There are so many things to think about when you’re getting started with livestream shopping.

Purpose:

The purpose of this article is to understand what it takes to be an amazing livestream shopping hosts.

Audience:

Brand Managers/Influencers

🤝 BE ON THE SHOPPERS’ TEAM

Cultivate a mindset of being on the same team as your audience. Of course, you want to believe in the product you’re selling, but even small things can break down trust, like ignoring questions, negative reviews, or viewer feedback.

💁 BE INFORMATIVE (BUT NOT SALESY)

Position yourself as someone who helps the customer make a decision. It’s not about convincing the audience to buy, it’s about informing the audience about the product. Always share the who, what, where, when, and why of a product to give shoppers the chance to virtually try it before they buy. Once you show off the product, you can let the viewer decide on their own and incentivize them with discount codes to push through the purchasing funnel.

👋 CONNECT WITH THE AUDIENCE AUTHENTICALLY

A huge part of success is a down-to-earth and approachable persona. Dressing casually, unscripted streams. Relate to your audience like you’re talking to a friend.

🧑‍🏫 RECOGNIZE THE VALUE OF EXPERTISE

You don’t have to fit the concept of an “influencer” to host a successful shoppable live-streamed event: expertise is valuable. Being knowledgeable about the product and coming off as an industry expert is key to building trust with your audience.

💐 GET CREATIVE TO MAKE STREAMS SPECIAL AND ON-BRAND

Bloomingdale’s is a luxury department store, so it stands to reason that Bloomingdale's live e-commerce would be equally luxurious. For this event, the team got creative to make the stream feel elegant and exclusive. Viewers who signed up in advance were sent complimentary macarons to enjoy during the stream.
For your streams, get creative to make the audience feel special. That can mean anything from sending ahead a sample kit to simply thanking viewers by name during the livestream!

🤫 SNEAK PREVIEWS BUILD EXCITEMENT

Letting your audience know that tuning in can mean sneak peeks and product reveals can help grow your viewership and promote an exciting stream. During one of our streams with ONEBONE, they teased just a piece of the fabric in the beginning of the stream but did not do a full reveal. This kept the audience guessing and waiting for more.

📈 TEST AND ITERATE TO IMPROVE YOUR LIVESTREAMS

Play to creator strengths, giving their influencer partners room to bring their personality and flavor to the streams;
Provide a dynamic experience to keep viewers engaged;
Show their products and items in action so viewers can “try” before they buy.

These are good live shopping tips across the board, but the point is there’s no single formula that’s going to work for every brand or livestream shopping host. Pay attention to sales, viewer and engagement numbers, and audience feedback to find what works best for you.

🤳 MEET YOUR AUDIENCE WHERE THEY ARE

As you probably know, social media audience demographics vary by platform. It’s more challenging to find older fans on TikTok, and younger fans aren’t as likely to be on Facebook.

With LyveCom you can simultaneously broadcast your streams out to socials like TikTok, FB Live, Youtube, or Twitch. You can also use streaming tools like OBS to have additional professional streaming grade functionality/overlays.

💃🕺SPECIAL GUESTS BOOST THE ENERGY

What’s more interesting: one person delivering a monologue or two people having a conversation?

Adding co-Livestream-hosts (or special guests) is great for boosting energy and engagement. If you can’t find a guest to join your stream in person, you can use OBS to have 2-hosts in a single stream.

👍❤️😂INTERACT WITH YOUR AUDIENCE TO KEEP THEM ENGAGED

Have fun and interact with your viewers. Ask them questions, tell them to spam chat, or choose a winner for giveaways.

This kind of interactivity is what makes livestream shopping unique. Give your audience every opportunity to engage. Encourage questions!

💃🕺LOOKING FOR LIVE SHOPPING HOSTS

Depending on your audience, it is best to look for influencers within your niche (or relevant niche) with high engagement. Think about where your audience is, are they on TikTok, Youtube, or Instagram? Your host following should be on those relevant platforms where your audience is. You want to aim for influencers with high engagement and a solid follower base (10k-1M+) depending on the campaign you’re running. We like to aim for higher engagement influencers of 5%+.

Updated on: 26/10/2022