With online video, retail is entering its entertainment and gamification era – otherwise known as ‘retailtainment’. Retailers and marketplace vendors have grasped this and thus are embracing livestream shopping en masse.
According to a McKinsey study1, one in five e-commerce sales worldwide will be made via livestream shopping by 2026. This gives us an idea of the potential of this version 2.0 of teleshopping! Originally from Asia, this new format has recently become popular in Europe, in particular because of the various lockdowns.
Livestream shopping boosts the online customer experience
Livestream shopping is a sales technique that involves combining products or services with entertainment in a video format. This format makes it possible not only to promote products, but also to rebuild a link between the consumer and the brand. It captures the attention of internet users and creates opportunities for events – and of course, this interactive format complements the text and images on the product site. Livestream shopping allows products to come to life!
There is no doubt that that these videos provide numerous benefits to retailer websites by making page discovery more enjoyable. 96% of consumers2 who use this format do so to learn more about a product or service. It generates more traffic with a longer customer retention rate, increases engagement, and improves search engine optimization.
However, it is important to differentiate between livestream shopping and video shopping.
Video shopping, for example creating a product demo or inspiration videos, came first. Hosted by a presenter, these two-to-three-minute videos show the product in action for its intended use.
Livestream shopping, on the other hand, exists in a longer format, generally varying between 30 and 45 minutes. In practice, there are two types of ‘livestream shopping’ content:
- A livestream followed by a replay, which is posted on the product page with or without editing of the video
- Pre-recorded content posted on product pages without necessarily live broadcasting
An advertising tool for third-party sellers
Marketplaces are the second most important channel for product discovery after word of mouth, according to Dynata3. 34% of French people discover new products this way. It is self-evident for retailers and sellers to be interested in the benefits of livestream shopping, in order to further increase their visibility.
For this reason, Octopia encourages its retail and sales partners to use advertising tools that boost their attractiveness, particularly as they are perfectly suited to the system that Octopia offers. The technological solution of creating marketplaces allows for the possibility to stimulate sales with:
- Flash sales
- Vouchers, etc.
The retailer or seller can then define their marketing action plan and choose their livestream shopping solution, for example Caast TV.
Livestream shopping promotes interaction
By communicating on a selection of products, the retailer can capture shoppers’ attention in a targeted way. For example, an appliance retailer can create live recipes using the appliance that is on sale. This is a way of addressing a niche interest in cooking; in other words, of attracting qualified traffic and generating interaction.
The main value of livestream shopping is allowing viewers to converse via chat windows. Please note: the presence of an influencer may contribute to the success of livestream shopping, but this alone is not enough. It’s the sales promotion that counts. It is important to push the right product and work on mechanisms like temporary promo codes, which allow the viewer/consumer to feel privileged, or even competitions with the results revealed at the end, which improve customer retention rate. The objective is to maximize sales on the marketplace.
According to Gartner4, the sales conversion rate, which is between 1 and 1.5% on e-commerce sites, shoots up for internet users who view this content – it can increase to 15 or even 35%. This performance can be explained by the ease of purchase made possible by livestream shopping, with the ability to add the products presented in the livestream directly to your shopping cart, without any outgoing clicks and therefore without altering the content experience on offer.
In short, promoting products on a marketplace via livestream shopping is a guaranteed way to offer a format tailored to consumer demand.
[1] Mckinsey Study: “It’s showtime! How live commerce is transforming the shopping experience”
[2] Video Marketing Statistics 2023 by Wyzowl
[3] White Paper “Behaviour of French e-commerce buyers” by Dynata and Channel Advisor
[4] Gartner, quoted in “Live shopping: the new retail media revolution?”, written by Clément Fages for e-marketing.fr
