Introducing you to the greatest live shopping experiences hosted by brands in 2021.
With live stream shopping picking up speed in the world of video Ecommerce, there have been many thrilling examples that we have seen this year so far. There is no denying that the exclusivity of real-time shopping experiences excites the viewer and drives them to make an impulse purchase.
In this article we will break down some more of the most impressive shoppable live streams to grace the internet over the past few months...
Aldo: Canadian Footwear Takes Live Shopping
Canadian retailer, Aldo, teamed up with celebrity stylist Mimi Cuttrell and LA entertainer Nate Wyatt to deliver a social shopping spectacular. On the stream, the pair shared their favourite style tips on how to wear various shoes and accessories. After hosting a shoppable live stream in the Spring of 2021, Aldo noted a 308% engagement rate and registered 17,000 pageviews on its website in the first five days after the event.
Samsung: Tech Meets Tech in Shoppable Live Stream
Samsung Panama used Smartzer's interactive video platform to deliver a highly successful live shopping experience with exclusive, event-based discount deals. Sales representatives from Samsung demonstrated a variety of products to hundreds of viewers. Customers could communicate with the hosts via a chat bar by giving themselves a nickname. This created a bespoke and personalised shopping experience that replicated the benefits of in person shopping.
Sephora: Facebook Live Fridays
Brand representatives from Sephora have been using Facebook's new feature to sell via live events. Facebook live is being trialed in the US at the moment, but big brands like Sephora and Abercrombe are already taking advantage of the platform. The beauty brand was able to demonstrate a variety of cosmetics in a real-time tutorial, customers could buy straight from links next to the stream.
Clarks: Combining Social Media and Social Live Shopping
Clarks used Smartzer's tool to share their shoppable live stream across their Instagram. Customers could swipe on the Instagram story to be taken to the live stream event. An influencer hosted the stream to encourage viewers to purchase by clicking product popups alongside the stream and in a browsable carousel. The seamless shopping experience directed users to product pages to add the item to their cart.
With live shopping gaining momentum across the globe, the market is set to be worth $24 billion by 2023. Will you follow these examples to sell big in 2021 and beyond?
Unlike standard video, shoppable video can help you track key metrics from your video content marketing to provide a strong ROI.
Shoppable and interactive videos allow the viewer to play a role in the video. They can click on an interactive overlay to bring up popups with product information and a call to action button that can take them to a product display page, or add the item straight to their cart. This helps to provide a direct and personalised way to shop.
As a result of these extra ways to engage, the videos produce stronger metrics that provide a deeper insight into how consumers engage with your content.
Here's a break down of the key metrics produced by interactive video and what they mean for your brand's video content marketing strategy, starting with the basics:
Metric | Description |
Views | Standard and shoppable video both provide information on how many people have pressed play on your video and watched it at the most basic level. |
Clicks | All of the clicks that occur in the video, including clicks on the hotspots and miss-clicks. You can see where people are engaging with your content in your interactive video. |
Interactive views | The number of people who watched and clicked on your shoppable video. You can see how people have engaged at the awareness stage and then clicked to explore your content. |
Click through rate | The percentage of views that resulted in a click through. This includes clicks to view product display pages and add to carts. This means you can track consideration and conversion rates. Video interactivity can actually boost your CTR by up to 10 X more than standard video. |
Interactive view rate | The percentage of people who watched the video and clicked on any of the interactive video elements. You can clearly see from interactive metrics how the viewer is responding to your content. |
Conversion | Shoppable videos allow you to track which products are being added to baskets and who is checking out. It is impossible to track conversion from standard, flat content. |
Product Popularity | Some interactive video platforms show you which products are clicked and added to cart the most. This helps you to track your consumers preferences and see what is trending. |
View Maps | View maps can help you see where your viewer drops off the video. This can help you learn from your content to see what your target market finds the most interesting. |
Click Maps | Click maps show you exactly where your viewer is clicking and interacting with your shoppable video content. You can see which areas are the most popular with viewers. |
Using video interactivity can boost your engagement rates, but it can also allow you to understand your customer's behaviour much more deeply.
You can learn from these key metrics to produce bigger and better shoppable content and revolutionise your video content marketing strategy.
Seeing spectacular, clearly measurable results from video interactivity provides a strong ROI.
Live streams succeed at marrying video, interactivity, exclusive content as well as the thrill of real-time, social shopping.
In the past year we have seen many brands jump onto new video E-commerce strategies. Just look at Jacquemus' shoppable run-way show, Walmart's exclusive 'shop-a-long' live streams or Nordstrom's house video shopping channel where shoppers can watch tutorials and buy exact products in seconds. And of course, E-retailer giant, Amazon has joined the trend by hosting more than 1,200 live streams during their annual Prime Day sale in October proving to brands that this new technology needs to be pursued.
Live stream shopping events are becoming more and more popular with merchants, selling on streams linked through Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Email newsletters and increasingly on E-commerce landing pages. Reflective of the classic 'telly shopping' shows on channels such as QVC, brands are using live stream to give home shopping a much needed facelift.
Social media has meant that these real-time broadcasts are easily accessible and more attractive to a younger, Gen-Z audience. Plus, with bricks and mortar stores closed for the majority of 2020/2021, everyone (whether they like it or not) was pushed to make purchases online. With this, the industry is booming, set to be worth around $25 billion by 2023.
So, it is no surprise that interactive video platforms are racing to provide the best option for brands to take part in such a modern, engaging and highly anticipated streaming commerce format.
Services such as Smartzer help brands to host exclusive shopping events via social media or straight from their E-commerce landing pages. Viewers can shop in real-time and even chat to their favourite brands using a nickname and the chat bar. Apps like NTWRK direct streetwear fans to the hottest clothing drops from iconic brands like Off-White, Supreme and Palace. These live stream shopping events produce a thrilling, time sensitive buying experience that drives impulse purchases causing items to sell out in minutes. Sellers on NTWRK have seen their sales surge by 400%.
Telly-shopping is no longer the endless stream of mind-numbing marketing content that it used to be. Dynamic hosts from top brands demonstrate their products, interacting with the audience to provide a bespoke, personable experience. The industry has seen a technological injection which has modernised and energised a previously out-dated and boring sales channel.
We can't wait to see what the future holds for video E-commerce technology.