Live shopping is simply teleshopping evolved. The central premise is a live-streamed shopping event where companies can show off product capabilities in real-life settings and display both product details and ways to purchase onscreen.
Being live, audiences have the chance to interact with sellers and ask real-time questions about the product. More recent live shopping trends have involved social media channels as the trend evolves beyond its origins in China.
The success of China
In the last few years, China has seen a steady rise in the prevalence of live shopping. As of 2022, it makes up 10% of the country’s entire e-commerce market. eMarketer forecasts that live shopping sales in China will total $480 billion this year.
Live shopping emerged in 2016, when Alibaba – a platform similar to Amazon – was founded. Together with its shopping subsidiary business, Taobao, Alibaba successfully integrated a live broadcast feature into its e-commerce platform. Customers can now watch product demonstrations in real-life settings on-demand, before deciding on a purchase. This greatly increases the platform’s sales figures.
However, despite efforts have made to emulate this in the UK, nothing seems to stick. And yet live shopping could hold the keys to unlock a market yet to be fully exploited by retailers in the UK.
So how can UK retailers jump on the live shopping trend?
The UK is missing out
A live shopping experience offers plenty of benefits for retailers. It deepens relationships with customers and increases overall engagement. Since it combines online shopping with live interaction, customers get a “best of both worlds” experience. Live product demos with a chat function let customers instantly connect with another human, while the online platform ensures that a purchase can be made from anywhere.
This combination has real potential to drive up sales. Whether online or in-store, customers often shy away from purchases when there is limited information available on the product. Live demonstrations and the ability to ask questions in real-time gives customers far more clarity on product features and capabilities, offering a new level of personalisation where customers get to engage with the brand directly. This means less time wasted searching for answers online or emailing customer services, as well as greater confidence on the part of customers to go through with the purchase.
It’s also a great way to re-engage existing customers, especially when data is used to enhance personalisation. For example, customers can be invited to exclusive live shopping events with new products related to their purchase history and style.
Similarly, having a higher customer engagement with products during the purchasing process leads to fewer returns in the long run, as consumers will be able to see it in action and better understand what exactly what they’re buying.
Could TikTok be the UK’s live shopping solution?
While TikTok may have suspended live shopping in Europe and US for now, it still proves rather popular in other regions and could easily make a comeback- which would be a golden opportunity for the UK to get ahead.
Just this summer, TikTok LIVE’s Summer Sale event registered more than 276 million live views, 135 million views on various hashtags. One viral trend, “TikTok made me buy it,” features users showcasing items they purchased after seeing them on the app.
With over three billion downloads, TikTok, could become a major asset to retailers. Partnering with influencers on the platform could provide a route to a reliable new market – their followers.
Live shopping = authenticity
A live shopping experience is authentic. Potential customers want to see a product in action? They can. Have questions during the live demos? They are free to ask.
With live shopping, there are simply fewer blind spots for customers, which means they can make a purchase with confidence. The UK might be behind the curve on this, but it does not have to stay that way.
Felix Kruth
