How livestream shopping marketplaces are trying to become mainstream

Experts agree that as live video shopping evolves, the apps most likely to succeed will be those that can nurture fervent engagement with their creators. “Larger platforms will copy features, so livestreaming as the value proposition will not be enough,” said Rachel Tipograph, founder and CEO of Mikmak, an e-commerce marketing platform whose client... See more

While this motivation may be latent—even subconscious, for most—in the U.S., it’s an economic driver that’s well understood in China, fueling a thriving video ecommerce market. In Asia, the powerful force of video entertainment shopping has spawned a livestream ecommerce industry akin to professional movie production. It’s more than a place where a... See more

Livestreaming as a medium is a conflation of a product as well as as a distribution channel. It exists on a spectrum of being pure entertainment on one-side and a new go-to-market strategies on the other, with different kinds of monetisation models for each side. While western startups have centred around the 'livestreaming as product' theme, China... See more

While the shopping habits of different cultures may differ, younger consumers, regardless of where they live, are similar in how they use social media to connect. Livestreaming taps into that trait because, unlike the shopping channel model, it gives viewers the ability to have a two-way conversation with the host, said Alessandro Bogliari, co-foun... See more

“From the consumer side of things, the appetite for that live content increased right at the same time” as when retailers were attempting to find interactive methods to put products in front of consumers, said Matt Moorut, senior principal analyst at Gartner. “It sort of makes a perfect storm where, from both sides of the equation, there’s more of ... See more