Many companies across the world are unlocking the potential that live video shopping can have for their retail business.
Creating a Successful Retail Startup With Live Video Shopping
With the online world being what it is, there are now over 4.66 billion active users on the internet and many of them have access to a social media profile of some kind.
Live video shopping is an advertising opportunity that many businesses are utilizing due to our fascination with video content.
From the early days of YouTube, the need for video content has expanded onto other social media platforms with Facebook, Instagram, and Tiktok Live.
If you’re a retail startup, particularly those just starting out, live video shopping is certainly an avenue to explore to attract attention to your business.
There are many benefits to live video shopping beyond just boosting your sales. In this article, we’ll explain what live video shopping is, its benefits and how to go about using it within your retail startup this year.
What Is Live Video Shopping?
Live video shopping or Livestream shopping, as it’s often referred to, gives the seller the opportunity to demonstrate and advertise products live.
This is usually to an online audience that can interact with the seller or host of the live experience. The promoters can interact with the audience through the video and it typically has a chat section as well as other features.
As it’s live, the product being demonstrated or advertised is a lot more difficult to manipulate. With that said, viewers can make a more confident decision in what they’re buying and it also builds trust for those who are looking to make a purchase.
This form of online shopping allows for an immersive experience and one that’s perhaps a lot more exciting than your typical shopping experience is when you’re on a retailer’s website.
Live streaming is set to become a fairly profitable market in the next few years, with it estimated to grow to $223.98 billion by 2028. It’s become more apparent that live streaming is a great way to market and advertise your business, particularly for retailers.
How to Use Live Video Shopping for Your Retail Startup
So how can you use live video shopping to your advantage? It can be difficult to know where to start, especially if you’ve got little to no experience with the medium, to begin with.
So what do you need for live video shopping and what is the best way to use it for your retail startup?
1. Pick a Platform
With live video shopping, a lot of retailers are turning to social media platforms.
As most social media platforms are free, it’s a fantastic resource for advertising that’s ultimately free. If you’ve managed to generate a reasonable following, you’re already halfway there.
Think about what type of platform you feel your retail business will excel on. If you’re a brand that caters to a younger generation in their teens, then Tiktok Live will possibly be a great platform to focus on.
Whereas for those who might have an older audience, Instagram or Facebook Live may be your preferred route.
If you feel multiple platforms might be useful, then it’s worth looking into options like Restream, which is a great way of combining your live streams across multiple channels at once.
2. Consider Your Audience
Whilst picking your platform, you might also want to consider where your audience is. For example, you might have a big audience on one platform over another. Therefore, it makes more sense to go live where your target audience is mainly.
This might be different from one retail business to the next and it’s worth gathering data through the social media platforms themselves.
It can offer a fairly useful insight into the demographic of your audience, which is handy when it comes to investing time and effort into your live video streams.
Even though live video shopping is an effective way to advertise your brand, it can still be a time-consuming process, so you want to use the right platforms to reach those viewers that you’re after.
3. Vary the Content You Provide
For online content marketing, you are likely to have many different varieties across your platforms, whether it be paid advertisements on Facebook to blog content on your website.
The more variety of content that you can offer, the more convinced they’ll be when it comes to buying from you.
So with live video shopping, it’s good to think about what type of content you want to stream. It could be a range that you’ve recently launched where you showcase all the pieces.
You may want to think about doing sales events where you sell off individual items that are discounted. This could involve users reserving the clothes whilst life is ongoing.
Whether a user is coming across your live for the first time or not, it’s all about providing content that’s going to capture their attention. For mobile users, people tend to watch videos for an average of 16 minutes a day.
That means their attention span is limited and requires your live video shopping to be engaging from the moment they click on it.
4. Remember to Promote Your Live Streams
Live video shopping will often be shared with your followers through app notifications. For example, if you have a user who follows you on Instagram, they may have clicked yes to receiving notification alerts whenever you post or go live.
This is a great way of getting your live video shopping experiences out there but it’s also important to promote your live streams both on the platform you’ve chosen and cross-promoting it on other platforms too.
5. Build Up a Routine
Finally, building up a routine is key. It’s worth promoting when you’ll be holding live video shopping on your platforms to ensure your viewers will be ready and available to watch.
As you create more of these live streaming experiences, it’ll likely attract more attention over time. Creating a schedule, whether it’s a weekly live stream or a twice-weekly one is going to hopefully generate a loyal following of viewers.
Imagine creating a community of dedicated users that come onto your live video shopping every time to support and shop?
It takes time to generate a big following for your retail brand but live video shopping can really influence the rate at which your retail startup grows.
The Benefits of Live Video Shopping
A retail startup can find many benefits that come from live video shopping. If you need more convincing, then here are just a few advantages to make it worthwhile.
Generates a Bigger Audience
Live streaming is one that is often pushed by the social media platform algorithms and so not only your followers will see the streams but those recommended your live too.
Over time, you might find new users are following your brand after finding your live, and as such, live video shopping can help generate a bigger audience for your business.
For any business, growing your following is important and this avenue of advertising can certainly help contribute to that.
Better Customer Experience
Many customers nowadays are looking for an elevated experience with a brand in order to choose that business over another.
With competition being fierce in the retail industry, the customers are in control of who and where they buy from. If you can provide your customers and potential customers with a better experience of the brand, then you’ll hopefully bag more sales as a result.
Live video shopping isn’t something that’s currently being utilized by every retail brand out there, so there’s certainly space on the market to use to your advantage.
Creates Hype Around Your Products
Creating hype around your products can certainly be helpful when it comes to your retail startup, particularly for those who are only just starting out. With live streams, you can build up tension around products that have yet to launch.
Whether it’s a sneak peek behind the scenes of a campaign shoot or sharing product exclusives that are only available to purchase in-stream.
Never stop when it comes to surprising your audience because that’s what’ll keep them wanting more.
A New Stream of Revenue
Live video shopping offers a new stream of revenue and for any business, that is a welcome addition. Considering a lot of the platforms you can use for live streaming are free, it seems rude not to make use of it where you can.
By creating new streams of revenue, it provides more profit and an opportunity to grow your retail startup. The online world for retail is a treasure trove of potential just waiting to be explored.
Be a Part of a Digital Movement
Live video shopping is changing the landscape of the retail industry. Many shoppers are already taking their custom online, so why not add to the customer experience with what is the next big thing in retail? Be a part of a digital movement that is likely to bring major success to your retail startup if done right.
Author Bio: Natalie Redman (LinkedIn)
Email – natalieannredman92@gmail.com
Freelance writer for many clients across multiple industries. Natalie has two years of copywriting experience. Natalie has a wide range of experience copywriting web pages for businesses across many industries. She’s also an owner of two blog websites and a Youtube content creator.
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