Live Shopping has been around for a long time now. But increasingly, businesses around the globe are now catching on to the potential of live selling to promote and sell their products in real-time. Live online shopping has gradually become the new standard in holding large-scale live shopping shows in the new normal.
One of the most common live stream shopping utilities is a celebrity engagement wherein shoppers can send in comments and likes while a host is casually talking about products or demonstrating them.
Live Shopping has hence taken a new form and what was once a purely communicative function has turned into an engaging, entertaining, and informative platform.
The fondness for live streaming shopping gained traction when brands realized how convenient it was to engage with their customers without having to spend a large amount of money for live shows. The technology is not only cost-efficient but it also offers accessibility and enables a higher ROI and conversion rate.
Benefits of a Live Commerce platform
Fosters Customer Engagement
Selling live via live commerce is unique as it facilitates real-time customer engagement. The immediate nature of live online videos catches more customer attention and compels them to shop. Live stream shopping creates opportunities for a brand to engage with customers instantly. This fosters personal relationships and builds a strong bond between your brand and customers.
Builds Trust With Live Shopping
Livestream e-commerce reflects a generous dose of transparency. This is because consumers can engage with your products in a conversation that takes place in real-time. Hosting live shows with your team, host live interviews of influential personalities, showcasing behind the scenes at your office events can help to reveal the hidden side of your brand.
Improves Brand Awareness
Live online shopping offers other perks as well, such as broadcasting your brand message. Because of its real-time nature, it offers more opportunities to experiment with varied content types whether it be for big shows or short product shows.
Here are some basics for hosting successful live shopping shows
Outlined the objective of your live show
Outlining the objective of your live shopping show by prioritizing the agenda list is the most important thing. For instance, brands can host live shopping shows to announce the launch of a new product, educate buyers, or simply to create hype for products.
The takeaways of such shows depend on the objective that you outline. Like, if a show is focused on selling a product, customer engagement rates that convert to leads and eventually boost sales would be a vital indicator of performance.
Pre-event Preparation
Interactivity is the crux of a successful live shopping show as it is the major way to reach customers. Pre-event preparation involves checking on audio, lighting and background setup, etc.
Engage with your buyers with Live Shopping
Engaging with buyers is a strategic and conscious effort that brands have to take to see results. Engagement rates during a live show are a product of large amounts of grunt work put in before hosting a show. Engagement during a live show looks a lot more different as it involves a lot more interaction with audiences hence a host must be able to tactfully translate key points across while maintaining a personable demeanour.
Calling customers by their names, indulging in activities like Q&A sessions, live interviews, hosting giveaways and live contests can be some of the other ways to build engagement in your show.
Call-to-action
Whether your live show is scripted or not, it is a must to end your show with a strong call-to-action, giving buyers a gentle push. As an added bonus, leave your buyers with questions to create a buzz that increases brand awareness and heightens the hype.
Be consistent
Consistency is the key when it comes to establishing a digital presence. Now more than ever, consumers are passively consuming content they see on the internet especially on social media.
Hence social media is practically free real estate for brands to put themselves directly in front of their customers. Being consistent posting on social media channels to build a sense of familiarity and trust with your customers.
Marketing Campaign
Before a live show is broadcasted, it is essential to promote your show to increase reach and create momentum. Some of the commonly leveraged digital marketing strategies include
- Posting teaser, announcement, or promotional posts and banner images
- Updating cover images
- Creating event pages with CTA buttons to your show
Choosing the right platform
There are a number of live streaming e-commerce platforms available in the market but not every platform is suited for your needs. The space in which the industry operates is crucial when selecting a live shopping solution.
It is an effective platform for Shopify Owners to connect with their customers in real-time and generate sales.
Live shopping is here to stay, and so brands need to start making it part of their game plan.
If you are not on Shopify then you can utilize our Livestream e-commerce platform and meet your requirements.