What is Live Commerce?

Live Commerce (or live stream shopping) is the online shopping experience where on one side you have a presenter that’s showcasing a product or service, and on the other side, you have people watching the video experience, engaging through chat or emojis, and buying straight from the live (or pre-recorded) video experience. It’s a mix of live video streaming, entertainment, and eCommerce that offers a frictionless shopping journey.

The live commerce experience brings a human touch to online shopping, allowing you to digitally recreate the in-store experience.

Live stream shopping is a new and fun way to buy products. It’s like video shopping for the space age.

As customers demand more engaging ways of shopping companies that have a direct-to-consumer strategy have adapted. With Streams.live you can now interact in real time with hundreds and thousands of customers. When they are prepared to shop they can purchase your products or services without leaving the stream.

52% of customers demand a more engaging and interactive shopping experience

Live commerce: history and projections

Live commerce emerged in China, where Alibaba enabled the first live show with commerce capabilities back in 2016 through Taobao Live. From there on, the live eCommerce trend saw a sharp rise, reaching almost $300 billion in sales in 2021. By 2023, live commerce will represent 20% of the total Chinese eCommerce market with a total of more than $620 billion.

The western eCommerce markets saw a slower and steadier adoption rate of live video shopping. But it’s still projected to be one of the most important eCommerce sales channels in the near future. In the US, the market will reach $23 billion by 2023, from only  $5.6 billion back in 2020.

6 benefits of using a live commerce software

1. Higher conversion rates

While traditional eCommerce has an average conversion rate of just 2%, live video shopping has an average of almost 10%, with spikes reaching 40% during high-engaging moments. Austin Li, one of Taobao’s stars, managed to pre-sale $1.9 billion in goods during a 12 hours-long live shopping event.

2. Brand awareness  

As live video is the customers’ preferred interaction method with brands, live video will help you interact with a large number of potential customers. The live shopping event mentioned above managed to gather more than 250 million views.

3. Lower return rates  

A live show helps your customers better understand how your products work and make informed decisions, thus lowering the return rates. 64% of return rates are caused by differences between the product description and the actual products or by customers not properly understanding the product specifications.

4.  Building a community

The authenticity of a live commerce experience helps customers better connect with your business, thus helping you create a community around your brand. By building a community you will be able to better retain customers, get feedback, and easily reach new potential customers by leveraging word of mouth.

5. Cross-sell products

A live show will allow customers to see products that usually miss the spotlight. You can include complementary products that increase eachother’s value, thus increasing the average ticket size of your shop.

6. Supports multi-channel approach 

A good live commerce software solution will help you simultaneously go live on multiple channels (your website, your app, social media channels), significantly increasing your reach.

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Sell products and services using our live commerce tool

90% of your customers value authenticity. Be authentic.

Live Shopping means unedited footage. 90% of surveyed consumers said that authenticity is important when deciding which brands they like and support.

live shopping

Attention is expensive. Leverage momentum and gain customers.

Over the last 20 years, our attention span went from 12 to under 8 seconds. With Live Stream Shopping, your customers can buy the right product at the right moment. Without any other distractions.

Go interactive

Live Stream Shopping offers a new, interactive alternative to classical online shopping. And we live in the era of the “Experience Economy”, where shoppers value the experience as much as the products they pay for. Goods become commodities. Experiences become priceless.

Communicate

Over 85% of online shoppers have at least one question they need to find an answer to before purchasing a product. With Streams.live, you can answer that question in real-time. When it matters the most.

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Live shopping means:

9% conversion rate

Almost 1 out of 10 Live Shopping sessions ends with a sale

3 X engagement

Live video generates more engagement than any other content form

3 X views

Internet users spend more time watching live content than any other form of media

How can live commerce help your business grow?

With the help of a live commerce software solution, you can easily add a human touch to the online shopping journey. But you are not just selling your products, you’re also educating your customers. You’re helping them have a better understanding of what you do, how you do it, and most importantly, why you do it.

You’re enabling the two-way conversation that eCommerce misses. This new sales channel creates a deeper connection between your customers. It creates a frictionless shopping experience, making it 5X more efficient than classic eCommerce channels.

How does live commerce work?

Private, one to one shopping sessions

Connect to customers one at a time.

Allow them to schedule private sessions, prepay or even top up virtual credit that can be later on used for product purchases.

Go live shopping

Multiplayer shopping sessions

One to many. Get your community excited about your products, showcase products in front of your loyal customers.
Your store is your stage.

Allow them to schedule private sessions, prepay or even top up virtual credit that can be later on used for product purchases.

Create your unique shopping style

Using our API and with a bit of help from our engineers, we can help you transform the way you sell.
Integrate the shopping experience deeper into your processes.

Create live shopping party

Live commerce vs social commerce 

You’ve probably heard of both live commerce and social commerce. But what are the differences and how you can include these two sales channels into your strategy? 

Live commerce focuses on live video experiences that sell. The experience is generally hosted on your website or app (or a special landing page on the live commerce software solution) and focuses on the mix of eCommerce or entertainment, helping customers make informed decisions. 

Social Commerce focuses on enabling sales on social media platforms, like Facebook or Instagram, and hosting the entire shopping journey on one platform. It may be enabled through product links, tags, or live shopping shows hosted on the platforms. 

Both live commerce and social commerce come to improve the eCommerce experience, improving and shortening the customer journey. And while they may be seen as different concepts, there are in fact multiple connection points making them work together.

What do you need to start a live commerce channel in 2022

1. A product or service to sell

Live commerce helps you sell your products or services to your audience using a live video experience. If you have something that’s worth selling that you can start incorporating a live commerce channel into your sales strategy.

2. A live commerce software solution

Once you have decided that you want to sell your products live, you need to identify the perfect live commerce platform for your needs. Depending on the shopping journey that you want to create, you can either use social media platform that allows live selling or opt for a live commerce software that allows you to completely own and customize the experience. 

3. A presenter to host the show

A live commerce show needs to engage viewers and help them convert. There are multiple options that work, ranging from world-famous influencers that can engage large audiences to experienced shop assistants that can answer any product-related questions (or even both).

4. Somebody to sell to (an audience)

Of course, a successful live commerce show needs an audience interested in your products or services. Make sure that you let people know about your future live commerce shows.

Live eCommerce video format: portrait vs landscape

Portrait mode

The vertical mode (portrait) is best used to create a deeper feeling of authenticity. With our live shopping app for iOS, you can easily go live straight from your mobile device, engage viewers in an immersive, authentic experience, and sell. Regardless of the number of viewers, a portrait live video will always inspire the intimacy of a one-on-one discussion between you and your viewers.

Live commerce app download
live shopping

Landscape mode

The horizontal mode is the best choice when trying to showcase multiple elements or when having more than one host. If you are planning a complex video event, that involves movement, multiple cameras, and a larger area to cover, the landscape mode will deliver the experience that you are looking for.

Easy to use

Whether your products are showcased by an influencer or your store associates, on boarding must be easy. Press a big, blue button and you’re live.

No coding required

We made it easy. Set up the video stream, add your products and you are ready to go. Copy and paste the embed code and offer the experience on your website.

Cinematic quality

Engage your viewers with high-quality video content that transforms e- commerce into an unforgettable experience.

Let’s discuss Live Commerce