Live Shopping Software

The world of tech and the needs of people are constantly changing. With retail businesses still generating most of the revenue, companies are trying new ways to reach their audience. One such way is Livestream shopping(LSS).

As an eCommerce business, you can benefit from this new trend. Here, people watch live streams and purchase new items or services from the vendor. If you haven’t watched one, then you can think of it as Twitch.tv with streamers sharing their articles with you, LIVE.

Also, these are bi-directional, which means the seller can communicate with the viewers. They can also take requests and also book items for the viewer instantly.

You can think of this as a way to buy online, but with communication, recommendations, and options. This is because everything is real-time. And it is just another version of brick-and-mortar stores, but just online.

For businesses, there is nothing to lose as they can benefit from the new trend. Moreover, they can keep their original channels open while gaining revenue from live shopping.

However, before you jump into the trend, you must know which type of items generally sell through live shopping. In our research, we found that fashion items sell the most. For example, people buy jewelry or clothes they can see and feel directly connected to. Decor products also do great. However, the trend doesn’t seem to work on gadgets yet. But, with more people joining the trend, the market space and ecosystem will grow, allowing sellers to sell a wider variety of products.

Live commerce platforms, also known as live shopping platforms, offer excellent benefits to buyers and sellers. These platforms provide a boost to businesses while strengthening solid relationships with customers, and it is also a way to provide product recommendations to your audience. The benefits of live shopping platforms are as below.

Live shopping platforms can help your brand to reach more audience and improve your presence in the market. Livestream shopping is new, especially in Europe and North American markets, and however, it has shown its strength in Asian markets.

Brands in changing eCommerce landscape can benefit from its early stage. For example, they can use live shopping apps to create a better image and improve users’ shopping experience.

For example, if you’re a clothing brand in a market, you should check out Livestream shopping. This can help you stand out, especially if your competition hasn’t started using it. It’ll also give your customers flexibility as they can always choose between retail and online buying through LSS.

For businesses, Livestream selling can open up a whole new revenue stream. It also drives conversion rates to new levels where eCommerce businesses reach a very high conversion rate, reaching almost 30%. In other terms, they see a strategizing ten times more conversion rates compared to their standard eCommerce platform.

Online live shopping improves sales, aided by buyers feeling the FOMO(Fear Of Missing Out) effect more due to Livestream shopping done by others. As a business, you can benefit from the FOMO effect and improve sales. Moreover, consumers are more likely to buy as they can directly contact the host, and by interacting, they can ask for discounts or see what others are buying, kicking in the FOMO.

Livestream shopping also helps improve engagement and loyalty, creating an excellent following that enhances engagement and builds brand loyalty.

In an eCommerce inventory, only 20% of the stock generates 80% of the revenue. Another 30% gives medium response and profitability, whereas the rest doesn’t yield sales. This can be related to multiple factors, including product exposure. So, what do you do about your underperforming products?

You can sell them through live shopping and ask the host to give the underperforming products more exposure and highlight good aspects. Moreover, you can also club these products with more appealing items and sell them at extra discounts or combo packages.

Customers also benefit from live shopping. These benefits include:

Anyone who wants to sell online can use live shopping software. That means eCommerce business to individual sellers or brick-and-mortar shops who wish to venture into online space. With the advent of easy-to-use live shopping software and apps, it is easy to start.

For example, you can use popular social media platforms’ initiatives to become part of the trend. Instagram(IG) Live Shopping or Facebook(FB) Live Video Shopping Platform. However, in most cases, influencers are a perfect fit to do Livestream shopping as people trust them and more.

Live Shopping Software comes with plenty of features. However, the most prominent ones include the following:

Dual hosting: Much live shopping software offer access to dual hosting. Two people can stream and collaborate to sell a service or product.

Customizable player design: Live shopping platform comes with an excellent customizable player design. Here, you can change the outlook, define popups or control different aspects of live streaming.

Personal one-to-one shopping: Platforms like Bambuser allow users to offer one-to-one shopping. This is a great way to engage with an influential audience and sell your service or product. It is a video consultation where you can provide personalized shopping with add-to-cart and dynamic product display.

Interaction with shoppers: At the core of each live shopping software, there are helpful features to offer and improve interactions with shoppers. For example, shoppers can interact through chat, emotes, or sending buy requests to the host.

Product highlighting: Platforms such as Amazon Live offer product highlighting to emphasize products. Here, the product is automatically highlighted with the option to click on it and buy it. This is handy for the host, as well as the buyer. Also, if someone rewatches the recordings, they can always have access to the product links to click.

Metrics and Real-time analytics: Learn how your live streaming performs with essential metrics such as watching time, overall viewers, bounce rates, etc. You can also see real-time analytics to see how the audience reacts to inputs.

In-video purchase: With these features, viewers can buy directly from brands without the need to leave the platform. It is done with proper integration with e-Commerce platforms.

Integration: Live shopping platforms offer excellent integrations with popular eCommerce platforms such as Shopify, WooCommerce, and Magento. These integrations provide such in-video add-to-cart, interactive hotspots, etc.

How much does a Live Shopping Platform cost?

Pricing-wise, a live shopping platform can cost anywhere from free to a few bucks per month. For example, you don’t have to pay anything if you’re using social media platforms such as Tiktok, Facebook live shopping, Instagram live shopping, or Amazon Live. They’re also free applications on mobile, such as NTWRK.

More than free social media platforms or apps are needed for eCommerce platforms, and they need a more eCommerce-focused streaming platform such as Channelize or Smarter. In addition, they offer subscription-based pricing. If you explore more, you’ll also find venues that combine a subscription plus a percentage of sales.

Overall, platforms have different costs, including free, subscription-based, and sales cuts.

Is live shopping the future of eCommerce? 

Live shopping is here to stay. However, it takes work to say whether it’ll be the future of eCommerce. But, the estimates do offer a promising prospect. According to TCS.com, by 2026, live commerce/live shopping will account for 10-20% of eCommerce sales. The other statistics also hint at positive trends where Coresight Research suggests that live streaming will reach $25 billion by 2023.

Take China, for example; we already see live shopping become huge, with a 280% compound annual growth rate. TikTok’s growth also aids live shopping as influencers can use it to sell products.

In conclusion, live shopping does show promising growth in China and has started picking up in Europe and US. With the right approach, it can capture the audience’s attention while becoming the future of eCommerce.