If you think of livestream shopping in the US as a revolution, it’s a dud. Live video doesn’t cause mass purchasing by people shopping for groceries, home goods, clothes and more through a live video on the web or an app, even though TikTok, Amazon, YouTube, Meta and more are giving it their all.
But if you view it as a livestream shopping evolution, real progress is being made.
One live-video shopping ad tech company called Firework released a direct shoppability product on Wednesday, for instance, to help spur more video engagement on ecommerce and retail sites so that sellers aren’t beholden to big social platforms and Amazon.
“People get hung up on the comparison to live-video shopping in China and Asian markets,” said Rob Carliner, co-founder and COO of the DTC skincare brand Angela Caglia, who started working with Firework earlier this year and piloted the shoppable video product.
The wholesale un-revolution
Even if livestream shopping hasn’t become a mainstream purchase channel in the US, yet, it’s a pillar of the growth strategy for brands like Angela Caglia and others that are moving away from – or upending, depending on your point of view – the traditional wholesale model.
The shelves of a Sephora store or a grocery chain aisle are typically dominated by two or three huge brand operators, Carliner said. Just a little real estate is set aside for potential interesting upstarts like Angela Caglia. Spending on national TV was the (expensive) way to drive brand recognition and own purchase decisions in the moment when people are browsing the aisle. “What [live shopping] does is democratize the ability for people to sell their wares and compete on some level in a way they could never with a traditional wholesale model,” he said.
And for startup ecommerce brands, the advertising and production expenses required to show up on platforms like Meta and YouTube constitute a whole new form of wholesaling. Brands aren’t consigning inventory to Instagram, like they do with retailers that carry their merchandise. But they’re essentially paying rent to Meta and Google through advertising.
Spread the Love Foods, which makes organic peanut and other nut butters, didn’t dive into live-video shopping on Instagram, TikTok and Amazon. Those platforms cut off the first-party data connection, said President and Co-Founder Val Fishbain, who started the company with her husband nine years ago.
A livestream on Instagram or TikTok could direct someone to the brand’s site to convert, but it misses what works about live video when it’s hosted on the brand’s site instead. For instance, the video box could remain even as users browse different pages on the site, so the host (Val herself) can direct people to pages to learn about a recipe, ingredients or the brand.
Live video is a critical value prop for Spread the Love. For one thing, their peanut butter being “drizzleable” is a major differentiator from big-name PB brands, Fishbain said. Video is a way to bring that selling point to life.
The content opportunity
Live video streams can pay off, even if they aren’t driving major direct sales revenue.
Fishbain said that Spread the Love Foods said that since working with Firework earlier this year, the company has created co-marketing opportunities. One ecommerce protein powder seller, for instance, joined up with the peanut butter brand to sell a promotional bundle of peanut butter and chocolate protein mix.
The fitness company Barry’s Boot Camp carries the brand’s product as well, she said, which can be part of the livestream sell. Freshly, a meal-kit maker, also uses the brand’s product when it uses nut butters in a recipe.
Spread the Love used to pitch customers on its livestreams a way to meet the founders in their own kitchen and see recipes they use, Fishbain said. Now they always pitch an exclusive bundle or sales deal. “That was a better draw,” she said.
Then there’s the content itself.
Fishbain said the Firework livestreams will become useful marketing assets, as retailers like Walmart, which also carries its products, open up video content opportunities for brands on their ecommerce grocery service.
Carliner said that after adding the Firework streams, the brand saw metrics like average time on site rise (no surprise if people are stopping even briefly to watch a video). But it also saw that people who had seen a video were more likely to revisit the site and purchase later. In post-purchase surveys and zero-party data (like email or site comment boxes were customers can submit feedback), the livestream was often mentioned even if it wasn’t a direct purchase.
Now that the Angela Caglia brand has done a dozen or so livestreams, it’s setting up a new part of the site that’s more of a resource on skincare information and ideas, Carliner said. Livestreams become an asset on YouTube, where the videos post as well. But it means that if someone shows up to the site asking about a certain look or cosmetics with certain ingredients, it can serve the right specific piece of content.
“Anybody in the live-streaming game will tell you, it’s a challenge to drive traffic to your site for the live event itself, rather than hoping to scoop up people when you go live on Instagram or TikTok” he said. “The direct shoppability and the experience customers want is only possible when you own the live video yourself.”
