2. Introduction
Live commerce is a blend of ecommerce and on the spot purchase.
It enables retailers and brands to connect better with audience and create greater
value.
It is an excellent tool to boost customer engagement and sales.
Started by Alibaba is 2016, the Taobao live generated $7.5 bn total transaction value.
They linked an online livestream with e-commerce store and that created a huge buzz
across digital platforms.
It was a unique and highly experimental idea and led to huge profitability to Alibaba
for Singles day sale in 2020.
Live commerce is the next wave of e-commerce future.
3. Creating Value for Brands and Retailers
The best part about live streaming is it is
attention grabbing.
It can keep viewers entertained, immersed and
watching for long.
It accelerated the decision journey of customers
by creating sense of urgency.
Time-tactics like one-off coupons have led to ten
times higher than normal e-commerce.
It makes the brand stand apart if done properly
and enhances its image.
Young people are very drawn to this as they
search for innovative shopping experiences.
This has led to younger customer market
increasing up to 20% for certain brands. Positioning
Appeal
Purchase
Awareness
30%
Conversion
Rates
By accelerating purchasing decision Live Streaming also helps in better positioning
of the brand,
4. The below image reflects how popular
livestreaming is in different categories.
5. Current Scenario
Most attractive targets are Gen Z and Millennials,
however middle aged and seniors have also started to
take interest.
Taoboa is the worlds biggest live stream player with
market share of 35%.
30% Chinese internet users used live stream by March
2020.
Following Chinese many western brands have ventured
into this arena starting with beauty brand Douglas and
fashion brand Tommy Hilfiger.
They both achieved huge success where Douglas saw
conversion rates up to 40% and Tommy sold 1,3k
hoodies in 2 minutes!
Walmart joined the band wagon in December 2020 and
increased its TikTok follower base by 25%.
Recently various brands have been leveraging this recent trends and seeing
astonishing results.
6. Best Practices
BasicFor people just starting,
keep it infrequent and
very low no. of products.
Use already established
platform like TikTok,
Facebook, Amazon etc.
Use KPIs like no. of
views, conversion rates
and best-selling products
to gauge performance.
Good
As you become more
familiar with this practice
increase the number of
such events with proper
schedule.
In order to own the
customer now you can
start integrating the live
stream to your own
website.
Using real-time predictive
analytics to drive insights
will be useful.
Start setting up
automated performance
marketing campaigns to
drive traffic.
Great
You can now start
experimenting with
various formats like chat
show, webinars etc
Use AI to get real-time
prompts to optimize the
live stream
The frequency of the
livestream should have
increased with proper
schedules.
To make the live stream
more interactive
technology like AR and VR
can be used.
7. Future Of Live Commerce.
Compared to mega and macro
influencers, nano-influencers have
better engagement rates and are less
expensive. New influencers form a
better connection with audience can
will be best for live streams.
As we saw above, brands into beauty
and fashion have been leveraging it a
lot, in future sectors like engineering,
healthcare, finance etc will move in.
Eg Health care can provide
consultation and appointments live.
AR and VR will be big things People
will be able to speak to host face to
face like they are in store. Ulta beauty
already experimented this for virtual
try-ons.
8. Considerations Before Starting A Live Stream
The product stage is very
important to consider. It can be
a new product, best seller or old
stock. Such shows have many
impulse buyers. They are one-
time shoppers, and it will take
work to keep them loyal.
Also, shoppers n such events
come from very different
demographic than the brands
actual targeting.
Make sure you know what your
target audience is attracted to
what they want and who makes
them up.
It will take investment to dig
into data and use mature data
analytics to get accurate
information.
Millennials, boomers and Gen Z
spend a lot of fashion and
beauty and Gen X spends more
on Luxury.( Appendix)
Make sure that the products
look good on small and large
screen, positioned as value for
money.
Many different formats like-
Tutorials, Interviews and
Behind the scenes can be
experimented with. Make sure
to add games, quizzes and give
aways.
Also, invest well on technology,
tracking and marketing. Use
and omnichannel approach,
include count down clocks, place
ads. Keep it flexible enough to
act quickly on data. Who stayed
for 10 seconds and who for 10
minutes is important to know.
Finally, seamless and fast
technology will help to get the
best results.
9. Resources
Arora, Arun, et al. It's Showtime! How Live Commerce Is Transforming the
Shopping Experience. McKinsey & Company, McKinsey & Company, 22 July 2021,
https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/its-
showtime-how-live-commerce-is-transforming-the-shopping-experience.