Live Video Shopping With Headless Commerce

Live streaming is nothing new, as consumers spend their time on Twitch, YouTube Live, various social media channels, and more. However, that live streaming has now made its way to retail, where consumers can shop while watching live videos.

Live video shopping, live commerce, or live streaming shopping are some of the many names it goes by today, but the concept is taking over the retail space at lightning speed. Statista predicts that sales from live commerce will reach $55 billion by 2026 in the US alone. As social media influencers and streamers play a crucial role in eCommerce sales, brands that capitalize on this phenomenon can set themselves apart from their competitors.

What Is Live Video Shopping?

Live video shopping or live commerce is the concept of selling products in real-time while customers are able to interact with a brand. Viewers of a live stream, primarily through social media, are able to make purchases directly from creators and influencers during a live stream. 

Social media creators and streamers often use live video to interact with their audience authentically. By incorporating live shopping, creators can capitalize on the emotion and interests of their audience and capture sales they might not have been able to previously.

Live commerce is like QVC, a televised shopping channel or one of the many infomercials that popularized television in the 90s and 2000s but for the digital age of the present. Live video shopping originated in China thanks to Alibaba’s Taobao Live event in May 2016 and has continued to increase in popularity, particularly around the Single’s Day events. 

What Is Driving Consumers to Adopt This Approach?

While brands in China have been seeing the benefits of live video shopping for quite some time, the concept is relatively new on the other side of the world. However, there are a few things accelerating adoption:

Growth of Social Commerce

A key reason behind the rise of live video shopping is the growth of social commerce. With potential customers spending more time on social media and platforms like Instagram and TikTok being the biggest drivers in traffic to eCommerce stores, live commerce offers brands a new way to capitalize. Social media platforms have increasingly added new shopping features to their standard options and live streaming options. Additionally, partnerships between major brands, such as YouTube Creators and Shopify, allow creators to tag products on live streams.

Increasing Customer Demands 

Customer behavior continues to change, and social media platforms, as well as eCommerce stores, are catering to these demands by providing more personalized shopping experiences. Doing so in the case of live video shopping or live commerce offers another avenue for businesses to deliver an omnichannel shopping experience.

Read More: What Is Omnichannel eCommerce?

Benefits of Live Video Shopping

Live video shopping will become the norm sooner rather than later. As such, there are numerous benefits brands can gain from adopting these solutions today.

Engage Customers in Real Time

The most obvious benefit of live video shopping is engaging customers in real-time. Brands can display products to customers and have them react instantaneously, providing a tremendous opportunity for feedback.  

Increase Conversions

For eCommerce brands that use live commerce, there will likely be an increase in conversions. The beauty of live streaming is that you can capture attention quickly and capitalize on the moment. Instead of following up with customers later on, you can increase the chances of them converting right then and there. 

Increased Social Proof and Engagement 

Live streams are often filled with hundreds of comments, making it difficult for streamers to keep up. For brands performing live commerce events, this is a perfect opportunity to get massive traffic, social proof, and customer engagement in the form of comments and reviews.

Capitalize on Impulsive Buying

People who attend live streaming events are often there with the intention of purchasing. However, even if there is a surprise product appearance during a standard live stream, it represents an opportunity to get impulsive buyers involved. 

Top Live Commerce Platforms

While you can use several different live commerce platforms, there are several benefits to using platforms with clean APIs that can more easily integrate with the other tools in your technology stack. These API-first platforms work best for enterprises that want to build modular systems using best-of-breed technologies. A few examples include:

CommentSold

CommentSold offers businesses a solution for delivering engaging live video commerce experiences. Integrations are available with shopping apps, marketing automation tools, point-of-sale systems, and more, allowing you to complete the entire live video streaming stack.  

Arvia

Arvia provides live streaming and one-to-one video shopping capabilities for your eCommerce store. Engage with customers in real-time, provide promotions and enhance the shopping experience. 

StoryStream

Visual commerce platform StoryStream offers live video shopping, user-generated content, and more to create an authentic shopping experience for customers. 

How to Integrate Live Video With Instant Commerce

Live video shopping may be a new technology, but you can catapult your eCommerce business to the next level by becoming an early adopter. As customers seek more convenience, the ability to shop during live streams will become even more relevant. 

Live commerce can also be combined with other modern approaches, such as headless commerce, to deliver a personalized and unique shopping experience for every customer. Instant Commerce is a headless storefront builder that makes headless commerce much easier for your brand. You can create custom storefronts or landing pages for any device, helping you to deliver an omnichannel shopping experience for customers. 

As an API-first and MACH-ready platform, Instant Commerce makes it easy to integrate with leading eCommerce platforms like Shopify to power the eCommerce backend that processes orders, manages inventory, and more. Meanwhile, you can also connect with live commerce platforms so that your customers enjoy a seamless experience whether they’re shopping on your website or in a live stream.

The combination of live commerce and headless commerce is the perfect example of what you can achieve with omnichannel commerce. Want to learn more about omnichannel commerce? Read our article: What Is Omnichannel eCommerce?