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Live online shopping streams certainly make sense for some creators and companies. If you have a product to sell or talk about, go live and share your thoughts on the product with your audience. And now it’s easier than ever to create a live shopping event stream directly from your computer.
In this article, I discuss the following:
- What is live online shopping?
- How to host a live online shopping event on YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn
- Live online shopping on Amazon
- How to develop your live online shopping strategy
What is live online shopping?
A live shopping event means somebody demonstrates a product on video, talks about it, and shares their experience. Viewers can click an affiliate link to purchase the product.
Some livestreams also show QR codes that allow viewers to scan them with their phone and get sent to a place where they can purchase the product. Like in this video, I have the QR codes to related products to the HomePod Mini and share that viewers can buy the actual HomePod at Apple.com.
Live shopping events online are great because viewers can ask questions n the moment. The host can answer them to the best of their ability. It’s very interactive.
Read next: Google Smart Shopping Campaigns – What Is It and Where to Use Them?
How to host a live shopping event on YouTube, Twitter, or LinkedIn
There’s an easy way to host a live shopping event on YouTube, Twitter, or even LinkedIn with the Restream live streaming platform. After signing up, you can easily connect your Amazon store, Shopify, or other places that have the products you are talking about.
To get to this place, click on the shopping cart in the left sidebar of your Restream dashboard.
Once connected, you can add the products to your livestream and call them up at the right times. You can place them on the side of you or as a lower-third graphic.
From here, you can schedule the live shopping event and multi-stream to several channels at once. Technically, you wouldn’t need those on-screen graphics when streaming to Amazon since the products are also shown in the Amazon carousal. Amazon has a policy against linking to other websites, but these QR codes go right back to Amazon, so the on-screen graphics might be okay.
I also like the visual look of them.
How to develop your live online shopping strategy
Like anything in digital marketing or the creator economy, live shopping is easier said than done. After all, you’ll need the following:
- products to talk about
- an audience that’s paying attention
- enough content to talk about those products at some length.
Amazon, for example, recommends that live shopping events should be over an hour long. That’s a lot of time to fill, and it can get lonely if the audience isn’t asking questions.
I recommend this kind of approach:
Start with products you have
Many of us already own many products that we could easily discuss. Just looking at my podcast studio and home office, there are plenty of lights, keyboards, and other accessories that I can discuss.
Align the products to your audience
Not all products that I own align with my audiences on the different networks. For example, on an Amazon Live, it might be just fine talking about a bidet setup. But my audience on LinkedIn wouldn’t find that discussion super business-like. A better live shopping topic on a LinkedIn Live might be to talk about ways to take notes. Or really any other topic tied closer to business.
Try different things
Live streaming can be hit and miss. It might be a slow show, or you may hit gold, and it’s working wonderfully. To achieve success, try different times, different products, and different titles. Also, consider inviting guests on the show. Maybe an author can talk about their book, or the inventor of a specific product might be interested in doing an interview.
Them helping promote the show can also help with the event’s reach.
Be realistic
Know that overnight success usually takes longer than overnight. You’ll likely have to give it some time, follow a schedule, build a growth strategy and see what works over time. It might take some time to get your live shopping activities to bring success, so try not to give up too quickly.
Consider starting with the channel where you have the best audience and keep expanding from there. Some people might say, “well, but LinkedIn isn’t about shopping streams.” But maybe it’s just because not many people have tried it. And I’ve seen shopping events on LinkedIn before. So it’s not totally new.
My point is: Try different strategies. See what works and see what doesn’t show promise.
But the technology to host these live shopping events has improved tremendously, and it’s easier than ever from that perspective. Of course, we still need to make it interesting for our viewers and know what we are talking about.