Whether you are a retailer or shopping center, it is now a smart idea to start live streaming from your retail premises in order to attract customers and increase sales.
Retail Live Streaming is Becoming a Global Trend
Most of us associate live streaming with gaming and entertainment, but in China retail live streaming has become a major trend after COVID-19.
According to Chongqing Morning Post, in the first half of 2020, the market size of live streaming in China soared up to 456.12 billion yuan, predicted to attain 971.23 billion yuan, compared with 19.64 billion yuan in 2017. The growth rate of 2020 is about 119%.
Moreover, a report from Dianshang Bao stated that the number of live streaming users in 2019 had reached 309 billion, which is 34.2% of the total internet users in China. This shows that live streaming in China has become a part of mainstream internet use.
Globally, this kind of shopping generated 60 billion dollars in sales in 2019 and should almost double this year, according to Coresight.
Big companies are investing, too. Amazon has a streaming platform, which hosts daily shows on fitness, makeup, and cooking. Facebook started rolling out a live selling feature to its platforms, including Instagram.
What is Retail Live Streaming?
Retail Live Streaming is very similar to the good old-fashioned shopping television channels, but today it is done in real-time on social networks and e-commerce platforms.
Retail live streaming allows almost anyone, store owners, celebrities, or influencers, to broadcast products from stores online and give their viewers a chance to immediately purchase the items from embedded links.
It is a great way to keep customers informed about new products and even finalize sales immediately.
Shopping centers can use live streaming to entice customers to visit their malls and to generally keep them informed about events and deals.
Broadcasting live also adds an emotional connection to online shopping, as it gives customers a chance to engage with the seller through live chat.
So why now?
The coronavirus pandemic has pushed more people online and changed consumer behavior. This has inspired companies to invest in e-commerce and web marketing, but also to think about new cost-effective ways to beat the online competition and to increase sales.
Live streaming has proven to be successful at increasing how often a purchase is made because there’s more product information than in traditional ads, and it can keep customers engaged for hours. A customer can ask in real-time the seller to show specific products from different angles and ask questions about the materials, just as if they were in the store.
As the pandemic restrictions are unlikely to go away soon, it is now time to bring the physical store experience to online viewers, and there is no easier way to do that than to use live broadcasting features on popular social media platforms.
