Why you should offer live shopping

Over the years, e-commerce has gained greater acceptance amongst customers in various industries. But the more digital everything becomes, the more we lack personal connection and personal sales.

But, the technological age has started to flourish, providing a new way of shopping online – live shopping.

With Facebook Live, it’s now possible to connect personal sales with e-commerce, and that has become an irreplaceable and effective sales tool for many stores.

As a store, you can now reach countless customers at once, where real-time interaction gives you a wealth of opportunities. The best part? It doesn’t require a lot of work from you. The atmosphere is fresh and personal, full of spontaneity and doesn’t involve lots of preparation. This makes it easy for you, as a store, to get started – and your customers will love it!

Live sales strengthen trust and brand identity

As already stated, online shopping is popular, but it can be perceived as a faceless, digital storefront, because the customer doesn’t have an opportunity to build up a personal relationship with the business.

Live sales, therefore, can be one way to get faces and presence back into the bigger picture, despite the platform still being online. Live shopping can offer both a personal relationship and a picture of the store, rather than just one of that all-too-familiar online shopping cart. Live sales enable your store to be more transparent and credible, which, in turn, allows you to personalise your brand and open up conversations about your products.

In addition to speaking to your audience during live sales, you also have a chance to let the customers communicate with you – which offer a great opportunity to learn more about your target audience and their needs.

Live sales are an opportunity for mutual dialogue, which means that your sales script can’t always be planned in-depth, or scripted before you go live. But, remember – live shopping is more relaxed, as spontaneous and personal interactions are the focus.

Engaging in this two-way interaction not only offers your customers a peek into the world of your store and brand, but also lets them become a valued part of it. This can cause a chain reaction where exciting things can start to happen!

Woman in Leather Shop

Live sales make for committed customers

Let’s begin by bringing some data to the table about live sales:

– people watch live sales three times longer than normal videos

– live videos generate six times more interactions than other videos.

The reason live sales are so effective is partly due to the fact that comments and reactions in real-time allow customers to be a part of a stream instead of only being a spectator, meaning they can share their opinions about an item instantly. They can also ask questions along the way, and in return, get immediate answers.

This is a huge advantage – and one that strongly helps to build a solid relationship between the store and the consumer.

Additionally, if you demonstrate an engaging and entertaining personality during your live sales, your customers will certainly notice! So, you will probably be recommended to others, and shoppers might even share the live sale or invite their friends to join them immediately. And so the snowball effect begins – in no time at all, you will still be delivering with the same amount of personal effort, but be reaching far more customers in the process.

Give suggestions for styling and composition

By bringing together more items, you increase the chance of additional sales. Assemble the products that appear in your live sales as you would in your showroom: capture the viewer with one of your bestsellers and then show products that look similar or complement it.

Recap

Facebook Live has proven to be an effective way to strengthen your store’s brand identity, whereby you create relationships by entertaining and engaging the consumers.

It does not require much other than being yourself – human and imperfect!

So what are you waiting for? Forget preparation, just roll the camera while talking to your customers and show them what your store sells and stands for.

Girl shopping online