How Live Video is Redefining the Consumer Engagement Experience on E-commerce Platforms

How Live Video is Redefining the Consumer Engagement Experience on E-commerce Platforms
With e-commerce now a part of mainstream retail, livestream shopping can facilitate greater customer satisfaction while benefitting both brands and buyers.

By Nitya sharma , Co-Founder and CEO of Simpl

10 Nov 2022 | 8 min read

Today, most consumers base their shopping on choice and convenience. Thanks to the pandemic, shoppers across India have been viewing e-commerce platforms as their go-to shopping mode. A Deloitte report notes that as digital infrastructure grows pan-India, e-commerce is poised to touch $200 billion by 2026, capturing 11.14 percent of the country’s total retail market.

Moreover, the report reveals that e-commerce shoppers are slated to account for half of the online cohorts in 2026, with substantial demand coming from tier II and tier III regions. This is not surprising since consumers can now research, browse, buy and pay for their purchases via multiple channels. 

D2C and Consumer Engagement

Thanks to evolving digital infrastructure, new consumer cohorts are willing to try out novel products while preferring brands that provide personalized, direct engagements. Capitalizing on these trends, an array of D2C (direct-to-consumer) players have entered the market, disrupting the traditional retail model, especially in segments such as beauty and personal care, healthcare, lifestyle, food, and beverages. 

The D2C ecosystem has benefitted from various tailwinds such as cheap data, increasing connectivity, rising urbanization, novel payment models, and easy-to-establish tech platforms that have given a fillip to digital commerce. 

No doubt, the pandemic has altered consumer behavior irrevocably. As Web 3.0 unfolds worldwide, decentralization is being driven by the open web in every segment. This is dramatically transforming the way consumers discover products, engage with brands and then make a purchase.  

The new age economy is dominated by Gen Z and millennial groups, triggering a cascading degree of the competition alongside consumers’ dipping attention spans. Given these constraints, brands must deploy powerful digital tools that can capture and captivate consumers to ensure greater conversions. 

As a result, in meeting rising expectations, brands are using hyper-personalization and blended retail experiences combining both legacy and new-age tools to promote higher sales since consumers spend more time online. 

Live Video Shopping

However, merely offering blended retail or digital engagement options may not completely satisfy customers. Consequently, conventional brands face rising challenges as consumers expect seamless digital experiences that rival in-store engagements. Keeping consumer sentiments in mind as well as adapting to evolving consumer habits and matching the power of physical interactions, brands are using live video shopping tools. Through live video, brands can offer a seamless online buying journey along with in-store service that provides customers with an enjoyable shopping experience. 

The live video experience also includes livestream shopping, which enables customers to purchase products directly via video. Also termed livestream e-commerce, livestream shopping comprises live video content backed by two-way communication, which allows viewers to buy featured items directly from the portal. 

Some varied benefits of livestream shopping that enhance the online consumer experience include: 

Offering Real-Time Engagement: With live video or live streaming, prospective shoppers can connect easily with the brand. The real-time audience can then exchange messages about the product to enhance their brand knowledge. As brands interact directly with consumers, the chances of sales conversion are much higher. 

Augmenting Audience Potential: While brick-and-mortar outlets have limited space, brands can reach out to tens of thousands of potential customers via live streaming. Their only requirement is a good internet connection. 

Capitalizing on Impulse Buying: Online shoppers can be influenced by herd instinct. When people witness others buying an item or favoring a particular brand during the livestream, they are also nudged into buying the products. Impulse buying can be more powerful if an influencer recommends the product. 

Boosting Cost-Effectiveness: To convert potential customers into buyers, live streaming is emerging as a cost-effective model for brands. All it requires is investing in the right influencers or celebrities for the product streaming. 

Curating Blended Retail Experiences: In providing consumers with a blended retail experience, live video shopping plays a pivotal role. Retailers offering a blended experience must be easily accessible across all sales channels. Most online shoppers research the products before buying. To crosscheck the online product reviews, buyers will visit YouTube and check the recommendations of influencers they trust. Through live video shopping, a brand can be at the forefront of online searches. Once buyers visit a brand’s website, based on data insights from their past behavior, consumers can be offered bespoke experiences and guided through the relevant product inventory. 

Brands could also leverage the BOPIS (buy online, pickup in-store) strategy, whereby consumers can check and buy the product online, thereafter picking up the item from the nearest store. In essence, through the blended retail experience, a consumer’s journey could begin with a video call, lead to an online purchase but conclude with an in-store pickup. 

Providing a Personalized Touch: Replicating in-store experiences apart, live videos are powered by data-driven actions. Therefore, brands can customize the selling approach, making their customers feel valued and special. Smooth sales conversions will then become more frequent.  

In a nutshell, as consumers seek a more immersive and engaging shopping experience, live videos can cater to the interests of buyers as well as brands. With e-commerce now a part of mainstream retail, livestream shopping can facilitate greater customer satisfaction while benefitting both brands and buyers. 
 

Today, most consumers base their shopping on choice and convenience. Thanks to the pandemic, shoppers across India have been viewing e-commerce platforms as their go-to shopping mode. A Deloitte report notes that as digital infrastructure grows pan-India, e-commerce is poised to touch $200 billion by 2026, capturing 11.14 percent of the country’s total retail market.

Moreover, the report reveals that e-commerce shoppers are slated to account for half of the online cohorts in 2026, with substantial demand coming from tier II and tier III regions. This is not surprising since consumers can now research, browse, buy and pay for their purchases via multiple channels. 

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