6 Tips on Getting Started with Livestream Shopping

Promotions usually relegated to traditional channels of email or SMS marketing. While these can bring about urgency and success depending on how they are executed, they often may not be ‘real time’ enough. With Labor Day Weekend, Back to School sales and the onslaught of Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and more, it is simple for brands to get started with livestream shopping around the holiday season. Use it to create buzz around a promotion and run the promotion exclusively on a livestream to watch sales stack up in real time. Then, use social media to publicize the event and have a countdown leading up to it.

I remember when product launches used to be on lavish sets or seemed like movie premieres. ow, clocking up to a live and building the anticipation to drop a new line or product is best suited for livestreams versus a PR announcement. We’ve seen Beauty brands do this aplenty over summer, for example through our partnership with Ulta Beauty, where La Roche Posay announced during our livestream that they were the preferred sunscreen sponsor and partner for the US Open starting in September in New York. You can see the livestream snippets here.

A lot of brands and retailers speculate on getting started with livestream shopping as they fear it’s a new terrain. But just like any other marketing strategy, it is about leveraging your strengths as a brand. Use internal experts to host livestream events – a common strategy used by beauty brands who work with makeup designers and aestheticians, as we did with Jouer Cosmetics and celebrity makeup artist Stephen Moleski recently. By contrast, a fashion brand could also provide some behind the scenes which is very engaging for today’s picky customer, or use an expert to help customers shop more easily, like we have done with Hardlyeverwornit.com.

We all know our customers talk and trust influencers and content creators at varying levels, but brands and retailers are often excluded. With a livestream, we’re all in the conversation together to learn, sell and build customer loyalty. In this way, you can both visualize (in real time) or partake in the conversation between the customer and influencer, and take more immediate, actionable steps to drive conversion. Whether it is highlighting a product feature, running a flash sale, or creating a shortlist of items that match a customer profile, a livestream makes it fare easier for a brand to tailor their offerings when they are part of the conversation. And you know what helps? Roping in the founder for telling their story to the influencers, similar to what we do with Deepica Mutyala from Live Tinted and Jamie O’Banion from BeautyBio, both as our partnership with Ulta Beauty.

I am so happy that “Content is King” phrase that was coined by Bill Gates is a cliche, but it is still so important! Repurpose a 20-40 minute livestream content into endless mini, bite sized content pieces. You can use those in your social media marketing or even as video content for your product pages to help shoppers make more informed decisions. Who doesn’t love recycling and repurposing? Your marketing team will thank you, and if you are a marketer, a pat on your back!

Getting started with livestream shopping doesn’t make it a one time shot – in fact, it’s quite the opposite. It should include multiple events, something I also mentioned in my webinar with buywith, Hawke Media and ByondXR, and why optimization is key. There should be a content plan with clear goals and KPIs and everything should be tied into your overall marketing strategy. Your Lives should be promoted using other marketing channels, such as email, web marketing and social media, and the repurposed content from each Live can then support additional marketing efforts. Involve as many people in the team with the creation of the strategy in order to build it in a way that really ties together with the broader marketing strategy of your company.