Your following steps (with smart tips)

After having chosen the relevant partner influencer it’s time to solve the following issues.

1. Choose the date and time. For the first time it’s better not to choose popular dates like Black Fridays.
2. Decide on no more than 10 products for live shopping promotion. They can be either your bestsellers, or new products you want to launch.
3. Select the platform where your first live shopping event is going to be hosted. As it was mentioned above, there are three ways: your own website (for this you’ll need special app tools), social media platform, or a marketplace.
4. Determine a format. It will depend on the type of your product and on your creativity. Apart from the already mentioned formats, we can add to the list apartment tours, quizzes, interviews with experts, live game sessions, “behind-the-scenes” events where you can unveil, for example,how your products are being produced, or how your employees are preparing an order. Moreover you can invent something new in partnership with a highly creative influencer!

More smart options to make your first live shopping event be a success

Include special promotional offers

Sharing discount codes, special for live viewers and limited in time, are necessary to attract potential purchasers. The “fear of missing out” can become a good motivator for consumers. Unique offers (be it a discount, a limited-edition product, or a free product with an order – whatever) make people feel rewarded for having spent their time participating in your livestream shopping event. 

Leverage giveaways

Organizing a giveaway game will make viewers attend the event till the end.

Repurpose the record of your live shopping event

Make use of the record and post it on your accounts so that consumers can get acquainted with your products in such a format. You can also cut the livestream show into small clips and include them into other promotional materials.

Give priority to engagement with your audience

According to Shopify’s tips for a successful social selling strategy, you should “listen first, and sell later”. The goal is to have authentic conversations with your followers and consumers, and not to be too ‘salesy’. If you don’t pay attention to people’s comments and questions during your livestreams, your efforts won’t produce the desired effect. 

Ilia Mundut, HeftyBerry’s (interior decorations brand) founder and CEO says: “You need to prioritize authenticity and engagement above all else. By creating an interactive experience for customers where they can ask questions and provide feedback in real-time, you create a sense of community around your brand that drives loyalty.”

Start organizing the following live shopping event!

Brands can turn livestream events into a meeting point with their community. Organize your live broadcasts on different occasions regularly so that consumers are looking for new opportunities to connect with your brand.

BENEFITS OF LOOPING LIVE SHOPPING INTO YOUR INFLUENCER MARKETING CAMPAIGN

Finally, let’s talk about tangible benefits you can leverage from running shoppable livestreams in cooperation with influencers. 

Your customers get better informed and engaged with your brand

It takes you less time to inform, educate and inspire customers with your products within a livestream shopping event. The viewers can get so much information at once! At the same time they can ask a brand’s representative all the relevant questions. Such conversations automatically increase the level of engagement, help to build a connection between the company and its clients, and make your target audience more loyal to your brand. 

The sales cycle is shortened

During a live shopping event a consumer jumps very quickly from product discovery to product acquisition. Many factors entail this shortening of a sales cycle: 

• desire to buy that appears from an entertaining product presentation;
• reassurance elements such as tests, Q&A provided in real time, expert advice, etc;
• announcing that special promo offers are limited in time. 

Higher conversion rates and lower return rates

Most brands note an increase in website traffic and the overall conversion rates during and after a live shopping event. A live shopping platform Buywith ensures an 8 times increase in conversions, a 10 times higher ROI, and a 40% engagement growth.

Automatically, return rates decrease as consumers get more sure about the products they buy. When a purchase is made via a livestream, the returns are 40% lower, according to Coresight research. “Live streaming is an opportunity to educate the consumer, which is why returns are so much lower—they actually know what they’re buying,” says Coresight’s CEO

Deborah Weinswig.

Giving customers the confidence in products they buy

Viewers naturally become more confident about their purchase decisions. That is the thing that makes livestream shopping such a powerful selling strategy. When product experts and influencers share their real life experience about the product, they give potential customers assurance that this purchase will satisfy their needs.

WRAPPING UP LIVESTREAM SHOPPING

Initially originated in China and more popular in Asian countries (as for today), livestream shopping is steadily spreading across the US and European countries. If you hesitate, it’s better to get started as soon as possible – to stand out from the competition. According to Coresight Research, the predicted livestream sales in the US will reach $35 billion by 2024. The same study revealed that regularly running live shopping events allows brands to build a repeat viewers base much easier. It helps companies build long-term trust with their clients.  

Live shopping has also become a logical step in brand-influencer relationships. Live shopping perfectly fits into influencer marketing campaigns, as influencers are exactly those ideal presenters able to host your live events. Such a format gives content creators even more freedom allowing them to show up their authentic personality. They are experts in creating engaging content, therefore they can help a brand develop an original concept for a live shopping event. 

But at the same time it becomes more important to choose the relevant influencers from potential candidates. Sometimes even the best content creators are not comfortable in front of cameras in a live format. Thus, it’s a matter of priority to find the most suitable influencer who will be loyal to your products or services and will be ready to meet your brand values and ideas. If you want to know how to loop live shopping into your influencer marketing campaigns, then make haste and contact our proficient influencer marketing agency. Here at Famesters we use all our expertise and knowledge for the benefit of your influencer marketing campaigns. We’re looking forward to developing the best campaign for your brand!