How to Sell More with Influencer powered Livestream Shopping

If you’ve already heard of the potential of the livestream shopping market, you may want to get a slice of the pie for your e-commerce business. However, as is the case with most business initiatives, if you don’t do it right, it will likely not work out the way you want.

Be that as it may, should you hop on the livestream shopping trend and do it right, then the outcome will be much different. That’s what today is all about. The idea is to help you understand what you should be doing if you want to sell more at your next or your first livestream shopping event.

It’s a good idea to go to the livestream shopping routes to deliver value to potential customers, and more importantly, to attract and retain your target market, especially those within the younger demographic.

Since it’s an immersive platform, it will drive greater engagement, lead viewers to stick around longer, and on top of that drive purchases at the end.

Finally, and this is arguably one of the most important reasons, you want to lower return rates. The buyers, especially millennials and gen Z customers, will disregard things the moment they seem mildly inconvenient.

Since they often can’t see and test what they’re buying as they could in a brick-and-mortar store, there’s greater potential for disappointment when the item arrives, which leads to returns.

Since livestream shopping events are characterized by demonstrations and testing of the products in real time by the host, the viewers get to make more informed purchases. Additionally, the younger generation is simply more inclined to buy based on what celebrities such as influencers may say.

Now it’s time to direct our attention to the key areas that demand focused consideration for maximizing sales:

• The Influencer You Choose
  This one could not be more important. While having influencers partner with you on live shopping platforms is a recipe for success, simply any one of them won’t work. The person you choose must be comfortable in front of the camera, have a following that includes the people you want to reach, and be the kind of person (at least in the eye of the potential buyers) that will reflect positively and have the skills to host a livestream event. Moreover, the influencer must have the necessary hosting skills to conduct a successful livestream event. These hosting skills include the ability to multitask, navigate the site, shop products, and effectively engage with the audience. By carefully selecting an influencer with these qualities, you can increase the chances of a successful livestream shopping event that drives engagement and sales. If your audience is niche, there are consulting firms that can help you find and partner with micro and nano influencers who maintain close relationships with these small customer subsets.

• Pre-testing
  This strategy only works out if the content creator who is on camera has tried the service or product before and knows how to use it. In other words, while the influencer may be doing a demonstration on camera, there must have been some prior interaction and use of the product or service. Going this route will establish greater authority, increase trust with the viewers, and put the influencer in a position of expertise since the demonstration.
• Balancing Entertainment and Information
  While the idea is to inform potential buyers of the product, it must be done entertainingly, which is part of the reason why a content creator is usually selected. You probably want to go over the layout of the intended activities before going live. Platforms like buywith offer engaging tools and gamification features such as polls and stickers to create interactive and memorable live events.

• Discounts
  As an e-commerce store owner, you know that people love discounts, so if there were ever a time to use them to your advantage, this is it. Offer an advantageous promotional code that is exclusive to those who are on the live stream.
• Leverage Social Media
  You can’t be having an event and your customers don’t know about it. Influencers help greatly here, as they can be asked to promote the upcoming livestream as a part of the deal. Even so, you should be putting it out there for your existing followers to increase sign ups as well as establishing your brand’s innovation and to help create additional content for your brand.

As you can see, livestream shopping can be a powerful tool when done right. In conjunction with the tips given above, choosing the right platform is also essential, and this is where buywith comes in.

Not only will organizing your event be seamless, but you’ll get a platform that offers consistent delivery, a content creator marketplace, and you can even get a demo to see how it works before you commit!