Digital is now, and with it comes live video shopping. With e-commerce being the norm, brands are finding new ways to form a personal connection with their digital consumers.
The love child of video commerce and live commerce, live video shopping enables brands to have a personal video interaction with their consumers in real time on their own website site. It is designed to give your consumers a personal brand experience.
There are two subtypes of Live Video Shopping, one-to-one video shopping and one-to-many. Software providers such as Uptok focus on one-to-one. This method enables brand representatives to “facetime” with an individual digital customer directly on the brand's own website. While providers of one-to-many, such as Bambuser or Instagram Live allow brands to live stream directly from their site or social media page to a large audience.
Plenty of industry leaders currently use live commerce to engage in real-time with their virtual consumers. For example, Lululemon extends a virtual shopping experience to their consumers. Their experience is focused on 1:1 and allows clients to “shop virtually with a product expert” via video chat.
Then you have the major DTC intimate apparel brand Adore Me who utilizes the one-to-many, “live stream shopping”. Adore Me hosts live shopping events in order to connect with their customers and better assist them when making a purchase.
The retail giant Nordstrom uses both one-to-one and on-to-many on their own website. Nordstrom debuted live stream shopping events to their site in March of 2021 along with virtual 1:1 video styling appointments.
Live video selling or digital sales reps has been adapted by many. It helps brands to demonstrate products in use, make recommendations, and answer questions in real-time. This offers a number of benefits for both the consumer and the brand eager to connect.
Uptok is a SaaS provider that offers an intelligent, entirely customizable 1:1 video chat solution. Their software delivers a comprehensive on-screen experience that gives valuable shopper insights without compromising on an individual’s data privacy. Highly intuitive with robust functionality, this live selling solution is affordable for all sized companies. Their 1:1 video software focuses on giving brands the opportunity for real time customer engagement.
An ideal solution for businesses whose goals are to mix commerce intelligence with customer intelligence to provide a highly personalized consumer experience.
The leader in one-to-many Bambuser has a track record of excellence when it comes to enabling video shopping capabilities. This live commerce software works primarily in the one-to-many space. They offer a live streaming solution which allows brands to live stream to users directly from their site. The tech options are polished, user-friendly and they integrate with any e-commerce platform.
Bambuser is an ideal solution for businesses with a goal to actively stream to a global audience directly from their own website.
Companies who already use the Klarna platform can now get the benefits of HERO shopping. Klarna recently acquired Hero and added video calling to their “all-in-one virtual shopping solution”. This solution is a great enhancement to traditional e-commerce, but it does not offer audience targeting and is lacking in customization options.
Hero is an ideal app for companies who are exploring video chat and are already working with Klarna for payments.
The Talkative real-time platform allows you to transcend the limitations of chatbots and give a more personalized experience. Talkative offers 1-on-1 interactions between virtual customers and brands through a variety of options, AI virtual assistance, live chat, 1:1 video, and social media messaging.
Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms online today, and millions of people visit it for product recommendations and interaction with their favorite brands. Their Instagram Live feature is a leader when it comes to real-time customer engagement. Shop owners and influencers alike can create live broadcasts to their audiences directly from their instagram accounts. However, only followers and guests who are on the platform itself can interact in this way, which limits your reach directly from your store’s website.
Powerfront, focuses on enterprise retail solutions and top brands who need to make an exceptional impression. This app enables retailers to create an omnichannel customer experience that enhances brand reputation and enables real-time customer engagement. With Powerfront’s technology retail reps can engage with online customers from in-store via video. Additionally, in store reps have access to a online customer's journey, searches, basket and history all with no integration.
What Works Best For You?
After exploring live video shopping platforms and learning their functionality, you can find the one that is right for you. Luckily the majority of the brands mentioned offer free two week trials, so why wait? Explore new ways to engage with digital customers and reap the benefits.