You may have noticed a new social media influencer trend – livestream shopping! Following the surge in social commerce following the pandemic, more brands are engaging with influencers to create live shopping experiences that are streamed directly, in real-time, to the influencer’s followers. The livestream shopping trend is the result of brands getting creative to create unique and memorable social commerce engagements with consumers, allowing them to transcend the typical eCommerce experiences and make the most of more of the social media platforms’ features.
Livestream shopping is a relatively easy and accessible solution for consumer brands that are looking to engage their consumer base. It allows brands to track, with immediacy, the impact of their social media and influencer marketing strategies on sales and their bottom line. Regular eCommerce marketing strategies can seemingly create a gap between brands and their fans, which is why livestream shopping is such a great option for creating more intimate relationships with consumers. It adds a level of authenticity that is often missing for online shoppers, making the experience “realer” and making them feel as if they are touching and browsing the products themselves.
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In addition, livestream shopping allows consumers to ask questions about products on-the-spot, getting answers from the influencer or the brand in real-time. Brands can also ask shoppers to review the products and provide their opinions in real-time, which has great value in building consumer trust. This plays into consumers’ desire for a sense of community from the brands that they purchase from – it’s not just a one-off of purchase and forget. The connection goes deeper by providing shoppers with the human contact that they crave.
When choosing an influencer to host the livestream shopping event, brands should focus on getting someone that correlates well with their target audience. For instance, a celebrity might not always be the best choice. It could be a good idea to consider a micro or nano influencer with a tight-knit community, especially if the brand wants to emphasize certain aspects of their product offerings that correlate with the influencers’ fans’ interests. Make sure to vet the influencer prior to starting the livestream and don’t write a script; it’s better to see them react in real-time.
Another tip for creating a successful livestream shopping experience is to make sure that not all of the content is about the purchase. The influencer should share personal details about why they are shopping for a product or why the brand’s offering resonates with them. They can also tell followers about how their day is going and where the shopping experience fits into their everyday activities. The influencer should be active in engaging with the follower audience, encouraging them to like the live feed, comment and share the experience with others.
The real power of livestream shopping experiences has yet to be realized. The transition into the metaverse is likely to bear a lot of potential for the trend, and to enable brands to make it a regular part of their marketing strategy. For brands, this means more direct engagement and interaction with shoppers in real-time, which could result in more powerful sales.
