Buying online has become a routine for many people. But what if you could purchase the desired products while watching a live stream from a company you like or even through influencers you follow? This is the proposal of live-commerce, a sales strategy that is booming in other countries and is already being positively explored by major brands here – with huge potential to be further invested in national companies to expand their reach in the market and thereby boost their profits.
The adoption of this strategy has been significantly enhanced in recent years worldwide. In China, for example, data released in the Report of High-Quality Development of Live Streaming E-commerce Industry showed that the penetration rate of this type of e-commerce grew from 4.9% to 37.8% between 2019 and 2023, reaching approximately 597 million users just last year.
This popularity was quickly noticed by other nations, including Brazil. This year, many brands took the opportunity to test this strategy of combining live streams with online sales on Black Friday, achieving huge revenues that caught the market’s attention to the possibilities and opportunities that live-commerce can bring to their businesses.
After all, in addition to the fact that many Brazilians have the habit of buying online frequently, further favored by the growth of social networks, we have also witnessed a popularity of live streams in the country in recent years – mainly as a result of the pandemic, where, as we were indoors, digital operations became the only way for many companies to remain open remotely.
Influencers have also gained prominence in this regard, forming partnerships with certain brands to promote the dissemination of their products to their loyal network of followers. By becoming spokespeople, they pass on credibility and security to their fans in the promotion of these items, engaging more and more people to purchase these products.
Chronologically, this sales strategy in a live broadcast is not a novelty in the market, since many broadcasters in the past already did this through speeches of scarcity of their items, aiming to generate a sense of urgency in consumer purchases. What is gaining so much attention currently with live-commerce is the fact that, with the support of social networks, influencers, and technological tools, they allow for greater interactivity and customization of their products.
In these live streams, companies can make their relationship with their target audience more dynamic and less rigid than what is seen with traditional e-commerce. Taking advantage of real-time monitoring of their customers to interact through questions and answers, offer exclusive deals to those watching, conduct surveys, giveaways, and many other activities to engage, attract, and retain more people.
Many national broadcasters are also exploring this scheme in their programs, aiming to reach an audience less receptive to social media and who also have an interest in certain products. A very smart sales strategy, increasing the reach beyond the digital realm.
The live-commerce market still has a lot to expand, with enough room for companies to innovate, be creative, and promote their name against competitors. However, like all commerce, the same challenges in terms of customer service remain, highlighting the importance of taking care of all communication logistics with their audience before, during the broadcast, and after-sales.
Although social networks are a very attractive stage for this, there is still a broad backstage supporting this process – which should be composed of robust omnichannel strategies that unite strong digital channels complementing customers’ journey, so they can choose where and how to communicate with their brands.
With a well-structured consumer base, there are many communication channels that can be exploited to promote the realization of these live broadcasts, announce the products that will be promoted, and after the broadcast, continue to assist customers with the same interaction and personalization, supporting them with any demands they may have afterwards.
A great resource we have in the market today, in this sense, is RCS, Google’s messaging system that enables the sending of texts, images, gifs, and a complete carousel in messages, guaranteed by an authentication seal from the company verified by the multinational itself.
Companies can still explore much with live-commerce, already proving to be a trend capable of significantly increasing corporate sales and engagement with their audience. These results will only be achieved with the highlighted care above, so that users have all the necessary support to conduct and interact with their shopping journey in channels they are familiar with, creating memorable experiences and relationships between parties.
