Live shopping: When should retailers brave its murky waters?

A multipack of toilet rolls gently rotating on a plinth, a rail full of coat hangers adorned with hair extensions and a woman with four electric massage machines strapped to her legs, all furiously wobbling in unison. These are just some of the sights you’ll be greeted with if you decide to scroll through a live-shopping app today.  

It might sound like a ropey virtual market stall right now, but livestream shopping has been hailed as one of the most promising new retail channels, already capturing the attention of many established brands around the world, which have committed to growing their live audience. 

However, the concept is in its infancy in the UK and there are questions around whether the phenomenon will catch on here long term. So when is the right time for big retailers to brave the murky waters of livestream shopping?

Live and kicking

Technically, live shopping is nothing new in the UK. Master of the shopping channel QVC has been on the go here since the early 90s and remains a successful business today.

The latest iteration of live shopping on social media apps and online is in its infancy in the UK, but the channel is growing quickly.

In fact, the market for livestream shopping is predicted to reach a hefty £5bn next year by live-shopping tool Sprii.

The top dog in this space is TikTok, which initially launched livestream shopping to its app in December 2021 before staffing issues caused it to pull back and relaunch last year.

Facebook and Instagram owner Meta also has live-shopping capabilities, but unlike on TikTok, shoppers have to leave the app to pay for their goods – which is said to have lost the tech giant the edge over its rival.

According to a survey of UK shoppers by the Retail Technology Show, users now make 10 purchases a year on TikTok, compared with nine on Meta channels.

This figure rises to 19 purchases a year through TikTok for Gen-Z Brits, versus 18 on Instagram and 15 on Facebook.

In the US, a market that has adopted TikTok more widely, TikTok Shop accounted for more than 68% of social shopping gross merchandise value in February this year, according to Emarketer. Meanwhile, livestream shopping app Whatnot, which also now operates in the UK, captured 31%.

These are exciting numbers for retailers looking for new ways to reach shoppers – and younger ones in particular – but adoption has been relatively modest in the UK so far, with only a handful of big brands giving it a bash.

“It’s only in the last six months that live shopping is becoming more and more prevalent here, so it’s an exciting time in the space”

Steven Hubbard, Sprii

“There are very few brands in the UK doing it because it’s so new here,” says Sprii non-executive director Steven Hubbard, the entrepreneur behind shopping channels Bid Up TV and Price Drop.

“It’s only in the last six months that live shopping is becoming more and more prevalent here, so it’s an exciting time in the space and I do believe in the next year it will be a £5bn industry in the UK alone.”

When it comes to UK retailers getting involved, Hubbard points to Joules, which ran its first livestream shopping events in April through social media channels, and M&S, which has been testing out the format.

“It’s not the small guys at all,” says Hubbard. “It’s very much the larger high street brands that are looking at it.

“In the Nordics, there are people like Flying Tiger Copenhagen, which is doing phenomenally well with live shopping and is extremely well regarded, as is The Body Shop.”

In on the action

So what is putting Brits off? According to Shahnaz Ahmed, director of creative and innovation at global media agency Social Element, it is down to a combination of factors.

“It’s a mixture of retailers being spread quite thin, not really knowing where they should be putting their ecommerce efforts, and also not understanding the full opportunity of live shopping because it’s still fairly new,” she says.

“In order to get started, if you’re a really big brand, you’ve got to pull the whole team together and make sure your ecommerce, marketing and product teams are all aligned. You have to think about who your influencers are going to be, who your presenters are and if they’re aligned with the brand.

“It’s a big thing to shift and it can genuinely be quite stressful – and then there’s a risk if anything goes wrong.”

To alleviate some of these fears, there are now several livestream shopping tools on the market that promise retailers a seamless and professional approach to the channel. These include comment filters and the ability to host across social media channels such as Instagram and Facebook simultaneously with a brand’s website.

However, the same in-stream purchase capability that has given TikTok an edge over Meta has created a closed loop with streaming, so any retailer looking to make that platform their home will have to weigh up whether the staggering usage rates are worth relinquishing a bit of control and polish.

“The person presenting could say the wrong thing or a commenter could call someone out – it’s live engagement – but there’s an upside to that”

Shahnaz Ahmed, Social Element 

Taking the TikTok route may mean a higher likelihood that people seeing the stream are not fans of the brand or in the market for its products. There is also no guarantee that the retailer will be positioned alongside their typical high street stablemates as opposed to small-time traders, who could be behaving less than professionally.

“With live shopping, there’s an enticement there that things could go wrong,” says Ahmed. “The person presenting could say the wrong thing or a commenter could call someone out – it’s live engagement with the community – but there’s an upside to that, too.

“For example, the founder of Never Fully Dressed comes up on TikTok and Instagram alongside a model and is talking to the camera, as you may have once done on QVC. She’ll dress this person and demonstrate lots of different ways to style their products while talking directly to her potential customers. So that feels very real and effective.”

Daniel Fisher, UK general manager at Whatnot, concurs that the live element makes the experience feel more authentic for buyers.

“You can see who’s selling to you and have that direct relationship with them, so there’s a level of transparency, which is very positive in online shopping,” he says.

“Because we focus on communities who are passionate about these products, we find that the communities are amazing there. They’re friendly environments and they self-regulate.”

“There are some inherent things about live shopping that people are starting to tune into. It has a community element people are probably missing”

Daniel Fisher, Whatnot

According to research by Whatnot, almost four in 10 Brits think live shopping is more trustworthy than online shopping because they can see the products live before committing to a purchase.

In addition, more than a third appreciate being able to ask questions live so they can make more informed decisions.

“There are some inherent things about live shopping itself that people are starting to tune into,” says Fisher.

“You get this personal connection and trust, not just between buyers and sellers, but also among the buyer base. It has a community element that I think people are probably missing as the high street is declining.

“A lot of people struggled through the pandemic with the loss of bricks and mortar, so people are looking for that interaction and face-to-face experience.”

Ahead of the curve

Though there are still some quirks to consider, all signs point towards now being the right time to get involved with live shopping.

Adoption is growing and, as more established brands join and build out the environment, the quality of the retailers involved should improve.

“It definitely is becoming more normal to be watching and shopping within video environments, rather than still environments,” says Sprii’s Hubbard.

“Live shopping is going to be the natural evolution of the digital retail world and will really enhance the customer experience to make it much more engaging.

“It’s also an amazing, incremental opportunity for retailers, the conversion rates are much higher, people spend a lot more and they come back a lot more frequently. The lifetime value of a customer is three or four times what it would be normally through the live commerce environment. It’s very powerful.”

With a predicted share of £5bn sitting on the live-shopping platform by next year alone, building an audience before the curve hits an arc is probably worth braving some spinning toilet paper for.