Live Commerce is Coming! Here’s what you need to know…

Looking for a new way to improve your marketing strategy and grow your business? Live commerce, a completely different way of interacting with your consumers by using livestreams to promote and sell products and services online, may just be the solution to your problem.

As technology becomes more convenient, consumers have gradually turned their sights on the next big digital change – live commerce or live shopping. This innovative method of online shopping has been garnering interests and popularity in recent years among both buyers and sellers. Live commerce industry has even reached a whooping estimated value of $171 billion in China during the year 2020. And is expected to keep growing in the foreseeable future, predictably reaching $423 billion by 2022. Although the growth is more prominent in Asia, the western markets have also seen a surge in value – reaching $11 billion in 2021 in the US. All this proves the success and opportunities of live commerce.

This blog especially aims to help those who want to improve their businesses with live commerce. Below are some ways that live commerce can help improve a business:

1. Improves consumer engagement

First and foremost, live commerce is an extremely effective method when it comes to increasing consumer engagement. As live commerce involves direct sales and purchase through a livestream, consumers who join the livestream will be able to communicate with the host directly. This provides consumers with a much more personalised experience compared to normal video advertisements. This also enables the business to create a more personal and direct connection with its consumers as it would be available to provide assistance at any time during the stream.

Additionally, it has been proven that live videos are much more engaging than some other media – according to the research, 82% and 80% of audiences prefer live video than social media posts and blogs respectively.

2. Generates more conversion

Secondly, it is a great way to increase sales. According to data, live commerce has a conversion rate that is 10 times higher than conventional ecommerce rate. In a livestream, consumers are able to interact and see the product or services at real time which is a factor in increasing conversion. Not to mention, the fact that the sales is being carried out on a livestream makes it more authentic to the eyes of the consumers, as such they are much more likely to trust and thus are assured to make the purchase. Livestreaming can also create a sense of anticipation for products which greatly increases the wants of the consumers, especially product live selling that mainly focuses on the sales of products on live – consumers are much more likely to purchase products that have its functional aspects explained in detail.

Livestream can also be combined with other factors such as discounts events to further increase conversion rate. During a discount event, a special discount code can be provided to the viewer during the duration of the livestream. This will give consumers a sense of urgency – that they will miss out if they don’t purchase now.

3. Cost effectiveness

Another way live commerce can help improve a business is how cost effective it is compared to conventional video advertisements. Every year, companies spend hundreds of thousands of dollars just on video advertisements – the cost and resources required for the preparation is never an insignificant amount for any of the businesses, no matter big or small.

However, live commerce on the other hand, enables even the smallest of businesses to achieve what a video advertisement can do at a much lower cost. This is because, if executed properly, livestream can be much more appealing and persuasive due to its interactive characteristic while not requiring as many resources and cost. Unlike video advertisements that would usually require a full team of professionals, equipment and budgets, livestream usually only require a streaming equipment that is substituted by phone in many small businesses, and staff to serve as the host of the program. As such, utilizing live commerce can be much more affordable in many situation and in others, it would help save cost.

4. Collaboration with influencers to increase customer base

Next, a business can increase its customer base by making use of influencer marketing in addition to live commerce. As you have already known, influencer marketing is one of the most well-known marketing strategies. By incorporating influencer marketing into live commerce, a business can hope to expand their existing reach to include influencer’s customer base. Every influencer has their own dedicated follower base on multiple social media platforms and in the case that a livestream is carried out by an influencer, it will be likely that their followers will increase the overall engagement and conversion of the livestream. This is also especially helpful in raising brand awareness.

5. Brand differentiation

Lastly, live commerce can also set your brand apart from your competitors. As live commerce is still not overly utilised in the western markets, a live selling session would be much more attention-catching than other methods. It will also help to attract younger generation consumers who are more attracted to the idea of shopping during livestream. This will help the business to gain more loyal customers while strengthening its connection with the existing ones.

In conclusion, with the growing technology and the changing digital environment, live commerce has provided businesses with opportunities to improve themselves. Whether it be a rise in consumer engagement due to the provision of more personalised experience, an increase in conversation rate, a reduction in cost and resources, an increase in customer base from collaborating with influencers or achieving brand differentiation that raises loyal customers. All of those are simply some of the ways that live commerce can help in improving businesses.