Broadcasts of shopping segments have always been popular with QVC and HSN taking the lion share of the marketing. However, not many companies are taking advantage of the promotional method that has proven very successful in business in China – from cosmetics manufacturers and farmers to car and direct sales distributors.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, life as we know it is exclusively digital for the coming months – quarantine has forced hundreds of millions of residents to stay at home and switch from personal interaction with each other to online services.

The almost complete closure of brick-and-motor retail during the quarantine period is forcingmany companies to experiment and seek out new methods of selling in order to preserve the business and streaming has become one of the most successful ways to improve revenue while utilizing existing content.

What does Netflix and Quarantine have in common?People spending all their time on the internet

During quarantine, people work, play, buy, study and have fun on the Internet, which affects their behavior and habits.

• Dinner at home: cooks at popular restaurants broadcast live events and teach viewers how to cook at home.
• Sports: There has been growing interest in home fitness equipment and mobile training apps to compensate for low physical activity. Personal trainers have also translated classes online and give advice through Zoom and other applications.
• Education: Teachers conduct online lessons through broadcasts.
• Culture: A 2 hour celebrity concert took place with all the classics and new Disney theme songs. Millions tuned in to listen to Josh Groben sing from the Jungle Book and who could miss that “performance” from the scantily dressed Ariana Grande. We’ve also noticed many zoos conducted seven broadcasts, including virtual walks to make sure the zoo animals are safe and most likely board.
• Night clubs broadcast live shows and other events.

Streaming was interesting to marketers even before the pandemic and now everyone can assume that viewership has significant increased.

Some experts suggest that in 2020 the number of users of live broadcasts will increase to 526 million people, and Covid-19 will inevitably accelerate the trend. WOW, what a lot of content commerce opportunity.

Online retail entertains shoppers live: how it works with BUYLiVE

BUYLiVE is a combination of electronic purchases and direct interactions with consumers over a live broadcast.

Live broadcasts are conducted in various popular applications –like social network but most brands are more interested in integrating a shoppable live platform onto their specifically branded websites where they canown the audience experience, data and personalization efforts.

We all know how this should work, the host talks about the brand/products and mayoffer up promo codes or prizes to attract an audience.

Then the presenter goes to certain brand products, uses them or tries them on, talks about them and shows the viewers. At any time during the broadcast, viewers can click on the purchase link, for example, through a pop-up banner, and immediately pay for the order through AiBUYs integration with Google Pay, Apple Pay or Stripe. If you need a specific integration AiBUY can do that too.

These BUYLiVEeventswill soon be interactive: using chat, viewers can ask the presenter todiscuss color, size or fit. BUYLiVE broadcasts allow customers to better understand how the product looks and feels in reality, which causes more confidence.

Additionally, there may be limited time discountsoffered on broadcasts to stimulate quick orders, most often with a limited number of available goods, in order to enhance the sense of urgency and necessity among buyers.

The broadcast can either be imbedded on various website landing pages or through an influencers own channel. Special collaborations with influencers or even celebrities could prove to be a lucrative opportunity if done correctly.

For example, in 2019, Kim Kardashian joined the Wii broadcast – in a few minutes they sold 15 thousand bottles of perfume from the KKW star brand.

Big Brands Tackled Streams

The closure of offline retail, restaurants, salons and the quarantine of many business areas forced entrepreneurs and brands to switch to online platforms and stream to compensate for the drop in sales and improve interaction with customers.

The AiBUY platform directly connects buyers with the checkout process without ever leaving the content.

Restaurants

Affected restaurateurs use broadcasts to increase the number of orders for food delivery from closed restaurants. Chefs can broadcast with BUYLiVEto show viewers how to cook traditional restaurant meals, and at the same time attract them to just buy the meal direct?

In February 2020, at least 31 restaurant companies appeared on a Chinese platform to increase sales. Most often, viewers watch evening broadcasts: for example , a late night restaurant sold “tens of thousands” servings in 10 minutes – and increased sales per day by 1200% compared with a month earlier.

Cosmetic brands

Acosmetics brand temporarily closed about half of 337 stores due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In January 2020 sales in the holiday period fell by 90%, although it is traditionally a peak time for shopping, said company founder.

He estimated losses of $4.26 million per month and possible bankruptcy in two months, but decided to switch to online broadcasts with the sale of goods.

The brand trained 1,600 store employees on how to broadcast live, with about 3,000 people subscribing to the channel per day.

The CEO himself conducted a two-hour stream on Valentine’s Day – 60 thousand spectators watched it.By the end of the stream, they sold about 400 thousand bottles of moisturizing oil. Now 90% of sales are online – before it accounted for only 25%.

Bookstores

Footwear

In March 2020, a shoe retailer, which closed almost all 4,000 stores due to the Covid-19 pandemic, used Live broadcasts to take the business online.

On March 8, the brand broadcasted with the founder of the company and was watched more than 435 thousand times – it helped increase sales in flagship stores by 114% year on year.

The company also involved about 100 sellers who demonstrated products to customers. The advertising campaign was successful, and the brand planned to mobilize about 1,000 stores for another broadcast in April 2020.

Brand Attraction

Fashion brands also take part in live streams to make up for closed stores: Dior and Chanel showed live fashion shows and engaged celebrities to advertise on various social networks.

And IKEA launched a live broadcast to increaseonline sales – in the first ten minutes the stream attracted 27 thousand viewers, a total of 300, 000 people watched it.

This was the first experience of IKEA partnering with another company to sell its products – usually the company relied on its showrooms and offline stores, which were closed due to quarantine, Charged Retail notes.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the popularity of “live commerce” opportunities has continued to grow, as people are still afraid to go to retail stores, showrooms or restaurants.

Research firm Coresight says buyers will rely more on live broadcasts and video shopping experiences to buy things, and this will become their habit – and after quarantine ends, streams will become an alternative and expanded version of a traditional online purchase.