In China, live shopping is already a huge arm of the total retail sector, let alone the e-commerce sector. Helped in large part by the funnelling of focus to a handful of platforms like Taobao, the huge consumer market revels in tuning into live streams to buy items put on show. The success of the format has many in Western markets vying to get something similar off the ground. While consumer interest is rising, there hasn’t been a big breakthrough yet.
Live Shopping Revolutionising Live-Streamed Interactions
We’re all very familiar with the more passive deployment of live streaming, where you watch someone in real time and maybe interact with them via a chat feature. Where it’s at its most advanced, immersive, and interactive is in the realm of live casino gaming. Headlined by the vast selection of live roulette online, these games are streamed from studios and tap into additional technologies to enable real-time play.
What is seen on-screen close to instantly reflects the outcomes shown on the user’s screen, be it their win on a corner of a number or if the bet is lost. The scene has become so popular that there are now many different settings and variants for live roulette. Still, core to the experience in each is the ability to have real-time interactions, especially as the croupiers get involved, too.
It’s this angle that helps live shopping stand out as a unique and appealing selling point. It improves brand appeal, accelerates conversion, and caters to differentiation for a business because everything is in the moment. Being time-limited through the live stream being an event creates a sense of immediacy, as can incorporating other angles. This further enhances the immersion of the user, which results in swifter customer conversion.
The Potential of Live Shopping in the UK
There is somewhat of a live commerce market already in existence in the UK. We’ve seen stories of people building businesses around selling through live social media videos, and a few dedicated platforms have popped up. The live commerce market size is said to be around £210 million annually, with total retail sales that year tallied £517 billion. While it’s a small drop, the toe has been dipped in, and there’s plenty of room to grow.
Importantly, a live shopping event is the perfect opportunity to offer up vouchers and discounts to viewers. In real-time, it rewards customer engagement and makes the show more exciting, enhancing the sense of ‘FOMO’ that so often drives traffic to live shopping events. People want to be there if one-time discounts are dropping in the moment, and if they can be used on the desirable or limited edition goods for sale.
For now, it looks like social media is the hub of UK live commerce activity. Facebook Live and Instagram Live have been adapted to suit, but TikTok Shop UK looks to be the market leader right now. Quite fittingly, given it was forged in China, TikTok expanded greatly in this zone last year, from a base of around 5,000 daily live shopping streams per day in 2023.
Live streaming technology has developed rapidly in recent years, making it possible to buy things in real time when the right platforms are in play. Gradually, it will catch on; we’re just waiting for the site to find that magic formula that triggers the rush.
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