From scrolling to stopping and shopping, platforms are leaning more into live ecommerce trends. Especially during the holiday season, the live shopping events for brands and creators are as numerous as the holiday lights you see.
With last year’s developments, users don’t have to leave social media to buy gifts. The platforms have helped put the bow on top of these online gifts and send them off, all without switching apps.
Amazon helped pave the way for live shopping back in July 2020 when they added shoppable livestreams and welcomed influencers to profit off of them.
Instagram and Facebook debuted live shopping features soon after in August 2020, after testing the successful Shop page on both platforms.
Here are the latest updates on the top platform’s social commerce efforts.
Recently, Meta’s Facebook has announced several ecommerce features: Shops in Groups, product recommendations, and a test of Live Shopping for Creators.
Shops in Groups allows the admins to set up an online store on their page, and top product recommendations from groups will appear within users’ news feeds.
Live Shopping for Facebook influencer marketing creators is one of the efforts that Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced to further creator and commerce tools. It’s committed to not taking a cut from the profit of businesses and creators until 2023.
Instagram said it all:
“On Fridays in November, (November 5, 12, 19) look out for the #BuyBlack Live Shopping series to discover brands from talented Black creators. From December 5 – 15, we’re hosting a Holiday Pop-Up Shop LIVE series. Picture the magic and charm of a holiday market, but from the comfort of your couch.”
To help retailers, Instagram is offering 20% off to users’ that are purchasing for the first time in the app.
Additionally, Instagram is launching new Gift Guides specifically by price category on the Shop tab, which will also be a place to get new tips from the Instagram Shop team on key seasonal trends and recommendations. You can access these new features by tapping “Holiday Picks” on the Shop tab in the Instagram app.
TikTok
The hashtag #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt now has over 7 billion views.
According to TikTok’s recent Culture Driver study with Flamingo, 56% of users and 67% of creators say they feel closer to brands they see on TikTok – mainly when they publish human, unpolished content. What’s more human than humans?
On December 3, American Eagle partnered with TikTok influencers to host its live shopping event, like mega-star Addison Rae and Outer Banks actor Chase Stokes. The average watch time for the live stream was almost 11 minutes.
Ulta Beauty is another brand that has hosted live shopping events on TikTok with featured products just in time for the holidays.
@davidlopezzzAhhh! I’m going to be hosting a LIVE shopping livestream over on @ultabeauty with all my fave beauty brands 🥺😍 see you there! #ultabeauty♬ original sound – davidlopezzz
Currently, TikTok Live features include scheduling and promoting events, live Q&A, and a co-streaming option for users with 5,000 followers or more. During a live, users have the option to be directed to a direct mobile checkout.
Pinterest TV is the newest way this platform is getting behind the ecommerce trend. Each episode stars a Pinterest influencer marketing personality ranging from beauty, food, home, and more. During the show, influencers can tag products and offer exclusive discounts.
Earlier this year, Pinterest came out with shoppable pins that let creators earn a profit when they tagged and sold products on their Pinterest posts.
YouTube
Its 2 billion users are already used to coming to this platform for unboxings, makeup and cooking tutorials, and in-depth product reviews. Its long-form content makes it the most similar to popular livestream shopping apps.
To no surprise, influencer marketing on YouTube branched out in its Livestream shopping features with the week-long YouTube Holiday Stream and Shop event. Users could connect with their favorite creators like Gordon Ramsay, MrBeast, and Patrick Starrr. These livestreams allow viewers to shop for products directly from the live video.
“Heading into 2022, YouTube will continue building and investing in shopping, including features for video on demand and personalized shopping. We’ll continue learning through these events and experimenting with new formats. In fact, on November 17, we will premiere a new shoppable film featuring products from Black-owned businesses that you can purchase. Our goal is to create a fun and compelling shopping experience for our viewers that addresses the growing demand for social e-commerce while strengthening the unique relationship YouTube creators have with their fans.”
– Wendy Yang, Product Designer, YouTube Shopping
Twitter joined the growing trend. Not only can influencers go live and share integrated shopping links, but there is now dedicated space at the top of a Twitter profile to list products. They previously launched this feature back in 2011, but it failed. Now that Livestream shopping is taking off, shoppable features on Twitter are back.
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Not only are shoppers having direct interactions with store owners and influencers, but chatting live with fellow shoppers, who often have shared interests.
“Social media is all about building connections with people. I think during the pandemic, we saw that need that people had to build relationships, and when you’re doing live shopping, you’re forced to feel that because you’re interacting with a person that’s talking about a product or promoting it, which is very different from just going to a website and seeing a skew of a product on a white background and just reading about it. This is a much more personal way of experiencing it.”
– Eric Dahan, Open Influence CEO
Live Shopping is only going to continue into 2022. TO STAY UP-TO-DATE AND ON-TREND, FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA, OR REACH OUT TO GET STARTED WORKING WITH US.
