Live commerce is one of the tools that small businesses can use on social media and other platforms, but it isn’t used as much as it could be. Did you know how to get the most out of this common marketing method?
This article will answer any questions you have about live commerce, like what is it? How does it work? And more things you should know about live commerce.
How Does Live Commerce Work?
People often say that live commerce is when live stream videos and eCommerce come together. It gives customers an interactive shopping experience where they can watch live product demos, talk to merchants, and buy the things they see right away.
Live commerce is like shopping in real life, but it happens online. It means that customers can see the product and get answers to their questions before they buy.
Live commerce is quickly becoming a big business for a lot of brands. Even though Covid-19 has limits and technology is getting better, eCommerce sales are expected to reach $5.4 trillion by 2023.
How Real-Time Business Works
Social networks, which bring people from all over the world together, have changed the way people act as consumers. E-marketing, which means using the internet to apply marketing ideas, is becoming more and more popular. This new way of marketing makes it easier to find the right audience and tailor each user’s experience.
Social media has changed the way people talk to each other by letting them talk and share photos and videos in real time and all over the world through messages. This ecosystem will let people make their own content and give businesses access to new markets and large groups of customers.
From there, live commerce can work well for businesses in the following ways:
- Lower Shipping Costs: Because products are sent directly to customers from the manufacturer instead of being brought in from brick-and-mortar stores, live commerce can help lower operational costs.
- Improve The Customer Experience: On the floor, the influencer acts as a salesperson and a customer service rep.
- Easy to track marketing activities: Targeted email campaigns and social media communications can help keep customers’ trust and loyalty.
- Brand Loyalty: The influencer-as-brand-ambassador model helps build long-term brand loyalty when customers connect more and more with the person selling the products.
Different Ways to Do Live Business
The possibilities for live commerce are endless. There are a few options to look into, and you can use this channel in any way you want, as long as you choose the one that fits your needs the best. First, let’s look at some forms that can be used in real-world business.
There are online markets.
Online marketplaces like eBay and Alibaba make it easy for people to buy and sell, but the idea is getting old and a lot of companies have copied it. To keep people interested in shopping online, new features are being added. This keeps online marketplaces relevant and brings in money.
This is where commerce in real time comes in. Buyers and sellers will feel like they are in a real market, but they will be able to do so from the comfort of their own homes because they can talk to each other in real time.
Streaming by influencers
We’re used to seeing influencers (whether they’re nano, micro, macro, or mega) streaming on social media. Influencers will soon be streaming live on e-commerce sites. This is because people want to interact more.
How-tos and product demos
Use a live presentation or tutorial to show your audience how your products work. You could show (potential) customers how to use or apply a certain product, and you could cross-sell your products by showing how to use them with other products.
Auctions that happen in real time
Instead of going to an auction house, buyers and sellers can talk to each other online and around the world. When an auction is live-streamed, the bidding rate goes up. This means that there will be more buzz, competitive bids, and bidders than before!
Online Product Launches
Do you have a brand-new product coming out soon? Launch it with a Live Commerce solution! You get people interested in the new product, which leads to sales. Make sure your audience knows about the launch of your product ahead of time so that you can reach more potential customers.
Q&As and interviews
In addition to reading a Q&A blog, you can also have live Q&A sessions with experts or regular product users. This strategy makes a business seem more like a person and lets viewers take part in community discussion.
How to Get Your Live Business Going
It might be as easy as taking your phone out of your pocket and going Live on Facebook. But if you want to make the most of your live commerce events, you’ll need to give it a bit more thought.
Prepare Your Equipment
Depending on how much money you have, you could have a very simple setup or hire a full professional studio. Let’s look at some of these ways of getting ready.
- Preparing your budget: There’s nothing wrong with using your computer’s webcam or an iOS or Android mobile device as your main streaming setup. Most mid-range to high-end smartphones should be able to do the job.
- Preparation in the middle range: You can use your phone as your main camera, but you should also buy a good external microphone to improve the sound quality. You could also buy a specialized mid-range DSLR camera to improve the overall picture quality. If you want to use a camera, you may need to download some software, like video encoding software or a hardware encoder.
- Preparation on a professional level: If you’re planning a big online event or product launch, you might want to rent a whole professional studio.
Choose a platform for live streaming
Once you have all the equipment you need, you’ll need to choose a streaming platform for your live business. First, you’ll need to decide if you want to use native apps and only broadcast through them, or if you want to use a third-party streaming service.
Native apps could be:
- Live on Facebook
- Live on YouTube
- Instagram Live
- (You need more than 1,000 followers to use TikTok.)
- Twitch is mostly for gamers and things related to the video game business.
If you mostly interact with a specific group of people through a single channel (like YouTube), you should definitely use the native app. If you have a presence on different platforms, you’ll need to hire a third-party provider.
With some third-party streaming services, you can live stream to different social media networks. Some apps may let you only let people in your organization watch your live broadcast. You’ll need to look at your options and figure out which service is best for you.
Plan everything out.
The last step to making live commerce work is to have a plan before you start. Even though there will always be improvised and ad-libbed parts, you should have a general plan for how your live stream will go. If you don’t have a plan, you’ll either freeze up because you don’t know what to say or go off topic and lose the audience’s attention.
Before you start your live business, make sure you have a plan or guide to follow, just like you would with most other kinds of material. Depending on what kind of stream you’re making (promotional, educational, etc.), you may need a different plan. Still, you can always record a test video first, watch it, and then re-record it later.
How to Make a Live Commerce Work
Companies should use one or more of the following top live shopping strategies to get started with live commerce and get the most out of it:
Choosing a format, theme, or niche for your brand
One thing that the best streamers and video channels have in common is that their videos follow a set format, which is also called a theme or a specialty. The main focus of a channel is to give information, game streams, short videos, and so on. The people watching know what to expect. So, based on what they know, they choose to subscribe to or follow a stream.
So, it’s important to start your live feeds with a theme. You can make content in many different ways, but for live streaming, it’s best to stick to a pattern.
working with famous people and influential people
Influencers are the easiest way to promote your business and products on any social media platform, including live commerce. Influencers have a lot of followers on social media and are well-known people in their own right. Brands that don’t have large audiences or that want to grow their audiences will benefit from working with influencers, who already have large enough followings.
Making your live streams unique
Have a private, one-on-one talk. Go off-script and tell jokes or stories about the brand, the product, your trip, or the story of the brand. This can help people connect with your brand on an emotional level.
This makes a connection with the viewer on an emotional level, which can sometimes get better results than influencers and celebrities.
Last Words
Even though the epidemic is ending and life is getting back to normal, more purchases will be made on the internet than in stores. Even though there may be more people in stores, the majority of sales will still be done online.
Even though live commerce is still young compared to other types of marketing, it is becoming more and more popular quickly. Starting with live commerce can help you build a thriving community and spread the word about your brand among the other companies.