Associate Livestreaming
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Customer expectations are constantly shifting…
Experiences that were once considered nice-to-haves are now seen as essential.
For most of the past decade, retailers have been forced to try to design, deliver and perfect new experiences at a pace most would have previously thought was unthinkable.
Click and collect, curbside pickup and buy online, pickup in store (BOPIS)
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Are store personnel the next wave of local influencers?
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What is Associate Livestreaming
SECTION ONE
Livestreaming around the globe
SECTION TWO
Making livestreaming work for you
SECTION THREE
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And shoppers continue to expect all aspects of their journeys to evolve as rapidly as their choices:
New choices
New devices
New channels
New networks
One source reported more than a
Source: Digital Commerce 360
Retailers everywhere looked for any opportunity to engage anxious, locked down, and economically impacted consumers. And through it all “Associate Livestreaming” suddenly began to take on a life of its own…
Then the global pandemic struck and accelerated everything
500% increase
in BOPIS orders in 2020
How Aptos can help you start streaming
SECTION FOUR
What, exactly, is Associate Livestreaming?
Associate Livestreaming is similar to influencer livestreaming, but instead of featuring influencers (or celebrities), the broadcasts feature retail employees. Most typically, they are store associates.
Associates produce live broadcasts where they promote merchandise, offers and store-related events to their viewers on a streaming platform. They answer questions and interact with viewers in real-time, viewers can engage with the associates via likes, emojis and 2-way chat windows.
The (relatively short) history of livestreaming in retail: From humble beginnings to $130B in global retail sales
2017
The world’s first known livestream store in the Netherlands, Kaan’s Stream Store, used livestreaming to interact with their customers and sell their cheeses virtually. They successfully blended the convenience of online shopping with the rich advice and counsel provided by an experienced cheesemonger to create a compelling hybrid experience. While the Kaan’s Stream Store has since closed, the shop did report very strong early results, and they definitely set the stage for streaming stores to come.
Source: Podium
in spending per viewer in 2020 and a three-fold jump in retailers adopting streaming. Annual sales on its platform were expected to triple to $1 billion.
57% increase
in 2020.
sales rise 7X
double total revenue
TalkShopLive, saw
Brandlive was expected to
CommentSold saw a
However, several livestream platforms specifically designed to facilitate in-store streams hosted by associates, have reported tremendous growth:
Mid 2010's
Livestreaming in retail started to become popular as influencers from China used live video apps to bring their fans along with them on their shopping trips abroad and showcase products that weren’t available in China.
Today
As an industry, livestreaming generated more than $130B in global retail sales in 2020. However, those numbers include influencer livestreams. Identifying revenue only from associate livestreams is pretty tough to collect in the aggregate.
Associate vs influencer livestreaming
Associate Livestreaming differs from influencer marketing in that store and corporate associates are hosting the livestreams, as opposed to social media influencers or celebrities.
And while influencers bring momentary fame and followers, store associates bring a personal touch, local presence and, if given a consistent platform, have a real chance to build local connections. Store associates know, perhaps better than anyone (including head office personnel), what local customers’ interests, tastes, concerns, values and behaviors are. The best associate livestreamers take advantage of that local knowledge to create streaming content that taps into their store customer’s unique personality. With time, they can even become local experts.
Associate livestreaming is a relatively easy way to get store personnel engaged and build your brand with authentic, personal and local content. Typically, associates earn commissions or bonuses for their livestreaming sales, with many retailers offering creative rewards driven by engagement, SPIFFs for specific items and bonuses for total sales converted during livestreams.
Associate livestreaming really is a win-win for everyone:
Retailers develop an army of new brand ambassadors that engage customers, build relationships and sell more product.
Associates have a chance to make more money.
Customers get greater access to local resources with more ways to shop and engage.
Source: Bloomberg
Kaan’s Stream Store sets up shop online in 2017
China: Leading the way, in a big way
China leads the way in the adoption of livestreaming as a viable marketing and sales strategy for large brands: Huawei, Estée Lauder, Lancôme, L'Oréal, Shiseido, La Mer.
Europe: A slow start
In Europe, the associate livestreaming trend is slowly gaining momentum. Several brands like H&M brand Monki, Sephora, and Auchan have experimented with livestreaming commerce from their stores. However, while most brands report positive results, to date livestreaming has not become a major trend.
European Spotlight: Motivi gets moving
However, Italian fashion brand Motivi has definitely made inroads into associate livestreaming. Shopping sessions are hosted by store associates inside their stores. During the broadcasts, customers chat live with the associate to ask for advice on the silhouettes, fabrics, sizing and accessories to match, just like when shopping in store. All of the items presented by the associate are available for purchase directly through the streaming interface. When a shopper navigates to a product detail page, the broadcast remains visible on the page so they never lose touch with the presenter.
North America: many brands experimenting
Brands all over North America have been investing with livestreams for quite some time. Here are a few examples:
China: Singles Day sees explosive growth
Singles Day China generated $125B USD in livestreaming sales through its Taobao Live video service. While the livestreaming revenue came from influencers and associates, that’s still $86M in sales happening every minute through live video shopping streams.
Numerous other retailers across North America have invested in influencer livestreams, including Burberry, Estée Lauder, Anne Klein, Samsung, L'Oréal and many others.
Lululemon’s yoga classes were early pioneers of the strategy, and continue to be very popular today.
Lancôme produces a series of streams where associates from corporate and the stores share their beauty tips.
Sephora has heavily invested in livestreams with influencers, associates and executives, including their founder.
Nordstrom launched its livestream shopping channel which hosts a variety of streamed events, including styling advice, trend happy hours and conversations with designers.
Source: CNBC
Ready to start streaming?
If you think we’ve made a strong enough case to convince you to consider streaming, here are a few tips to help you get started.
What are your overall objectives and goals for this livestream?
A look at livestreaming platforms
Launching your streaming experiences with an established platform that supports integrated streaming and shopping can be a great way to get a quick start. Here are a few livestreaming platforms to consider:
Bambuser allows retailers to promote their products and have their customers add to their cart without leaving the livestream, interacting with them in real-time. It also enables retailers to have one-to-one personalized livestreaming experiences including product display, comparison, add-to-cart, and more.
According to the Retail Technology Innovation Hub, Spin was the #1 retail tech startup to watch in 2020. Spin is a platform for interactive livestream shopping. With Spin, retailers can choose whether they want to host their own event or choose from an influencer network to host on their behalf.
Popshop Live has been gaining popularity as it has recently been featured by Forbes, TechCrunch and multiple other media outlets. Merchants can create their own pop-up store, curate inventory and host a show using just a smartphone. They can add new product listings on the fly and customers can shop directly from the stream.
Vogue Business referred to ShopShops as “the future of shopping.” Recently, they have seen tremendous growth, with projections of more than tripling their sales in 2021. They now have over 1,000 retail partners, including brands and boutiques like Marni, MaxMara, Ganni, Theory, Schutz and The Webster.
Livescale was founded in 2016. Their Live Shopping solution allows retailers to engage and sell to customers with full brand control, including seamless user checkout and customer analytics. They’ve worked with notable brands including Kiehl’s, Roberto Cavalli, Vans and Lancôme.
At corporate, follow these steps before you think about starting your first stream.
Plan your overall strategy
Will you be using a livestreaming app, webcam or Digital SLR camera? Each one of these will require a different setup.
Evaluate your technology
There are multiple options including YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram Live, TikTok, etc. There are also numerous platforms that allow you to host your own livestreams and even allow customers to shop directly from the broadcast. Choose the one that makes the most sense for your audience and niche.
Select a platform
For more tips on successful livestreaming strategies, view our complete checklist.
Who is your target audience?
What main topic or theme will you focus on?
Who will be presenting and what products will they showcase?
In the stores, these tips can help ensure your associates are set up for successful streaming.
Having all products to be showcased available and accessible is critical. If people will be presenting multiple outfits, plan for at least two presenters so that one can present while the other is changing.
Plan the products to showcase
Make sure that wherever they’re streaming from is clean, has good lighting (no bright light sources or windows behind the presenters) and showcases the products well.
Set up a solid backdrop
Lighting is one of the most important aspects to quality productions. Be sure to test the setting and be prepared to invest in multiple lights.
Let there be light
Livestreams require bandwidth – big bandwidth. Be sure that your store’s internet connection (including the WiFi in the area where they plan to do the broadcast) can handle the load.
Test your connections
Aptos ONE: Creating enterprises built for change
Associate Livestreaming is certainly beginning to make inroads with consumers in many places around the world. Will it become a priority with your target customers? Only time will tell.
However, we hope we’ve made a good case for at least evaluating it as a potential new leg of your brand’s shopping journey. And if you do decide to try it with your customers, Aptos ONE makes it possible to do so quickly, at minimal expense and with minimal opportunity cost. Our microservices-based Retail Experience Platform is specifically designed to give retailers the flexibility to choose how and where to deploy new capabilities and experiences without requiring huge investments of time, money or resources.
Aptos is the largest provider of enterprise software focused exclusively on retail. Our cloud-based Singular Retail™ solutions are trusted by over 1,000 retail brands in over 65 countries. With industry-leading omnichannel commerce and merchandise lifecycle management solutions, we help retailers develop dynamic and responsive assortments, streamline operations and deliver integrated, seamless experiences… wherever shoppers choose to engage. More than 1,300 colleagues share our collective passion for engaging customers differently, and we are committed to developing relationships built on trust and tangible value by partnering with our clients to create agile retail enterprises that are built to thrive in an era of constant change. Learn more at aptos.com
About Aptos
Learn more about our approach to microservices and how Aptos ONE is architected to help you create an enterprise built for change:
Aptos ONE Retail Experience Platform
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