It’s not often that trade undergoes a seismic shift in how customers and sellers interact. Eventually, the arrival of the internet helped to change shopping habits, buoyed by fast and cheap shipping arrangements. We now look to be at the beginning of another revolution, where the in-store experience meets online convenience.
Certainly not a hit upon arrival, live shopping gradually started to carve out a growing and active audience. Independent platforms that have managed to steadily develop, rather than push too hard too early, are now looking to be the biggest names in this potentially huge sector of commerce.
Being quite a new arena, even if it draws on the familiar, it can be tricky to know exactly what’s needed to successfully enter the world of live commerce. To achieve this, it’s good to know how going live rose to the fore, as well as the tech and insurance you’ll need to get started.
It Took a Decade, But Live Shopping Has Arrived
Way back in 2016, live shopping truly took off, but on the other side of the world. Alibaba’s Taobao Live officially launched in May 2016, pioneering a new way to shop through the colossal platform. The aim was to tap into the market’s affinity for mobile shopping, influencer marketing, and live streaming content. By 2020, just the first 30 minutes of the major shopping event Singles’ Day eclipsed $7 billion in transaction value, kicking off this new era.
By this point, Western market analysts were already sitting up and taking notice, and so were several investors. Platforms received heaps of cash to quickly scale up and become the Taobao Live of Europe and North America, but most efforts led to an overextension in a market simply not interested in live commerce just yet. Importantly, though, interest and adoption of the main technology involved continued to grow.
Online streaming as streamers or viewers surged at the beginning of the decade, with platforms like Twitch and live streams on YouTube becoming go-to sources of entertainment, and Netflix doubled down on going live. Even casino gaming rode this wave of interest, expanding tremendously from a core table game offering. Now, the live casino features game shows and enhanced table games, with each addition seeking to meet the huge demand.
These live casino games represent the most involved format of live streaming. Rather than having a clear host and audience, viewers of these games are participants. It requires some extra tech, namely OCR camera software and a GCU, but players on their devices can bet and make decisions about actions, like in blackjack, in real time. With the hosts engaging with the players, too, it’s similar to live shopping.
The biggest selling points of all live streaming formats, but especially live casino gaming, are what underpin the appeal of live shopping. People can tune in there and then, see an event unfold in real time, engage with the hosts to get questions answered, for example, and participate by making purchases within the live stream. Again, it takes some specialised software and a lot of setup by the hosts, but for viewers, it offers an enhanced online shopping experience.
Getting Set Up as a Live Seller
Many people who look to get into live streaming or video creation in any regard will make the mistake of thinking that they can dip their toe in with low-tier equipment and see how it goes from there. Putting out streams with bad audio and poor picture quality can quickly end any hopes of having a proper go at making it in live streaming. These two elements are crucial to the viewing experience, with crisp audio being more important than video quality.
So, you need to invest in a great sound setup and a top-tier camera. Luckily, many who have one of the latest flagship phones, like an iPhone or Galaxy, will likely have a camera with enough quality to get started. You’ll still need to get a superior microphone, though, as well as a stand or rig that lets you mount a strong ring light around the camera and has somewhere convenient to clip the microphone. Obviously, good internet is also necessary.
Next, you can pick your platform. The headline act in Europe and North America right now is Whatnot. The specialised live shopping platform recently received another heightened, gaudy valuation to truly put live shopping on the map. Then again, there are more mainstream options giving live sales events a big push, with eBay being the prime example of this. If you’ve already done a bit of selling on eBay, you’ll benefit from your existing ratings.
From there, as with any solo business pursuit, you may want to consider insurance. What kind of insurance you take out greatly depends on what you’re selling and what protections you want in place should things go wrong. Maybe you need to protect your stock, defend against any accusations of IP infringement, or against personal injury claims. Either way, it’s best to insure yourself before you start selling.
Live shopping looks primed to be the next big thing in commerce, and with it now bubbling up, it’s the perfect time for savvy sellers to get in on the action. The key is to prepare well and lean into the real-time entertainment factor that makes live streaming so popular.
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