E (livestream eCommerce) = mc² (mobile*commerce*community)

While the technology itself isn’t from Mars, livestream eCommerce’s power of transforming traditional transactional eCommerce environments into a combination of commerce, content, and community (C3) is urging eCommerce startups to make moonshot bets. 

With social engagement and storytelling sitting at the core of customer experience, it seems as if livestream eCommerce will soon be the only arm of eCommerce shaping users’ shopping behavior. 

E (livestream eCommerce) = mc² (mobile*commerce*community)

The answer to “what made us come up with this formula?” is hidden in this 👇 pile of words.

Live streaming is streamed video that is sent over the Internet in real-time, without first being recorded and stored. Today, TV broadcasts, video game streams, and social media video all have the capability to be live-streamed.

Livestream not only marked the opening of a new chapter in eCommerce. It has written an entire book on innovation. We saw Facebook and its sister, Instagram, jump on the livestream eCommerce bandwagon. We witnessed traditional eCommerce platforms including, Amazon, inch their way along with the trend. 

We also witnessed the birth of innovation in the form of livestream eCommerce apps. The players in this space include BulBul, SimSim, Popshop Live, Google‘s ShopLoop, TalkShop, NTWRK, SuperGreat, Yeay, ShopShops, WhatNot, to name a few. 

Everything is okay, but how was the concept of livestream eCommerce born? How old is it? When did livestream shopping start taking baby steps in the US and Europe? Why does everyone think that the live streaming concept is the oxygen of China’s online world? 

If these questions continue to pop up above your head, you would like to eye this article up! 

📖 Bonus Info: Livestream Ecommerce: An Eruption Beyond Every Prediction

If you are still with us, that only means livestream eCommerce has caught your curiosity by its neck. Let’s start by understanding what livestream eCommerce exactly is! 

Video-conferencing technologies like Skype, FaceTime, and Google Hangouts Meet work on real-time communication (RTC) protocols and not on protocols used by one-to-many live stream broadcasts.

What Is Livestream eCommerce?

Livestream eCommerce is an anywhere digital door that allows viewers to step into numerous physical stores from the comfort of their couches. Livestream eCommerce echoes an essence of an immersive and interactive shopping experience that every buyer loves to enjoy. 

Livestream eCommerce’s identity isn’t fixed! The concept is known by different names including, internet television, shopstream, and livestream shopping. From a business viewpoint, livestream eCommerce is a model that allows sellers to sell/present products in real-time and buyers to ask questions & buy products in real-time. 

Can you imagine the impact of the immediacy of the interactions between viewer and seller? It is so powerful that it can’t be packed in a few words. So treat this article as a tour guide to the livestream eCommerce world.

Besides, if the thoughts of launching a livestream eCommerce startup ever crossed your mind, this information piece can help you pen those down too. 

The Anatomy of A Livestream Session On A Livestream eCommerce Platform

To understand what exactly a livestream eCommerce platform serves on the plate of life of its customers, let’s look at its basic components using ShopAR*. 

*ShopAR is a pre-built platform for aspiring entrepreneurs to launch a livestream eCommerce platform like TaoBao, PopshopLive, Bolome, and SimSim. 

• Live video stream, where the host shows the product and answers audiences’ questions in real-time.
• A chat area, a component that creates a sense of community, is where viewers can interact with other viewers and ask host questions in real-time. 
• Tagged products, where a list of products being promoted is visible. Users can buy these products without exiting the experience. This feature helps sellers accelerate conversions. 
• Like button that shows up at the bottom of the screen allows users to express their love for the product. 
• Social Media Integration allows users to share the live streaming session across social media platforms. 
• Time-sensitive coupons/discount offers can be made available only to the livestream viewers, tapping their curiosity to join the livestream session. 

Key Characteristics Of Livestream ECommerce Platform, ShopAR

1. Reliant On Scarcity & Urgency

• Time-Limited Coupons: Time-limited coupons act as a hook to get consumers excited about pressing the buy button. Buy or Not to buy? Coupons and discounts put an end to users’ shopping dilemmas while creating a sense of scarcity and urgency.The coupons can be made available only during the livestream session. This is a psychological tactic used by live-streaming events to make the customers believe that they will lose the deal if they fail to place the order right away.Coupons or promo codes can be announced randomly during the livestream by the host. This makes the viewer stick to the session for a long time. Livestreaming host can give out $10-$20 coupons that can expire within hours and can’t be redeemed. 

• Limited Stock: The livestream session host can emphasize that only limited stock is available at a discounted price.
• Surprise Giveaways: Surprise giveaways can make users commit to purchase faster than anyone can imagine. Imagine being a user receiving a favorite product for $0. Surprise giveaways can be for only loyal/repetitive customers. This taps users’ curiosity to buy products from the same seller again & again. 

2. Mimics Physical Store Experience

Is it easy for you to imagine a product of 50X60cm size that is made up of polyester? Is it easy for you to buy a product you don’t know how to use? Of course, not! 

ShopAR’s live streaming feature offers brands/businesses an unreal opportunity to unveil their own untapped potential by highlighting the difference between fabric and firmness.

Many product returns happen due to size issues. Shoppers hesitate to buy a product they don’t know how to use. Shoppers struggle to hide their urge to view behind-the-scene or product-making videos.  

3 very common selling problems; 1 solution (and, that too, without stepping outside home): live-streaming. Could the process of introducing a new brand be any easier? Could there be any other better way to bolster a brand’s credibility? Of course, not!

3. Highly Interactive And Social

Livestreaming videos are interactive and the credit goes to the real-time chat feature. Participants can ask questions on the product being presented and the host can answer the questions in real-time. 

• Participants can answer each other’s questions. Also, one of them can ask a question that other participants didn’t think of before, making the real-time conversation more meaningful.  
• The viewers can also ask the host to try on different products or view the product from different angles. 
• Sure, there are product detail pages (PDPs) to cover the detailed description of the product but not all the specific questions can be covered on a page with a pre-set word limit. 

If we could wrap this section up into one word, that would be Loyalty. Simply put, live streaming converts followers into loyal customers.

More Features Of ShopAR

Wrapping Arms Around Social Media

If live-streaming seems to be a side-product of entertainment, you’d like to see ShopAR’s social feed section, exploring which is as easy as swiping up. Sellers can post product pictures, make product videos, and even tag products.  

What if the information you showered on viewers through live streaming video is outdated now? That’s when ShopAR’s product tag on videos feature comes into play (As shown below, sellers can tag products in videos, allowing users to make purchases without exiting the experience)

Standing up to your expectations are ShopAR’s seller profiles, unveiling their posts, products, and reviews. ShopAR taps into a number of trends defining modern social media: verified profiles, follower counts, tagged posts, in-app chat, the about us section, and what not!

The about us section on profiles allows brands to talk about their achievements and position in the market. This component allows brands to tap into the untapped potential of their strong brand image. Besides, a brand’s followers get a notification when their favorite seller goes live.

Key Characteristics Of Livestream ECommerce

So far we have discussed the way the live-streaming eCommerce app mimics the in-store shopping experience, how interactive it is, why is it highly social, and how it motivates consumers to make purchases by relying on scarcity and urgency. 

What we haven’t shed light on is its ability to integrate itself into different platforms. 

Livestreaming can take place either on social media platforms or eCommerce apps. A few live-streaming software solutions provide customers with live broadcasting tools and applications. The players in this field include Lisa, Bambuser, and Channelize.io. 

Using these platforms, anyone can quickly and easily harness the power of mobile and online live streaming to host live shopping experiences on websites, mobile apps, and social media. 

📖 Bonus Info: 2 Best Live Streaming Apps + Statistics That Shout Success

Concepts That Bear A Striking Resemblance To Livestream ECommerce

1. Social commerce
2. TV shopping channels
3. Influencer reviews 

1. Social Commerce Vs Livestream ECommerce

Social Commerce is the process of selling a product or making a purchase directly from social media, without switching to the brand’s eCommerce platform. 

• Like social commerce, livestream eCommerce supports in-channel purchases. Social commerce can’t create a sense of urgency by offering time-limited coupons. Livestream CAN. 
• Even if you think of implementing Facebook Live or Instagram Live shopping, you’ll be de-centralizing the eCommerce experience away from a website. Wouldn’t that be a less appealing proposition for users in the long run? 
• Moving eCommerce away from an eCommerce platform means a lost opportunity for retargeting customers. 

2. TV Shopping Channels Vs Livestream eCommerce

Modern TV shopping channels resemble livestream eCommerce in the following ways. 

Both channels are a form of entertainment. Both create a sense of urgency by offering time-sensitive discount offers. Both present the products LIVE. 

• However, livestream eCommerce is way more interactive than TV shopping channels. During a livestream session, viewers can ask questions, interact with other users to get their opinions, ask the host to view the product from different angles. In contrast, the interaction between the host and the viewer isn’t a part of the TV program.

• A livestream session is a sea of a variety of services and products. From books to baby clothes and fish to furniture, anything can be sold during a live streaming session on eCommerce website. More products ∝ larger audience on target.
• TV hosts have to figure out a way to make a profit out of a few products. One of the most common ways of sucking profits  out of presentations is to dip the products in the fluid of fakeness – through which viewers can clearly see. Improvised and ad-hoc presentations can’t play well in the long run. Thus, in turn, TV shopping feels less intimate and personal. 

• A live session on an eCommerce website can be held by users’ favorite celebrities. That said, the term “trust issues” doesn’t exist in the livestream eCommerce world (as celebrities are usually trusted by their fans). 

Livestream shopping ticks all the boxes. ✔️

3. Influencer Reviews Vs Livestream ECommerce

• Usually, people turn to customer reviews when they research a purchase and won’t necessarily make a purchase.
• Presenters usually cook review videos on the flames of fakeness. The smoke that comes from these so-called success recipes is nothing but a trust-related concern: how much the influencer is getting paid for her recommendations? The only option left to the consumers is to conduct their own research. 
• Asynchronous communication and unidirectional audience are two other spices that make it harder for viewers to gulp down this recipe. Most influencers choose to answer only a few questions – mostly the questions that can further promote the products. 

What Is Next For Livestream ECommerce?

Livestream eCommerce continues to boom while breaking the barriers set by traditional eCommerce experiences. 

1. Think Beyond Fashion And Beauty

Fashion and self-care is the primary category sold via video live streaming. The startups are continuing to emerge in the livestream eCommerce sector. Eventually, they’ll have to figure out to way to stand out, the most common of which is launching a brand under a different category. 

For instance, Supergreat, a livestream beauty Commerce app was launched in 2018 in the US. The app hosts 60-second videos and shoppable livestreams. It has raised $10m in a series A, proving that a platform can be pierced with popularity even if it narrows down its focus to one category. So far, Supergreat created 250,000 videos featuring 40,000 products. Supergreat narrowed its focus but, again, to fashion and beauty products. 

Savvy business owners can utilize pre-built platforms like ShopAR to launch even niche livestreaming eCommerce apps like Supergreat. Using livestream and chat feature, ShopAR has made it possible for the customers to interact with the sales staff easier than ever. 

2. Expansion Into New Sectors

Livestreaming sessions will soon be saying hello to a hell lot of new sectors, stealing the show everywhere, from healthcare to finance to engineering. 

3. Augmented Reality (AR) And Virtual Reality (VR)

AR and VR can possibly make the shopping experience more immersive. For instance, Ultra Beauty teamed with augmented reality (AR) developer, Perfect Corp, to expand its Beauty School livestream into a more engaging shopping experience.