You might already know that there are new trends in online shopping almost every year. What started with home shopping TV channels is now live streaming and interactive shopping events.
Almost everyone is looking at live shopping trends right now, from influencers to big brands, and you should too. Without further ado, let’s find out more about this new take on an old shopping trend and how you can use it to your advantage.
How Does Live Shopping Work?
In short, think about the old idea of home shopping networks meeting the new ideas of social media. We all remember when home shopping channels would show different things and give us phone numbers to call to order them.
Well, live shopping is the same idea, but it’s a lot more fun and interactive. In this, hosts just show products and how to use them by live streaming on the most popular platforms. As the whole streaming experience is very interactive, viewers can ask questions and leave comments in real time.
Customers can learn more about a product by seeing how it is used or how it works in the real world. They can also ask questions that the host will answer right away. Then, when they want to buy the product, they can just go to your store or buy it right away through social media. Since the idea has become more popular, online stores and social media have made it easier for us to use it.
Platforms that lead the way in live shopping
People love the idea of shopping through live streaming, and the top platforms are coming up with so many ways to make it work. For example, you can use any popular social media app to do it, or you can add special tools to your website. Before you get into the details, check out the following live shopping platforms and choose the one that best fits your needs.
Your online store can host live streams
This is a typical way to take advantage of live stream shopping. Why not keep your customers on your own website instead of sending them to other platforms?
Aside from that, people have noticed that most shopping happens after the live event is over. So, you won’t have to follow up with your leads and remind them after the event. Once the stream is over, they can go to your website and buy the product right away.
You can do this with the help of tools such as LiveScale and Channelize. Their apps can be found in the Shopify App Store, and it’s easy to add them to your account. After that, these solutions will let you host live shopping events on your own platform, which you can use to bring in more customers.
Almost all of the top social media sites like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Twitch, etc. are adding live streaming features these days. Instagram and Facebook are the two most popular places for online stores to hold live sales and other fun events.
You can start interacting with your Instagram followers in real time by using the “Go Live” features that come with the app. Your customers can start talking to you on Instagram Live without making a new account on your website. Later, you can just send them to your store or use Instagram or Facebook’s built-in shopping tools to sell your products.
Platforms set up by third parties
There are also a lot of apps and websites from third parties that you can use to host live streaming shopping events. I think you should check out PopShop Live, ShopShops, TaoBao Live, CommentSold, and NTWRK, which are all platforms like this. Even big tech companies like Amazon and Google Shopping are adding live shopping and other features that you might want to check out.
The great thing about these platforms is that they already have a lot of shoppers using them. To start having live sales and other events, all you need to do is find and target relevant leads and link your online store.
How Live Shopping Can Help You
Even though shopping through live streaming is a new idea, it is already getting a lot of attention on the market. If you’re still not sure if live shopping is right for your store, think about its benefits:
Having a conversation
One of the best things about shopping through live events is that we can talk to our customers directly. Live sales are much more interactive than the old idea of home shopping networks, which was based on one-way communication.
You can build the reputation of your brand by talking to your audience, answering their questions, and doing a lot more.
Profits are high
The more people interact with your brand, the more likely they are to buy its products. One report says that up to 20% of people who attend live events end up buying something.
You can even have a higher return rate if you plan more interesting events and sales, like a sale at the end of the season.
Low Money Spent
You might already know that you don’t have to spend a lot of money on live shopping events. You can host a live event on any free platform, like Instagram or Facebook, and sell a lot of things online.
Just send people from these sites to your website, where they can start shopping for free.
How to make the most of live shopping with smart tips and tricks
As you can see, there are a lot of great things about live shopping, and it’s very easy to set up live sales and other similar events. I think it would be smart to follow these tips, which will help you get the most out of your investments.
Try to Provide Value
A lot of new people think that live shopping is just a boring way to sell their stuff. Remember that if you keep going on and on about your products, it will start to sound like an ad.
So, you should try to figure out what your audience is having trouble with and give them some real-world solutions.
Set up a Format That Is Consistent
Don’t just decide to start a live shopping stream out of the blue. Make sure you have a good plan and schedule before you start.
Also, start advertising the live shopping event early on social media so you can get more people to come. You could also set up a preferred schedule so that your audience knows when you will be live streaming.
Work with other people
Live streaming is great because it lets us work together with other brands and people. For example, it’s easy to work with influencers if you’re hosting a live-streamed shopping event on Instagram.
You can go live together on Instagram, or you can host them on your channel instead. A cross-brand partnership can also help you grow the reach of your company as a whole.
Add your own touch.
Last but most important, show your audience that you care about them when you host a live stream shopping event. They would love to hear your story and how a certain product helped you in the real world.
You should try to figure out who your target market is and give them a shopping experience that is tailored to them and easier for them to understand.
With dropship-empire, you can do more with your dropshipping store.
Live streams can help you get more leads, but you also need a wide range of products to sell. This is easy to do with the help of dropship-empire, which is the official dropshipping solution for AliExpress.
- Dropship-Empire is a free service that makes it easy to find a wide variety of products in different categories.
- It also has a smart feature called Supplier finder that can find the best-rated and most profitable supplier for any product.
- With its unique features, like automatically updating order statuses and syncing tracking numbers, you can keep your customers informed about their purchases.
- Through Dropship-Empire, you can order a lot of products at once, map variants, create bundles, manage your stock, and do a lot more.
- Dropship-Empire is the official dropshipping solution for AliExpress, and it works perfectly with platforms like Shopify, Wix, and WooCommerce.
Conclusion
Now that you understand how live shopping works and what its clear benefits are, you can try it out for yourself. Follow the tips above to make sure you choose the right platform to live stream and promote your products.
Since this way of shopping is still new, you can come up with new ways to market your products and be a leader in the field. Just make sure to use a powerful platform like dropship-empire to create the perfect catalog for your store. The platform has a lot of features that make it easy to run your online dropshipping store.