Sectors of the retail industry have been hit especially hard with many businesses unable to open their physical doors. These brands are left to rely on big name retailers or pivot their approach to increase reach visibility to convert consumers digitally. To do so, many are seeking inspiration from the direct to consumer model to engage directly with their audiences and make their products more widely available. While retailers and brands have both incrementally invested in digital platforms more and more, year after year, these challenges show how the need to digitally transform has accelerated to keep up with shifting user behaviors.

At a time when consumers are craving entertainment and connection while at home, livestream commerce—evoking the idea of home shopping TV programs, but made more interactive—is an intriguing solution for brands to directly and authentically engage with audiences. As a response to increased video viewership of at-home audiences, the strategy builds on recent trends in shoppable social content and the rise of influencer partnerships.

China is No Stranger to Livestream Commerce

While it may be having a moment right now, livestream commerce isn’t new; Taobao Live, the largest ecommerce streaming platform in China and owned by Alibaba, made $2.85 billion in sales on Singles Day (the country’s biggest shopping event) last year. The COVID-19-induced lockdown in China has increased the popularity of the platform even further; in February, merchants on the platform raised by 719%, according to Glossy.

Much of the appeal of livestreaming commerce is its ability to mix engaging, interactive content with brand stories. JD.com, another ecommerce platform in China, hosted online “e-clubbing” events featuring musical performances and DJ sets—and the ability to buy liquor in a few taps, replicating the social experience of being at an actual club.

How Western Brands Are Experimenting with Shoppable Content

In the west, Amazon has similarly mixed commerce and content with its “Twitch Sells Out” event for Prime Day, enlisting influencers and content creators in the gaming space to showcase items on sale that are relevant to the content they typically put out—for example, listing their streaming setup, gaming equipment or merchandise for a favorite game franchise. More than just a one-off event, Amazon employees livestream commerce on its Amazon Live platform, where brands and influencers broadcast content with shoppable listings underneath.

Elsewhere, other platforms have begun experimenting with shoppable advertisements. Instagram Checkout, lets users discover and purchase products right within the feed, and Levi’s has had success with a similar feature on TikTok. In the linear TV space, NBCUniversal has introduced NBCUniversal Checkout, making content across the brand shoppable. Emarketer’s Q1 2020 Digital Video Trends report notes that NBC’s Peacock streaming service will include shoppable content among the ads that it serves.

While these examples aren’t live, their development suggests there is a general growing demand for content that converts. MediaMonks Founder Wesley ter Haar notes that for many brands, conversion-based content remains top of mind as they consider ways to pivot existing strategies or continue to engage with audiences digitally.

“Brands are asking themselves if they need to keep the ‘content machine’ running,” he says. “If ecommerce and conversion-based content is an essential bucket, we can help fill it faster and more effectively by shifting from traditional production to tapping into influencers and livestreaming.”

While Social Distancing, Video is King

Over the course of the pandemic, at-home users have flocked to video content. According to data from WARC, 38% of consumers are watching more online video content now than they had before the pandemic. Out of that group, 73% say they expect to maintain that higher amount of viewing time. Among the most popular video content that people want to watch are how-to and tutorial videos, according to data from Hootsuite, a category that lends itself well to influencer content and B2B stories.

In fact, influencers are ideally situated to engage with new and existing customers with creative and livestreamed content. They are adept at using their voice and authority to recommend products to audiences and have built loyal followings through tutorial content—for example, the lucrative beauty space on YouTube that has catapulted popular vloggers into full-fledged business owners.

In response to the challenges that brands and retailers have felt due to the ongoing pandemic, our influencer activation team IMA recently offered a few solutions, including multichannel influencer campaigns that amplify voice and awareness across communities, as well as partnering with existing product advocates to carry business momentum on social media. Such strategies enable brands to reach consumers authentically, backed by a consolidated effort to ensure working teams can easily continue production safely at home and produce the stream remotely.

Build Value Through Assistive Content

While brands and retailers are focused on solving the “now,” they must also look ahead into how they will serve consumers throughout what may be a difficult year ahead. As consumers seek out content and connection that helps them understand and make the most of a new normal—whether that means staying sane while social distancing or stretching the value of a dollar—livestream commerce offers a great opportunity to build a brand relationship.

Despite being a vehicle for commerce, it doesn’t have to be too salesy—think about a retailer offering a live cooking show focused on recipes using ingredients that are already in the pantry, for example, or a makeup artist giving tutorials featuring “dupes,” or greater-value versions of popular cosmetics.

“This is the new family dinner, this is how we watch movies together,” says ter Haar on the innovative ways that people are connecting. “We’re building traditions now that we don’t yet know are traditions. User behavior is being built that will change how we use these tools and how we create and connect together.”

Now more than ever, brands and retailers must be there for their audiences. Through livestream commerce, brands can accommodate new user behaviors that have emerged and engage in authentic, informative ways with video content. Accommodating a need for connection and entertainment, the format is well tailored to building strategic relationships into the year ahead.

Video content is compelling to users that have flocked to visual social platforms like Instagram, Snapchat and (more recently) TikTok. And after Instagram began to offer features that link content directly to the point of sale, video has captured renewed interest for brands and marketers as well.

Shoppable video has caught on with brands and consumers as social networks like Instagram have aimed to support consumers in not only discovering products within the platform but in making purchases as well. In “The Forrester Tech Tide™: Video Technologies For Customer And Employee Experience, Q1 2019,” Senior Analyst Nick Barber notes, “One aim of the technology is to bridge the gap between virtual and in-store shopping experiences. When US online adults choose to shop in stores rather than buy online, 38% do so to touch, see, feel, or smell products before purchasing them.” With these consumer needs in mind, shoppable video becomes an important way for consumers to engage with a brand and get to know their products better.

So, video is useful within an ecommerce setting. But how can it elevate the social experience? As it turns out, consumers enjoy turning to “Story” content—the quick, one-to-many snippets of video content distributed on platforms like Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook—to learn more about brands and products. An eMarketer analysis notes that 69% of Facebook Story users feel that “brands using stories is a great way for people to get to know new products or services,” and 62% say they “become more interested in a brand or product after seeing it in stories.”

Realizing this, brands have been using shoppable video to drive consumers throughout the purchasing funnel, letting users discover, save and purchase content directly through the platform. Instagram Checkout, a feature that went live last year, is one such feature that makes shopping on the platform easier than before: previously, brands had to link out to an external website to complete a purchase—a barrier that risked losing a sale by prompting users to save the purchase for later (and possible forget to go through with it).

Approach Shoppable Video as a Storytelling Opportunity

Shoppable video offers a potential revenue stream for brands, but it can also be a compelling storytelling medium in its own right, helping to build the story behind a brand or explain product benefits in a captivating way. This means that before you invest in shoppable content, you’ll want to consider what your goals are and what types of creative experiences you want to offer with the medium.

“Whenever investing in a new channel, brands must ask themselves if their target audience is there and if it makes sense for them to be in that space,” says Heather Hosey, VP Client Engagement at MediaMonks. “For example, some luxury brands may be concerned with whether channels that increase accessibility, like shoppable video, video cheapens the brand. They might turn to social to approach an audience that skews a little younger but will wonder how they can elevate that experience.”

Approaching the creative experience with a sense of purpose is critical to ensuring the channel is both effective but also compelling for the brand. Too often, we’ve seen marketers treat mobile video as a smaller TV screen, often featuring cutdowns of TVC’s and linear film. This approach flies in the face of what makes mobile—let alone social content found there—so special in the first place: its potential to spark interaction and collaboration, two characteristics that have contributed to the meteoric rise in platforms like TikTok.

In exploring the creative potential of stories to build authentic connection between brands and their audiences, MediaMonks partnered with Facebook and 72andSunny to build an installation of 12 mechanically moving monitors at Facebook Beach at Cannes last year. Each monitor features best-in-class use of the medium; visitors to the installation could control the display by bringing the monitors together into a cohesive whole, showcasing Stories’ power to change perspective and disrupt—two uses of mobile video that we’d love to see brands lean into more.

Consider Shoppable Video’s Role Within the Overall Customer Experience

Like anything else, it’s important to note that social doesn’t exist in a vacuum: it’s just one ingredient that sits within the wider context of the brand’s overall marketing strategy. For example, Misty Gant, SVP USA at our influencer activation team IMA, notes that brands that don’t have a strategy in place might find themselves looking at abandoned carts—but that doesn’t mean the content, which consumers might come across at the top of the funnel, wasn’t valuable.

“It’s very important from an analytical standpoint, because you have the data,” Gant says. “Back in the day, through flipping through a magazine or watching a commercial, you couldn’t quantify who purchased from that ad.” But through shoppable content, you get a better sense of who’s tapping through, what they tapped next, what was the bounce rate and more—data that can be essential to understanding the path to purchase. “A good marketeer is always looking at that kind of data,” says Gant. “You want to see what’s working but also what the problems are, to figure out where in your ecosystem you can better support and work with that.”

Hosey agrees that taking a holistic view of the overall customer experience is critical to success with shoppable content. “For CPG brands in particular, it can be a challenge to determine where that link will actually send the user,” says Hosey. “If you don’t typically support buying direct, how do you choose which retailer to connect users with?” Hosey notes that establishing an exclusive deal with a retail partner opens up all sorts of new questions about a campaign that brands must consider—for example, how long the promotion will run for.

Brands should also consider how a shoppable campaign remains cohesive with their existing creative. For the launch of L’Oreal’s Unbelieva-brow, we began with the brand’s existing global campaign and assets as inspiration for a social-first video campaign—this time, targeting millennial consumers in Italy. The strategy was built around a handful of influencers that knew their audiences best, catering to a diverse group of interests and segments—beauty-oriented, sporty, travel-focused and an on-the-go actress—allowing the brand to tell relatable stories about the product’s durability throughout the many situations someone might run into throughout the day.

Shoppable content is an excellent way for brands to play to video’s strengths in helping consumers discover brands and learn about their products. Connecting directly with consumers and prompting them to pause and consider content, shoppable video offers a more authentic way to engage with consumers at any point of the funnel—prompting a sale or simply driving initial awareness—provided that brands are strategic in their approach.