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It’s easy to look back at weekends of shopping through rose-tinted glasses, forgetting the endless changing room queues and abandoned baskets in favour of the feel of the fabrics and time spent with friends. Online shopping may have brought ease and convenience, but traditional e-commerce lacks community and experience, leaving shoppers yearning for new retail avenues. With 97 per cent of Gen Z consumers citing social media as their top source of shopping inspiration, the door is open to opportunities that combine convenience with connection.
By adapting to the changing wants and needs of the modern consumer, retailers can create more meaningful digital shopping experiences. Enter live streaming: a subsector of e-commerce that has already taken off in regions like China, generating over $150 billion in the market in 2022, per Euromonitor. In fact, live streaming is expected to make up 20 per cent of e-commerce sales within the next two years.
Live streaming sits at the intersection of e-commerce and entertainment for an engaging audience experience that showcases products in real time. Unlike the bygone era of teleshopping, live streams make use of influencers and other popular figures to move away from forced infomercials and towards more authentic endorsements. For Bonnie Zhao, general manager at AliExpress UK, entertainment is a central component to commerce. “It captures people’s attention, creates emotional connections, and enhances the overall shopping experience,” says Zhao.
The live interaction offered by streams enables audiences to ask questions and receive an immediate response, sparking authentic conversation while maximising the ways audiences interact through social media.
Beyond engagement and entertainment, there are practical benefits for both shoppers and brands. For brands, live streams help to inform decisions around the promotion of popular products by gauging audience preferences; for customers, they enable a greater understanding of the products available for purchase, meaning they are more informed and increasingly likely to be satisfied. In turn, reducing the risk of returns — as well as their costly environmental impact. It is clear that for all parties — customers, brands, retailers, the planet — that the opportunities of live streaming are plentiful.
Live streaming on a global stage
Live streaming has met with huge success in China, which can be partly credited to its role in responding to audiences’ changing media habits — it entertains, simplifies shopping and ultimately allows brands to cut through the noise. “In today’s digital age, consumers are inundated with countless options and distractions, making it challenging for brands to stand out,” says Zhao.
