How to Strengthen Live Shopping as a Loyalty and Sales Channel

Seeing the remarkable success that live shopping has generated in China, U.S. retailers are eager to build out their own live shopping capacities to entice younger shoppers and deepen customer engagement. Although the live shopping category is expected to grow to $68 billion in the U.S. in just two years, translating the awareness that livestreams generate into conversions remains a challenge. In fact, in 2023, less than 15 percent of U.S. adults had made a purchase from a livestream shopping event.

Here’s how retailers in segments such as beauty, fashion, and grocery can develop live shopping into a loyalty and sales channel by leveraging influencers, personalized product recommendations, and gated offers.

Influencers

The instantaneous nature of live shopping goes a long way toward dynamically engaging shoppers. By leveraging influencers, brands can move beyond awareness to driving purchases.

Beauty brand Too Faced, for instance, enlists beauty influencers for its livestreams. By putting influencers front and center, Too Faced capitalizes on the equity beauty creators have with their dedicated audiences, who may be more eager to buy when they watch trusted creators try on and discuss products.

In addition to bringing their equity with audiences to the table, influencers can also help produce a sense of urgency during livestreams — especially in conjunction with short-term offers. Short-term offers, which on their own already generate a sense of FOMO for shoppers, get made to feel even more urgent when creators encourage audiences to buy right in the moment or risk missing out.

Personalized Product Recommendations

Another way for retailers to enhance live shopping as a sales and loyalty channel is through personalized product recommendations.

For example, if a sports apparel retailer such as Champs Sports were to host a livestream, it could feature a chat function with an artificial intelligence-driven bot that responds to viewer questions with tailored product recommendations that ease the path toward conversion. Such a feature would be especially advantageous for enticing Gen Z shoppers, nearly half of whom desire personalized product recommendations online.

To re-engage consumers after live shopping events, retailers can send follow-up recommendations to viewers who left comments that complement items shown during livestreams.

Gated Offers

To further personalize shopper experiences during or after livestreams, retailers should look to gated offers. Gated offers reward customers for their membership to an identity group, including educational and professional status, and encourage them to see a retailer as their advocate.

Let’s say Kroger were to host a livestream showcasing its cookware offerings. During or after the livestream, the retailer could share a 15 percent off discount for college students. By sharing this customized offering, Kroger would support students, likely first-time cookware shoppers, build up their independence, and help them explore the joy of cooking. In addition to building brand affinity, gated offers also generate user data that retailers can use to retarget shoppers, either with ads or more exclusive discounts.

By maximizing the medium’s persuasiveness with influencers, enhancing live shopping experiences with personalized product recommendations, and further solidifying personalization with gated offers, retailers will fashion live shopping into a channel that drives not just attention but purchases, which is ultimately what live shopping is all about.

Sai Koppala is the chief marketing officer at SheerID, the market leader in identity attribute verification.