Updated: Jul 2, 2021
Livestream shopping is THE most talked about trend with marketeers at the moment.
But what does live shopping actually involve? How does it work? How can it help brands to drive sales over the next year?
What is live shopping?
Live streaming e-commerce originated in China. Here, large and small businesses have been streaming with influencers to sell products to a live audience. This gives viewers the opportunity to purchase products demonstrated in the live stream, giving rise to a $30bn market in the live streaming space.
The trend gained momentum back in 2019, but this method of streaming commerce had been around for quite a while before then. Now, livestream shopping has become so popular that brands hire actors and influencers to host streams directly from their bricks and mortar shops. Products are sold alongside the streams and the method has proven to be extremely profitable, especially during the global pandemic.
China has become an e-commerce trendsetter, with live shop tech setting the benchmark for every other country in the world. Now, thanks to COVID 19, brands across the globe are harnessing this tech to connect with customers. In 2021, live stream shopping has become a household name amongst marketeers.
How does livestream shopping work?
Livestream shopping works in a similar way to shoppable video. However, instead of tagging a pre-existing video, you create tags before the stream and add them to your stream as you broadcast. As a result, an overlay will be created over the top of your livestream content that consumers can interact with. During the live stream, viewers are able to click on the products, see full details and add these to their cart seamlessly without leaving the live stream. Brands can use this streaming commerce technology across different platforms, including social media.
Due to the unprecedented times, it is expected that livestream technology will grow exponentially over the next year and potentially double the profit it generated last year. Therefore, we can expect more and more brands to get involved with this technology.
The benefits of livestream shopping
Streaming commerce is incredibly profitable and can even help brands save money with content creation.
With shoppable livestreams, brands no longer need to spend loads of money on producing high budget ad campaigns. This is due to the simplicity of the "see now, buy now" ethos of streaming commerce. All brands need to do is select products suited to their consumer who will then willingly engage with the stream. The consumer will learn about the products displayed and purchase them after or during the stream. The organic nature of streaming commerce removes the expectations associated with high production videos. Livestream shopping is supposed to be a real-time personable experience and by using influencers content becomes even more relatable to the consumer.
Streaming commerce helps capture the attention of the consumer in real-time, attracting them to the product and allowing product purchase through the same platform or via a link to the brands e-commerce. This provides an engaging, authentic experience for a consumer. Influencers can help drive conversions as many people look towards the trustworthy opinion of others before buying products.
Following the livestream, brands can save the video and use it as promotional material for those who were unable to attend the event. By allowing consumers to shop live, brands create interactive and profitable content that connects with audiences.
How can I introduce live shopping for my brand?
There are many ways to introduce live shopping. One option is through in-platform formats. Recently, Instagram has released a live shopping format within their app, available in the US, ‘Instagram Live Shopping is available for any Instagram Business accounts that have Checkout capabilities’. Instagram allows users to activate their live shopping tool while streaming, allowing customers to purchase products displayed. Viewers can also interact with the host via a chatroom.
Amazon has introduced 'Amazon Live' which allows viewers to watch and interact with a streaming video and buy the products used from Amazon. Influencers are are taking advantage of this new modality since they can advertise their products in action and answer customer questions in real time. Amazon Live has caught the attention of many and is now one of their most valuable features.
Another highly effective channel for live shopping is brand's own e-commerce sites. Hosting live video shopping sessions on brand's websites has multiple benefits; turning your e-commerce site into a highly engaging content destination, driving higher converion rates as customers watching the live stream are already on your website in the mindset to shop, and the ability to provide customised live shopping experiences to match your brands requirements. Smartzer is the leading platform that supports livestream shopping on e-commerce with instant setup on platforms such as Shopify. Here, you can learn more about how Smartzer's technology works and how brands are using it to add products to their live streams.
Check out an example of Smartzer's stream with Clarks below!
Conclusion:
It is clear that livestream shopping can be highly beneficial for brands and the future of e-commerce. With a variety of modalities to choose from, brands should consider the rapid growth in streaming commerce and the role that it will play in online shopping over the coming years. It seems now is the time to seize the opportunities available to shop live.
If you’d like to know more about how to make your next livestream shoppable feel free to contact us or request a demo.
- Mar 8, 2021
Smartzer and Inskin have joined forces to take video content marketing to the next level and help brands stand out in a rapidly evolving online world.
Here's everything you need to know about Smartzer, Inskin and their collaboration.....
Introducing Smartzer: the basics
Smartzer's software allows brands to incorporate video interactivity into their video content marketing strategies. Brands can encourage viewer engagement by creating clickable hotspots on their content by tagging an interactive overlay. Viewers will be able to view extra product information, be taken to ecommerce sites, add to basket, sign up to a mailing list and more by clicking or hovering over these hotspots. This information can be added as imagery, text, via URL's, Product API, Product Feed or manually. As a result, the ad becomes an immersive and exciting experience for the viewer, informing them early on in the purchase funnel. These interaction videos shorten the path to purchase and encourage higher click-through-rates increasing conversions by 400%. Smartzer has helped brands like Paco Rabanne, BMW, Missoni and Adidas create impressive interaction videos for campaigns.
Introducing Inskin: the basics
Inskin is a high-impact digital advertising and paid media company with over 200 publishers, delivering campaigns to more than 1,000 premium websites globally. The format, Shoppable Skins, capitalises on the consumer's natural scrolling behaviours by cycling through products as the user consumes content. By integrating product API's, brands can create ads that support a seamless checkout and transactions within the skin. Viewers can also browse through a product gallery and purchase products displayed. Inskin allows brands to create interactive ad experiences that use existing brand content. Inskin's seamless, high-impact campaigns drive 15 x more attention than standard, static image campaigns.
Smartzer X Inskin
The combination of the two platforms creates a subtle and in-offensive ad viewing experience. Interaction videos are memorable and immersive, allowing the consumer to view products, find out information and make a purchase without being redirected from the app or their place in their feed.
The result: Volkswagen Golf video content marketing
Here is the result of Smartzer and Inskin's partnership. Below, the viewer can see how banner ads promote the Volkswagen Golf by surrounding a theoretical website page.
The consumers original scrolling experience remains uninterrupted. However, the interactive banner ad encourages engagement through "discover more" and "click on the video to explore" call-to-actions. The dynamic ad is eye catching and enticing and the interactive element creates a fun, exciting way to find out more information about the product.
Summary
The partnership between Smartzer and Inskin resulted in seamless ad formats that are easy to interact with and un-interruptive on website feeds. Views are turned into qualified traffic via tagged product info and clickable links. The ads support "in skin" transactions within the ads, meaning that conversions can be generated by viewers without the need to leave their current webpage.
The format combines easy product access with fun and exciting interactivity to revolutionise the way brands advertise.
- Mar 4, 2021
Interaction videos are videos that support user involvement. They usually have clickable hotspots that can show a viewer information about a product, allow them to explore areas of the video in more detail, answer questions, personalise the video or make a purchase. The immersive technology increases engagement and can boost viewing time by a whopping 47%.
By using interactive video platforms across social media, brands can attract new and existing customers to their ecommerce sites. In fact, interactive streaming commerce has proven to increase conversion rates by 400%.
As the biggest social media platform in the world, Facebook has over 2,740 million users worldwide. So, brands are using interactive video platforms to stand out on the site and reach as many customers as possible.
Here are some of the ways brands are using interactive video on Facebook...
Taylors of Harrogate: Personalised Quizzes to Tailor Products
The quiz appeared as a clickable link in a campaign video. When users clicked the link in the video they could take a quiz to find out their favourite coffee flavour. After the results, users could purchase the recommended product and join the company's email newsletter. Interaction video quizzes are a great way to offer a bespoke viewer experience. Tailoring products to the viewers needs will build customer trust and encourage conversions.
BMW X WAVEMAKER X SMARTZER: Interactive Facebook Ad Campaign
For the new 4 Series Coupé, BMW teamed up with interactive video platforms, Wavemaker and Smartzer. They created a clickable, explorable video that would focus in on parts of the car and show details. The call-to-actions encouraged viewers to "learn more" or "book a test drive". This ad was shown across Facebook and Instagram feeds. By using interactive streaming commerce, video engagement was over 33% and click through rate was over 23%.
Sephora: personalised, dynamic ads
The Facebook and Instagram ads used information from Sephora's website and mobile app to connect new and know customers with relevant products from the product catalogue. The photos populated ads in a carousel format which viewers could swipe through. An "add to basket" call-to-action encouraged viewers to head to Sephora's ecommerce site. Through Facebooks in-house interactive video platform, any brand can create content as bright and exciting as Sephora's.