Live Shopping with Fashion and Beauty brands
While Live Shopping has momentum in China since 2015/2016, it was only recently that its potential was realised by the European customers and retailers.
In Asia, moderators or popular influencers have been taking customers on shopping tours via livestreaming for some time now, answering questions via chat or describing how to apply a product. In Europe, selling by live streaming also offers massive potential, particularly for Fashion and Beauty. But do European customers even know about this digital sales channel? How are established brands offering it, and is it seeing any success? Arvato Supply Chain Solutions tackles these and further questions surrounding the new E-Commerce trend in their current analysis “Live Shopping in Europe”, which looks at 90 brands from the Fashion and Beauty sector, and interviews industry experts on the subject.
Live Shopping belongs to a list of hot trends which are currently shaping E-Commerce and consumer behaviour. In China, for example, on average 50,000 livestreams are held daily with approximately 260 million viewers and will generate sales of 300 billion US dollars this year alone according to forecasts from the market research institute Coresight Research – and the trend is rising. “In Germany and Europe, too, more and more Fashion and Beauty brands are discovering the advantages that a direct live presentation offers customers, and not just since Covid-19,” says Abbas Tolouee, author of the study and Senior Consultant at Arvato Supply Chain Solutions. “Basically, Live Shopping is nothing more than traditional teleshopping, which we have been doing with channels like QVC since the early 80’s – only the medium is different today. But unlike teleshopping, customers are more involved here can interact with the brand via chat or other on-screen functionalities, creating an interactive experience. This is an important step to achieving a customer-centric strategy and long-term business success.”
European consumers are interested
Live Shopping is not only popular with Chinese customers. With the extended lockdowns since mid-2020, European consumers also began to explore virtual shopping events which replicated their traditional shopping experience. After all, 70% of European customers answered favourably to a survey asking if they would be open to Live Shopping. But in contrast to the Southeast Asian users, the majority of whom are young millennials, those interested in Europe are significantly more mature and between the ages of 32 to 43.
To meet the growing consumer interest in Live Shopping, 21% of the brands analyzed started using this new sales channel as early as mid-2020. Now, more than one-third of all Fashion and Beauty brands have offered at least one Live Shopping event. While Beauty companies rely on regular livestreams, Fashion companies offer occasional events. Both branches clearly prefer the integration of Live Shopping into their own webshops but advertise events on social media channels. More than two-thirds of the brands studied use Facebook as a marketing channel.
Live Shopping is mobile
Due to the usage of social and livestreams under Covid-19 restrictions, the use of shopping apps increased by almost 50% in 2020. “Our own figures also show that the trend among European customers is shifting to mobile shopping,“ explains Abbas Tolouee. “Brands and webshops can use this development to connect directly with their customers via app-based Live Shopping events.” Other options include social media - although Facebook Live has not yet been used by the brands in the study - or their own websites where 70% of Live Shopping events are currently held. To do this, they must either create the appropriate infrastructure, or alternatively use the services of a livestream provider.
Ultimately, the event presentation is more decisive than the technical solution chosen. Since Live Shopping is very mobile, it also offers the ability to use celebrities or influencers to draw the largest possible audience. This is especially important for young customers whose purchase decisions are heavily influenced by social media. It is therefore not surprising that 72% of the Beauty brands surveyed rely on influencers for their sales events. By Fashion brands it is only 56%; more importance is placed here on use of experts who can draw on greater product knowledge.
The full analysis is available here to download: https://arva.to/live-shopping-in-europe