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Shopping has always been a part of human life. Whether it’s buying groceries, clothes, or gadgets, people have been shopping for centuries. However, with the advent of the internet, shopping has evolved and become more accessible than ever before. E-commerce platforms like Amazon and Alibaba have made shopping possible from the comfort of our home and the rise of social media has made it easier for brands to connect with consumers.
In recent years, live shoppable video has emerged as a game-changer in the world of shopping. With live shopping video, brands can showcase their products in real-time, answer customer questions, and create an interactive shopping experience that engages viewers and drives sales. So let’s explore how live video is reinventing shopping and changing the game for brands.
Live shopping has become an essential tool for e-commerce. With live video, brands can showcase their products in a way that is more engaging and interactive than traditional e-commerce platforms. Instead of simply browsing through product photos, customers can see the product in action and get a better understanding of its features and benefits.
For example, take the wonderful example above from fashion brand, Madison Avenue Couture. The host wonderfully demonstrates details about the product and moves as close to the camera to show the products detail. The beauty about this particular show however was that this show was dedicated to showcasing the best pre-owned bags and viewers had the ability to shop directly from the live shopping event. During the show, the host was able to talk about how best to style the products and provide tips and advice on how to look after them.
During a live stream, customers can ask questions, leave comments, and engage with the host in real-time. This creates a sense of community and connection, which can help build brand loyalty and increase sales.
Influencer marketing has become a popular way for brands to reach new audiences and increase sales. With live video, influencers can showcase products in a more engaging, authentic and interactive way, giving viewers a better idea of how a particular product works and why they should buy it.
For example, beauty, fashion or any type of influencers can use live video to showcase their favourite makeup products, give tutorials on how to use them, and provide honest reviews. Take the below example from Bloomingdales. They partnered with Dior to bring a "get ready with me" type show with one of Dior's beauty experts. This type of content is easy to product, fun to watch and offers valuable insight for the watching audience. During the show, the make up artist provide two different type of looks using products that could also be brought live.
Viewers could then make comments and ask questions before they made their purchases. The interaction did not stop there either with Bloomingdales demonstrating exactly how to get the very best from the technology that Smartzer provides. During the show, Bloomingdales utilised the interactivity to re-direct their audience to a competition page and a member sign up form. Thanks to Smartzer customisable call-to-action buttons, not only could users buy but they could also enter competitions and sign up to receive more information about future shows and product lines.
Live video is also a powerful tool for customer engagement. By creating a live video, brands can connect with their audience in a way that is more personal and authentic than traditional marketing channels. They can showcase their products, answer customer questions, and provide valuable insights and advice. It becomes a very personal experience for those watching at home and they feel apart of a greater community as a result.
The other option to go "live" is by uploading a pre-recording. This option provides a lot of reassurance for those that have not gone live previous and therefore do not feel comfortable with the elements of live-streaming. If have a prepared script, then the audience should not realise that the production is not really live because your team can be replying to comments in the background via the chat. This is a perfect way to make the audience feel like they are being heard.
There are many methods of achieving the perfect pre-recorded video and we have experts in place to help you achieve this. If you would like to learn more, please contact us.
A lot has been said recently about the hype of live shopping and whether or not it is worth it. To throw some numbers at you, Live shopping can be an amazing opportunity to expand your current data base of clients. 60% of the audience watching Superpharm's live shopping events became new customers which eventually went onto shop on their platform. This shows that live shopping adds value far beyond the actual live shopping event.
The biggest misconception from live shopping is that you only need to go live once. Madison Avenue Couture go live weekly on a Friday and have shown amazing consistency to help grow their following. From their first show to their most recent they have increased their audience by 31X. A lot of this is thanks to their host who demonstrates the products and educates the audience on how to shop with an average engagement rate of 42%.
Finally, Buttonscarves, like Madison Avenue, went live weekly on a Tuesday throughout 2022. A key output from consistency going live and responding to their clients is that they were able to achieve 8X their ROI. They would go live via their mobile phone and interact with their audience whilst demonstrating the products. The watching audience utilising our add-to-cart functionality which navigated them perfectly through the funnel from discovery to conversion.
Create highly engaging live shopping events that can be shared via your website or via your social media offers a wonderful opportunity to bring the traffic back to your brand whilst also allowing potential customers to feel heard and listened to. Live shopping events offers a drive in engagement with your customers through real-time comments and likes during the live shopping event. You have an opportunity to not only increase your revenue through instant product discovery and ability to shop directly from the livestream but also give customers to the opportunity to sign up to your brand to continue to shop.