What Is Live Commerce: How It Works

Live commerce is arguably the most underappreciated of all the tools accessible to small companies through social media (and other platforms). Did you know how to master this popular marketing strategy?

This article will address your questions about live commerce, like what is live commerce? How does it work? And more about live commerce that you should know.

What Is Live Commerce

Live commerce is often known as combining live stream videos with eCommerce. It provides customers with an interactive shopping experience where they may watch live product demos, engage with merchants, and buy the things they see right away.

Live commerce is an online version of a real-world buying experience. It implies that customers may get answers to their inquiries and see the product before purchasing.

For many brands, live commerce is fast becoming a vast industry. eCommerce revenues are expected to reach $5.4 trillion by 2022, despite Covid-19 limits and technological advancements.

How Live Commerce Works

Consumer behavior has altered as a result of the emergence of social networks, which have connected individuals all over the world. The notion of e-marketing has gained popularity, which involves using internet technology to apply marketing concepts. This new style of marketing enables a more accurate target to be identified and customization of each user's experience.

Social media has revolutionized communication by allowing community members to communicate and participate through messages, as well as share photographs and videos in real-time and across the globe. This ecosystem will enable consumers to develop content while allowing businesses to access new markets and large client segments.

From there, live commerce can work effectively for the businesses in:

• Lower distribution expenses: Live commerce can reduce operational costs since products are sent directly to clients from a manufacturer rather than being imported from brick-and-mortar businesses.
• Improve customer experience: On the floor, the influencer acts as a customer service representative and a salesman.
• Easily track the marketing activities: Targeted email campaigns and social media communications can help keep consumer trust and loyalty.
• Brand loyalty: Long-term brand loyalty is fostered by the influencer-as-brand ambassador when customers connect more and more with the individual selling the products.

Different Types of Live Commerce

Live commerce has limitless potential. There are several options to explore, and you may implement this channel in any way you see fit - as long as you select the solution that best matches your needs. Let's start with some sorts that can be used in live commerce.

Online Marketplaces

Online marketplaces such as eBay and Alibaba allow consumers to buy and sell with ease, but the concept is growing old and has been copied by a slew of other companies. New features are being implemented to keep people interested when shopping online, ensuring that online marketplaces remain relevant and generate income.

This is where real-time commerce comes into play. Buyers and sellers will feel as though they are in a physical marketplace, yet from the comfort of their own homes, thanks to real-time contact.

Influencer Streaming

We're used to seeing influencers streaming on social media (whether they're nano, micro, macro, or mega influencers). With the increasing desire for more interaction, you'll soon see influencers streaming live on e-commerce sites.

Tutorials / Product Demos

Using a live presentation or instructional, demonstrate your products to your audience. You may demonstrate to (possible) clients how to apply or utilize a specific product in this and cross-sell your items by showing how to mix them with other products.

Live Auctions

Buyers and sellers can interact online and globally instead of going to an auction house. The bidding rate expands when an auction is live-streamed, which means there will be more buzz,  competitive bids, and bidders than before!

Online Product Launches

Is there a brand new product on the horizon for you? Use a Live Commerce solution to launch it! You generate curiosity about the new product and turn it into sales. Make sure your audience is aware of your product launch ahead of time so you can reach a bigger number of prospective customers.

Interviews and Q&As

Live streaming can include having live Q&A sessions with experts or regular product users, in addition to reading a Q&A blog. This strategy humanizes a business and allows viewers to participate in community discourse.

How to Start Your Live Commerce

Taking your phone out of your pocket and going Live on Facebook may be as simple as that. However, if you want to get the most out of your live commerce events, you'll need to think about it a bit more.

Prepare Your Equipment

You might have a very simple setup or hire a complete professional studio, depending on your budget. Let's look at a few of these types of preparation.

• Budget preparation: There's nothing wrong with using your computer webcam or a mobile device (iOS or Android) as your primary streaming setup. The majority of mid-range to high-end smartphones are capable of completing the task.
• Mid-range preparation: You may keep your phone as your primary camera, but you need also to invest in a high-quality external microphone to increase the audio quality. Alternatively, to boost the overall visual quality, you may invest in a specialized mid-range DSLR camera. If you plan to use a camera, you may be required to download some software like video encoding software or hardware encoder.
• Professional-quality preparation: If you're planning a large virtual event or online product launch, you might want to rent a whole professional studio.

Choose Live Streaming Platform

After you've gathered all of the necessary equipment, you'll need to choose a streaming platform for your live commerce. To begin, you'll need to decide whether to use native applications and broadcast only through them or to use a third-party streaming service.

Native apps may include:

• Facebook Live
• YouTube Live
• Instagram Live
• TikTok (require more than 1,000 followers)
• Twitch (mainly for gamers, products related to the video game industry, etc.)

You're definitely better off utilizing the native app if you have a specialized audience that you generally engage with through a single channel (like YouTube). You'll want to employ a third-party provider if you have a presence on various platforms.

You may live broadcast to various social media networks using some third-party streaming services. Some apps may allow you to restrict access to your live broadcast to members of your organization. You'll have to analyze your alternatives and decide which service is best for you.

Make a Detailed Plan

The final step to successful live commerce is to have a strategy in place before you begin. While there will always be some improvisation and ad-lib moments in live streaming, you should have a general idea of how your show will go. You'll either freeze up because you don't know what to say or veer off-topic and lose the audience's interest if you don't have a strategy.

Make sure you have a plan or a guide to follow before starting your live commerce, just like you would with most other sorts of material. Of course, the strategy may vary depending on the sort of stream you're generating (promotional, instructive, etc.). Still, you can always record a test video first, review it, and then rerecord it later.

Tips for a Successful Live Commerce

To get started with live commerce and get the most out of it, firms should use one or more of the following top live shopping strategies:

Creating a Branding Format, Theme, or Niche

Leading streamers and video channels have one thing in common: their videos follow a set format (also known as a theme or a specialty). Channels have a consistent theme of providing instructional, gaming streams, short videos, and so on. The audience knows what to expect. Therefore they choose to subscribe to or follow a stream based on that knowledge.

Thus, it's critical to start with a theme for your live feeds. Of course, you may generate many formats of material, but for live streaming, it's preferable to stick to a pattern.

Collaborating with Celebrities and Influencers

Influencers are the simplest method to promote your company and products on any social media platform, and live commerce is no exception. Influencers have big social media followings and are celebrities in their own right. Brands that do not have significant audiences (or those wanting to build their audiences) will profit from collaborations with influencers because they have already developed large enough followings.

Personalizing Your Live Streams

Have a private, one-on-one talk. Go off script and give inside jokes or tales about the brand, the product, your trip, or the brand's story, and go off-script. This can help customers emotionally connect with your brand.

This builds an emotional connection with the spectator, which may occasionally outperform influencers and celebrities in terms of outcomes.

Final Words

Despite the fact that the epidemic is subsiding and life is returning to normal, internet transactions will continue to outnumber traditional purchases. Although physical establishments may experience an uptick in foot traffic, most sales will still be made online.

Even though live commerce is still in its infancy (compared to other traditional marketing tactics), it is rapidly gaining popularity. Starting with live commerce can help you grow a flourishing community and promote your brand among the competition.

Discover more about eCommerce knowledge and strategies on DSers Blog.