Live shopping (as the name explains) is the online shopping format that helps you retain the human element of in-store buying. It allows you to transform the eCommerce shopping journey into an interactive experience, helping your customers get the desired information before actually making a purchase.
It mixes live video streaming, entertainment, and online shopping, all in order to improve the shopping journey. But while live shopping proves to be an excellent converter, delivering, on average, a 9% conversion rate (with highs of up to 40% add-to-cart rates), it’s also a great digital marketing tool too.
This post focuses on how live shopping helps you interact with clients finding themselves at the start of their shopping journey. While the interactive shopping experience helps you sell to those that have already shown interest in your brand and products, it also works wonders with newcomers, working as a full-funnel marketing channel.
Let’s have a look at 4 ways live shopping can support your digital marketing efforts:
1. It’s a new format – and it attracts shoppers
The mix of live video shopping, entertainment, and commerce makes live shopping extremely attractive. While for some this represents the best way to better understand how a product solves a specific problem, for others, it’s a great way to find out about a new product or brand. According to Youtube, 7 in 10 of its users became aware of a brand by interacting with a video created by the brand.
Video is a great way to present yourself in front of an audience, allowing an authentic interaction between the host(s) of the session and its followers. A live video experience, regardless of the number of viewers, creates a unique bond between the host(s) and viewers.
2. Engaging all your existing followers at the same time
A powerful live shopping solution helps you simultaneously engage all your existing audiences. Using Multicast, the live video experience can be multicasting to all your social media accounts with just a few clicks of a button.
It’s crucial to find a way to engage your followers where they are already spending their free time. And a live shopping session can help you create an engaging experience that can be followed at the same time on Instagram, Tik Tok, Facebook, or Youtube (just to name some of the most important Social Media platforms).
Furthermore, due to the interactive nature of this selling show, viewers are more likely to share it with their friends and family – video content has twice as many shares compared to any other form of branded content.
3. Join forces with Influencers to reach new audiences
One of the best-performing live shopping formats, for both engagement and conversions, is the one hosted by an influencer and a brand representative. While the influencer has experience with entertaining large audiences, the brand representative is the perfect choice to showcase products, talk about how they help customers and answer any product-related questions.
From a marketing perspective, co-hosted live shopping sessions help brands tap into new audiences – the loyal followers of the invitee. This works best when proper research has been done – invite an influencer that has an affinity for your brand and/or the demographics of her/his followers base overlaps with yours.
This way, you will reach new audiences, showcase content relevant to those potential customers (as their idol will be present in your live shopping sessions) and you will have a real chance to naturally grow your own audience. Furthermore, this format allows a trust transfer from the influencer to your brand, creating a deep connection right from the start.
4. Reuse and repurpose the live shopping video experience
A live shopping experience provides excellent numbers during the actual live experience, but the video content will continue to serve you long after the live has ended. On one hand, you can still market it as a whole and invite customers that haven’t made it to the actual live to watch it. They will have the chance to see an engaging experience, to see what other customers have asked and your answers, and to better understand how your products help them. At a granular approach, you can trim the video experience to match specific products and use them for your marketing and sales efforts:
You can share short bits of video on your social media accounts. A live shopping session generates great content that can be cut into pieces and disseminated on various platforms, supporting your content creation efforts in the long term.
Upload those short videos on your product pages. Online customers need better information about the products they are searching for, and a product presentation cut off from an extended live stream shopping session will offer them what they are looking for.
Final words
Undoubtedly, live shopping is the future of eCommerce. It brings human interaction, previously available just for in-store shopping, into the digital experience. From the comfort of their homes, customers can watch a live product presentation, interact in real time with a shop assistant, ask questions, and make informed purchasing decisions.
But live shopping is a great digital marketing tool as well. It helps brands reach new audiences, generates valuable content, and helps you find new ways to engage potential customers.
