Not just hype: Winning consumers with live commerce

Watching and shopping on streams have also become more common here, as close to 70% of consumers in Southeast Asia access and purchase products through live streams. As live commerce grows in popularity, brands should explore how streaming can play a more integral role in helping them satisfy consumer needs and meet their overall retail objectives. 

Make live commerce work for your brand 

Brands and sellers new to live commerce may think of live streams as a tool for short-term gains, using them to make products go viral or to drive one-off, impulse purchases. However, as consumers get used to shopping across multiple channels, marketers must consider these three points to determine how to live commerce can help them achieve longer-term goals: 

1. Who is the target audience of the streams 
2. How do these consumers make purchase decisions 
3. Where are these consumers in their customer journey 

Depending on their goals, brands can choose to use live streams in different ways. For instance, a big FMCG brand looking to drive immediate purchases during a mega sales campaign can double down on deals and offer steep discounts on streams. On the other hand, educational and informative streams may be helpful for beauty brands introducing new products that target customers who generally do more research before making a purchase. 

In the long run, brands that understand what their target audience is looking for in a live stream can help them make better purchase decisions and nurture loyal customers who will return to learn and engage more with the brand. 

Three simple tips for a successful stream 

With an understanding of who they wish to target and what objectives they want to achieve, brands can optimise the way they plan and conduct live streams. In brief, here are three building blocks of a successful stream. 

Getting the right host 

Having the right host on the stream can make all the difference. Brands that are worried about keeping viewers engaged can tap on seasoned hosts who are experienced and trained to keep online audiences entertained. 

Reaching the right audience 

Make it a match! When live streaming, brands should always explore and leverage features that boost their streams to their target consumers. These tools include push notifications that promote streams ahead of time and streaming opportunities on widely followed channels such as a platform’s official accounts. 

Using the right price-related marketing tools 

Reward viewers and be rewarded. We found that almost a third of viewers watch streams for a chance to redeem rewards and vouchers. By offering stream-exclusive deals, brands can more effectively spur viewership and drive conversions. 

But brands should not view live streams as a standalone feature and instead explore how this powerful engagement tool can be integrated with other e-commerce levers to meet their commercial goals. An excellent way to approach this is by thinking about how to live commerce can be used with microsites, vouchers, and even games to create more impactful consumer campaigns. 

Earlier this year, Vivo launched its new smartphone series with an integrated e-commerce campaign across multiple touchpoints, such as microsites, news, and social media platforms. To better appeal to mobile gamers, they also engaged Mu’adz, an experienced electronics host in Malaysia, to conduct a thorough product demonstration through live streaming. In addition, by tapping different tools and features on e-commerce platforms, Vivo engaged consumers across their purchasing journey, achieving a five times increase in viewership and a three times jump in orders compared to their average streams. 

Leveraging live commerce for sustained performance 

While live commerce offers the perfect meld of entertainment and retail, brands and sellers need to take a consumer-centric approach and constantly optimise their streams to meet different consumer needs. Furthermore, as shopping becomes a multi-channel activity, brands will have to strategically integrate live streams with other retail touchpoints to maximise their returns for the long term. 

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Huiyan Pan is the regional marketing lead at Shopee.