography passionates from this small town by sharing his knowledge with each of his customers. 

But words do travel fast, and soon people from out of town also started visiting his shop. Not necessary for the products, but for the experience of purchasing a camera from Jim and his team. Each time a customer bought a camera, a little part of Jim’s knowledge was passed to the buyer as well. For free.

The only problem was that Jim owned a small shop, in a not-so-large town. His knowledge could be shared with a limited number of passionate photographers. And this was affecting his sales, putting the business at risk. 

In a move worthy of the 21st century, Jim opened an eCommerce store. This way, he told himself, customers from all over the world could buy from his small (e)shop. 

But things didn’t go as exactly as planned. The eCommerce world is tough, and Jim finds himself competing with businesses from all over the world. Some offer smaller prices, others have a better refund policy. Some have more products and a much larger customer base, others offer same-day delivery. How could Jim compete with all these companies when his main asset, the connection he has with his clients, seems lost in a faceless industry?

Luckily, his not so imaginary friends from Oveit developed Streams.live, a live stream shopping solution meant to change the status quo of eCommerce. This helps Jim do what he, like many other business owners, does best: educate and empower his customers. So Jim decided to use technology in order to digitally recreate the in-store shopping experience, knowing that this is what more than 50% of internet shoppers are looking for. He entered the world of video shopping.

And it was so easy!

He communicated to his audience that he plans to start a shoppable video channel. And the word spread. Even people who weren’t his clients wanted to see what’s the thing with this new video commerce stuff. Is it indeed a transformative commerce solution? 

I am not going to lie…Jim was nervous about going live. He always imagined that video commerce sessions are done by professionals. But he understood that nobody could showcase the products better than him. It also helped the fact that he took a look at our brochure and understood that he can easily go live by himself.

For his first live stream shopping session, he selected just two products to showcase. This way, he told himself, emotions are easier to control. This was before he realized that going live in front of your audience gives you a thrilling feeling; you feel nervous but more alive than ever. And when the live eCommerce video session ends, you can’t wait to start the next one.

A prerecorded video was used as a teaser. Before the actual start of the session, when people landed on the page of the experience, they were engaged with a video that had the purpose to tell them a little bit about this experience. This is something that we encourage our partners to do every time they prepare to go live; to use a short, engaging video, as a reminder for those landing on the page before the actual video shopping session starts. 

When he actually went live, more than 100 people were watching him. For his first-ever live stream shopping session. “Wow!” he told to himself “people actually care about what I do”. From there on, he did what he does best. What an entrepreneur does best. He shared his passion and his knowledge with the audience. 

While Jim was discussing photography, people started using the chat and Q&A features. Some asked relevant questions about which camera should use in specific scenarios. Others, that visited Jim’s brick and mortar shop or had the chance to interact with him on different occasions, shared those experiences with fellow viewers.

A community was forming around this experience (we actually wrote a whole article on this). And Jim understood that he can actually create his own video shopping network. He saw that this live interaction encouraged people to buy his products straight from the live experience. 

Later, when he started showcasing more products with a video commerce experience, he started using the “Bump” feature. This way, the product that was showcased at a specific moment was highlighted on the screen, above the “Buy now” button. And this made it way simpler for people to purchase the right product, at the right moment. 

For our friend, the decision to start using a video commerce platform saved his business. Soon, he noticed that Maria, one of the shop assistants that helped him through his journey, had the same level of passion for their business. But she was way better in front of the camera. And so Maria becomes a real sales assistant superstar, an influencer.

From there on, things only got better.

By using Streams.live, Jim managed to save his business and the jobs of his employees. It was easy for them to see what was working and what was not. After each session, he and his team checked the analytics report to see how people reacted to that particular video commerce experience. They had access to all the important metrics: total views, dropoff, the maximum number of concurrent viewers, average view time, and so on. But most importantly, they can see the Click-through Rate and which products had the most clicks. This helps them improve from session to session.

There is no magic formula that will increase your sales and grow your business overnight. Not to our knowledge, at least. But we know that commitment, hard work, innovation, and a little bit of luck can take you far. And live stream shopping provides a new, engaging alternative for sales and customer engagement. With the help of technology, it’s easier than ever to add that human touch to your business. That human touch that we are all looking for when deciding to support a business.