Telly shopping has been around for ages, since live television was invented. Now, we are living through a live shopping renaissance with China leading the way for many marketers.
The Chinese retailer, Taobao, has pioneered livestream shopping technology across their e-commerce. The combined transaction volume of its Marketplace and Tmall.com reached 3 trillion yuan in 2017, more than that of all US e-commerce sites combined. On the site, large businesses pay influencers and celebrities to host streams and sell their products, an effective strategy when bricks and mortar stores have been closed as a result of the pandemic.
For the rest of the world, the race is on to harness live shopping technology and catch up with Chinese retail giants. In fact, the livestream industry is expected to be valued at a whopping 184.27 billion USD by 2027.
So, why is livestream shopping so popular? This could be due to the community feel it provides for consumers. The conversational, personal and real-time experience connects brands and customers in a way that replicates the offline shopping experience online. In an increasingly digital world, livestream provides a more human touch to online shopping.
How it works.....
Live shops are a form of shoppable, interactive video. Viewers can click hotspots in the stream to find out more about a product or add it to their basket and complete a transaction without leaving the stream. Brands who want to host a stream create tags before going live and associate those tags to the streaming platform they wish to use. This will create an interactive overlay over the live stream that viewers can shop through and interact with. A shoppable side carousel will allow viewers to browse other products and a chat room will encourage consumers to ask questions and communicate with the stream host. The stream can then be integrated into social media platforms or onto the brand e-commerce site.
Interactive video platforms that can help you go live...
Smartzer:
Brands can create shoppable live stream events
Every live shop event features a product carousel
Purchase products without leaving the stream
Smartzer's player can be full integrated into the Demandware API to instantly pull up to date product info into the editor to be displayed to viewers
Exclusive, ticketed events can be repurposed onto brand e-commerce and used as marketing material to turn views into qualified traffic.
Visit our website here for more info!
Bambuser:
Helps online stores interact with customers via streaming commerce
The add on lets brands embed a code on their e-commerce so they can stream live
Using the Bambuser app brands can start their live shop and allow customers to purchase along
Chat room allows viewers to interact with store associates to ask questions
Helps to connect brands and customers encouraging trust and loyalty
One to one or one to many product offerings
Visit their website here for more info!
Google Shoploop:
Platform for discovering new beauty brands via streaming commerce
Tutorials from real people
Shop the products displayed straight from the video
90 second demo's
Save products to buy later or purchase straight away
Call-to-action to go to merchants e-commerce
Favourite creators to keep up with their activity and current trends
Nordstrom debut's livestream shopping on their e-commerce
Luxury US department store, Nordstrom has launched their own shopping channel that allows customers to shop live with streams with store associates, brand partners and beauty, fashion and homeware experts. By signing up to virtual events, customers can join to buy displayed products and ask questions to their hosts. Upcoming live events include Burberry virtual styling filmed in New York City by stylist José Ramón Reyes who will show fashion fans how to style Burberry's latest runway looks. Other events feature tutorials on the hottest trends and tips for skincare, makeup and hair from experts at Tom Ford, Giorgio Armani and Charlotte Tilbury.
Macy's X Klarna presents a live shopping experience
Klarna held a livestream shopping event at Macy;s Herald Square in New York in partnership with Cosmopolitan. The two day 'Hauliday' event allowed customers to shop exclusive deals from Macy's and iconic brands like Adidas, Rebecca Minkoff and Express Bluemercury and Foot Locker. The livestream was hosted by Jackie Miranne whose mother invented the Miracle Mop that sold millions on telly shopping giant, QVC in 1990. Miranne showcased 60 products from Macy's while engaging shoppers in real time to answer questions and respond to comments.
Clarins nailed livestream shopping with their virtual store!
Clarins partnered with Vee24 to reimaging their e-commerce and create a totally interactive experience for their customers. The 360 degree, explorable online shop gives consumers the benefits of in person shopping, online. The boutique features several sections like skin workshops, where customers can learn about products and application techniques as well as a virtual try on feature to test makeup with camera features. Using VeeStudio and Veeschedular, Clarins allows customers to book one-on-one online consultations via livestream with beauty coaches. Customers can also re-watch previous streams with guest influencers. This gives a bespoke, human feel to online shopping and adds a personal touch that encourages viewers to buy products.
For more information about taking your shop live, visit Smartzer's website here!
Digital technology is rapidly evolving, we are so accustomed to viewing information on our screens that we hardly notice that we scroll through (on average) 300 feet of mobile content a day! This means that marketers need to think carefully about the kind of promotional material they use in order to draw in new and existing customers!
One of the most effective ways to engage your audience is through the use of interactive video. The clickable, immersive content grabs the attention of the passive viewer, turning them into an active participant in the video. This drastically reduces user drop off and encourages viewers to click calls-to-action to complete a purchase or visit the brands e-commerce.
How to make interactive video...
Making a video interactive is not as hard as it sounds. Interactive video platforms like Smartzer show brands how to make interactive video and how to tag videos with product links. These could be existing videos or new material specifically created with interactivity in mind. Users can tag videos with hotspots on a clickable overlay with product information via images, text, URL's, product feed and product API's or manually. Customers will then be able to engage with the video by finding out product information, pricing, sizing and more. Clickable call to actions like 'buy now', 'see more', 'add to basket', 'book a test drive' and 'sign up to newsletter' all encourage conversions.
Here's a breakdown of how you can tag videos to make them interactive...
Adding products via Product API
If you have a Product API available, connecting it to your interactive video player is the best, simplest way to add real-time product information to your player. You can search the product you want to tag by ID or name and pull the information directly into the player.
Key Benefits:
Instant import of all fields
Real-time product information direct from product catalogue
Enables quick-buy / add to cart integration
Can pull in from many different markets at once
Manually adding products
Another easy way to add products to your interactive and shoppable video player is to add all the fields manually. If your video does not have too many items to add - this is a flexible method that can be worth the effort.
Key benefits:
Provides flexibility towards any particular field
Requires no setup
Upload via Product Feed
Many interfaces allow brands to upload their product information via a product feed or file. This can allow brands to add a lot of information at once saving time, however it can prove quite difficult to manage in the long run as the product information is not served in real-time.
Key benefits:
Easy upload
Feed can be uploaded elsewhere
The benefits of interactive video
Interactive video engages 3-4 x more than standard video which reduces user drop off. The format informs early on in the purchase funnel, shortening the path to purchase. Click through rates are much higher, often achieving a rate of 27% and conversion rates can be 4x that of standard video.
Interactive video enables each stage of the purchase funnel to be measured. Tracking the initial views and dwell time on the video at the awareness stage, the clicks on the products at the discovery stage, measure clicks at the consideration stage through a call to action and measure conversions through successful purchases or sign ups.
Smartzer X BMW interactive campaign
BMW used Smartzer's interactive platform to create an immersive, clickable experience on social media and stand out from the crowd.
The video promotes the new BMW 4 Series coupé with the style of the content capturing the sleek and stylish athleticism of the vehicle. Viewers could click the video to discover various aspects of the car and click through to the BMW Series 4 landing page.
Interactive features included:
Custom video overlay for interaction
Optimised for mobile devices
Shareable across social media
Interactive player containing all assets placed as action URL in Facebook ads manager
Results:
Video engagement was over 33%
CTR was over 23%
60% of clicks generated were from clicking on the video
For more information on how to make your video interactive visit Smartzer's website here!
Updated: Jan 17, 2023
Social commerce is a rapidly growing industry with most consumers using apps like Instagram as their main tool for product discovery.
However, one app that has taken over the world during the past year, TikTok.
In January 2021 alone, TikTok had over 315 million downloads and overall, it has been downloaded over 2.6 billion times (reported by Sensor Tower in December 2020). As a result, brands have taken to the app to find ways of promoting and selling their products to the masses.
Introducing TikTok: THE platform for virality
TikTok is a video sharing social media platform that has proved itself a phenomenon with GenZ audiences. It is highly likely that you will have seen dance routines or heard a song on the radio that initially went viral on the platform. On TikTok, content can go viral in seconds with the biggest influencers possessing nearly 32.7 million followers and receiving 46 million likes for a 60 second video.
So, how are brands and businesses using the app for streaming commerce? There's the obvious, link in bio to e-commerce sites, tagging product links in the comments etc. But the most effective technique?
Here's how brands are using shoppable video on TikTok to drive sales.
1. Connecting brand TikTok to a Shopify store
Shopify’s partnership with TikTok is likely the first of many integrations with ecommerce platforms. Merchants can connect their TikTok for Business account to Shopify to generate in-feed shoppable posts from videos. Once signed up with TikTok for business brands can create any of the following:
In-feed ads. Native-looking videos that appear in the user’s feed.
Pre-roll ads. Videos that start when a user opens the app.
Promoted hashtag challenges. Videos encouraging users to submit clips using a custom hashtag. This is best for brand awareness.
Other ad formats include:
TopView
Video first format that puts brand videos in unmissable view of audiences
Using sight, sound and narrative to capture user attention
60 seconds of full-screen and long form video, with autoplay and sound
Distraction-free viewing grabbing 100% user attention
Brand Takeover
Full screen visual ad experience for viewers
Multiple creative formats with static and dynamic display
3 second JPG and 3-5 second video supported
Branded Effects
Tailor made shareable stickers, filters and special effects
Users can create selfie videos with these effects, sharing and promoting brands interaction videos.
2. Using an interactive video platform to create shoppable content on TikTok
Smartzer offers an interactive video platform that gives brands a tool that turns content into shoppable video on TikTok.
Smartzer MINI Shop:
Brands can connect their campaign call-to-action with the Smartzer MINI Shop links. This will connect your ad directly to your product feed. A viewer will click the ad and instantly see all the products in the shoppable video and a direct link to the e-commerce site.
Lightweight, easy to use pages help inform users about products. This can lead to higher conversion rates and a stronger ROI.
This could be through either makeup tutorial videos, fashion videos or recipe videos. Videos will have clickable components to clothing, makeup or ingredients.
Smartzer Interactive Experience
Every interactive experience is optimised for mobile.
It is easy to share the interaction video content across social media platforms.
Users can engage with the interactive content by launching the call-to-action or the URL displayed in the video.
This could be in TikTok work out videos (shoppable fitness gear), travel videos (interactive hotel tour), auto videos (interactive tour of car features).
Here are some great examples of shoppable video on TikTok:
SHEKOU Clothing: Shoppable Ads
New Zealand brand, Shekou, uses TikTok ads to their full extent. The brand takes advantage of viral styles and trends and inputs them into their branding to reach new and existing customers on the app. The clickable 'Shop now' call-to-action encourages viewers to click through to the e-commerce and make a purchase without leaving the app. When the 60 second video finishes, viewers can 'Shop now' or 'Replay' the ad. The 50% off sitewide banner advertises big discounts suited to GenZ audiences.
Pepsi: Branded Hashtag Challenge
Pepsi’s #ThatsWhatILike campaign encouraged consumers to do what they enjoy freely and unapologetically. This could be anything from wearing over-the-top clothing, dancing badly to enjoying an unconventional snack or simply enjoying a Pepsi. The campaign resulted in over 13 billion views and
reflected the TikTok trends by encouraging silly, fun and viral videos that included Pepsi in some way. Through this format of streaming commerce, Pepsi achieved mass, free advertising and world wide brand conversation.