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You know my love of livestreaming my podcast episodes! It’s a wonderful way to maximize each recording. Another way to livestream that I incorporate is the Amazon live streaming platform. Yup, you can now go live on Amazon and basically produce your own infomercial.
Like with any platform there’s always something new to learn, and it’s an ongoing process. This article will share what I’ve learned since I started going live on Amazon in November 2020.
Here’s an example of my lives. Currently, I mostly interview authors on my shows. As I mentioned on the podcast episode discussing the Amazon live streaming platform, the videos can’t be embedded on websites (yet). Amazon Live displays the streams based on your influencer level. The higher, the more people see it. You can stream horizontally or vertically.
Read next: How to set up a live online shopping stream on any social platform
For example, your livestream could be highlighted on the product pages of the items you’re talking about. That can help you get more viewers as people currently shopping for those items see the live.
Are you a brand and want to work with me? Check my Amazon Live metrics
How to start with the Amazon Live Streaming Platform
Go to Amazon.com/influencer and sign up for an account. There are a couple of other ways for sellers, but this is how I signed up as an influencer. That account ties to your Affiliate Marketing Account with Amazon.
From your mobile device – iPad or iPhone – download the Amazon Live app. Sign into the app and start creating your livestream by picking products to discuss.
Click the plus sign to get started with a new Amazon broadcast.
Then add products. You can search Amazon or add them from your own storefront.
From there, you can search Amazon and add products to your stream.
Once live, you can highlight them as you talk, and they show up at the bottom for viewers to click:
Afterward, Amazon gives you details on what – if anything – was bought, how long people watched, etc.
Streaming vertically or horizontally with the Creator app
You can use the creator app to stream vertically or horizontally.
Using Switcher Studio on Amazon Live
In this video, I discuss how I use Switcher Studio specifically to stream to Amazon. Using a third-party platform makes the videos look nicer than just streaming from the app.
Adding products to your Amazon Live while on-air
It’s also possible to add products to your livestream while you are live. There are two ways:
Add products to the chat
You can copy and paste the product’s Amazon URL into the chat. Here’s how that looks. Make sure to grab the full one. Not the shortened one. And grab your affiliate link.
Add product to carousal
To add a product to the carousal while live, simply open the Amazon Live Creator app on a second iOS device. Join the stream and then click on ADD product and then either add products from your shop, which will be the first screen or search all of Amazon like you normally would.
What products to highlight on Amazon Live
Highlight the products that you have experience using. For example, on my podcast livestreams, I add books from me and the guests, if they have any, and the equipment I use and show on the screen.
Essentially, I’m showing off the products I use while livestreaming and recording a podcast.
When this was still allowed in 2020, I demonstrated my robot vacuum cleaner cam before, drawing 10,000 viewers. I placed my iPhone on a small tripod on top of the cleaner, and it drives around the house. Then I answered questions and talked about the product.
I also have done a stream of my office setup.
Keep in mind that Amazon wants you to be interactive, so you do have to be talking about related topics to the products in your carousel.
I’ve also done an unboxing live on air.
There are certainly many other ideas on how you can create an interesting Amazon Live. These are some that worked for me and the audience seems to enjoy them and keeps showing up.
Amazon Live’s rule on what products can be displayed
In October 2021, Amazon changed the terms as follows:
Insiders must have 75 percent of items in their carousal physically on hand or in video b-roll using the products.
So that means that you can’t just talk about the latest deals, unless you have those deals in hand. Several influencers would just talk through products on Amazon on their streams while not owning or having the product to use. This update prohibits that practice now.
Participate in shopping events and deals
I’ve had much success participating in Prime Day and Lightning Deals. On these shows, basically, I talk about the deals of the day and products that Amazon is currently highlighting. There is a variety of ways to find them, and often they are on the Amazon homepage. Another way is to go to the deals section and sort by the different categories.
The trick on these shows is that you want to talk about things that are relevant related to the products that are currently on sale. With the terms update mentioned above, you must have the product on-hand to participate!
Adding Amazon Live followers and moving to A-List
Amazon Live has several requirements to move up levels. Each level helps put your show in more prominent places on Amazon. The requirement to move from Insider to A-List recently changed and now includes a minimum follower count:
I was on track to meet the requirements for A-List, which were to stream 1,000 minutes and sell over $5,000. Then Amazon changed the requirement to followers. Given the importance of the number of followers, consider asking viewers in one of more of these ways:
- On-screen graphic to encourage following
- Verbally invite people
- Promote where people can follow off-channel
- I added a bit.ly and put a popup on this site to drive following as well
- Ask guests to share and invite people to follow
- Etc.
Use a social media scheduling software like Agorapulse to share your live stream ahead of time on your social media channels.
Adding products to Amazon
You can also talk about your own products, which leads me to the next section on how to add products to Amazon. These are the strategies I’ve used before as a small business person. There certainly are other ways as well.
There are few ways you can add products to Amazon. I’ve self-published my books and added them via Kindle Direct Publishing.
You can also create merchandise and add that. For example, I added merch for my book and in 2020 created a 1-star review t-shirt.
The year 2020 was something:
- Covid
- An inland hurricane type storm (officially called a derecho) hit our county
- Other mystery, including impact on business all around
To say the least, I would give 2020 a 1-star rating if it was a business. So I promptly tweeted and Instagrammed my review.
2020
Terrible customer experience. Nonstop. Would not recommend.
I then turned it into a T-shirt that you can buy in a handful of sizes and 10 colors on Amazon.
I thought it was a fun idea while being creative and on brand. So how do you sell a T-shirt – or other merchandise – on Amazon?
Let’s dive in. I did this entire process from my iPad.
Recommend Amazon Live?
I’m on board. I’ve sold over $500,000 of merchandise just by going live for a few months. Especially when I make it part of my multi-channel live stream, it’s worth trying.