Is Live-Shopping Alive in the States?
Live-shopping is a popular ecommerce practice that has taken over China but is the US ready for it?
What is live-shopping?
Live-shopping is a new, modernized play on the already successful home-shopping, which was popularized in the 80s through television channels like QVC and the Home Shopping Network (HSN). Through these broadcasts, which tended to be live, viewers could watch hosts show off and test a variety of products ranging from clothes, accessories, home furnishings, etc. and purchase over the phone or online with a limited-time discount. Although these outlets still do well, they are targeted towards a much older demographic of Gen X and Baby Boomers (my mom & grandmother both watch QVC, I find it ancient…).
Live-shopping has updated the way younger generations shop from suggestions. Through live stream services like Instagram live, Facebook live, Amazon, TikTok, and Twitch, sellers can promote and try out products while users interact with the stream by commenting and asking questions in real time. Live-shopping is easily accessible to Millennials and Gen Z because it’s watched on your phone (which is always on us) and is just a click away. As opposed to home-shopping, with live-shopping anyone could become a seller by just downloading an app and beginning.
Chinas Live-Stream Shopping Success
China has grown live-stream shopping into a multibillion dollar industry. After its initial takeoff in the 2010s, by 2020 due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, the market rose to $171 billion. By 2022, China has earned up to $480 billion in sales from live-shopping. The most popular Chinese shopping apps include Taobao & Taobao live (which are equivalent to Amazon) and Douyin (Chinas TikTok). China takes live-stream shopping very seriously, it usually requires professional sets, cameras, lighting, sound editors, and production managers. Hosts typically read off scripts and are generously paid by brands. In fact, live-shopping hosts have become a new class of celebrities in China, called KOLs for “key opinion leaders”.
Although I’m American, I know second-hand from Chinese peers that this is no stretch of reality. They are often shocked by the lack of live-shopping popularity here and honestly, I don’t quite understand either. In China, the sellers display an insane amount of commitment, one famous example is Li Jiaqi, who broke a Guinness World Record for “the most lipstick applications in 30 seconds”. Li has also claimed to do 389 broadcasts in a year and works until 4am.
Live-Shopping in the States
In 2022, the US earned revenue of $905 billion from e-commerce sales. Live-shopping makes up only $11 billion of this (drastically less compared to China). The reason why livestream shopping is so sluggish here is due to a couple of reasons, for starters, 2020 and 2021 is when both China and the US penetrated the market, but the US wasn’t as prepared tech-wise to support it. The US also doesn’t produce live stream shopping content in the same magnitude as China does, there are no large production teams here for it, sellers usually stream from their rooms.
In the US, sellers are too focused on the product and not focused enough on the consumer and how the product fits into their lives. Celebrities and influencers tend to be arguably out of touch with the consumers daily life, which can make buying things from them feel shallow.
Finally, livestreams in the US aren’t interactive enough with viewers. Questions and comments potential customers make are often ignored, turning the viewer off from engaging further. If a team was invested in to monitor and bring the comments to the hosts attention, maybe interaction and sales would increase.
How does the future look?
I think it's safe to assume that although the US isn’t up to speed with China, doesn't mean that we won't find success in live-shopping here. It’s clear that we are in a progressive, digital age where shopping online and watching influencers on social media is the norm. It’s only a matter of time before the two merge, with the addition of some of Chinas techniques, the US livestream shopping channels can become just as successful (maybe even more). Afterall, we have experienced in the past success with QVC and HSN, there's no reason the new gen live shopping cannot achieve the same level of greatness.
