My first clear memory of shopping involves going page by page through the Service Merchandise Christmas 1977 catalog toy section, picking out Star Wars toys I hoped to convince my parents Santa to get me.
It’s hard to imagine a more different consumer experience than the livestream shopping available today.
If – like me – that concept is new to you, allow me to explain. Because the phenomenon is transforming the relationship between buyers and sellers and has the potential to disrupt e-commerce and brick-and-mortar operations.
How Does It Work?
In some ways, livestream shopping is like the Home Shopping Network, just more personalized and in the palm of your hand.
There’s a host – perhaps directly employed by a brand, perhaps an “influencer” – hawking wares in a live video, either on social media, a retailer’s proprietary shopping stream, or a specialized live commerce site.
Depending on the platform, the host can also be an individual not directly tied to a retailer or a consumer brand, selling items they make or have collected.
The host demonstrates the product (puts on the sweater, applies the concealer, runs the vacuum cleaner, etc.) and can interact with potential buyers, taking questions in a chat, for example, and responding in the stream.
The actual purchase is virtually frictionless – no one is driving an hour to Service Merchandise – through one-click payments that often don’t even require leaving the stream.
The Big Business of Little Clicks
That lack of friction – traditional online retailing gives you opportunities to back out of your purchase, like having you confirm a shipping address – is one of the reasons livestream shopping is such a big phenomenon.
As I researched this piece, I came across the notion of livestream commerce building an interactive “community” because of the interactions between hosts and customers as well as among buyers. One of my friends told me she doesn’t buy from livestream commerce so much as watch the hosts and chat with fellow audience members.
Different economies have adopted the technology with different levels of enthusiasm.
In China, the market is estimated to have reached $900 billion in 2025 and forecast to reach $1.8 trillion by 2030.
In the U.S., live e-commerce is estimated to generate $42 billion to $68 billion in sales annually.
Estimates for the two markets vary, but all agree that China has adopted livestream commerce earlier and more quickly.
