How Live Commerce is Revolutionizing the Direct Selling Experience
Step into the future of e-commerce with a revolutionary trend that has been sweeping the online shopping world: live commerce, commonly known as live shopping. Live shopping events provide a dynamic and interactive shopping experience creating a sense of urgency with authentic connections between an online audience, your independent sales force and affiliate marketers.
The greatest live event hosts aren’t necessarily big-name influencers and celebrities with millions of followers as they’re often not as genuine. This is where a direct sales force and affiliates can thrive who have smaller yet devoted followers as their relatability resonates with online audiences, creating a sense of trust. Live shopping combined with this sense of confidence creates a successful formula for empowering your sales force. Your sales force are “subject matter experts” and live shopping taps into the power of storytelling and personal connections making the overall shopping experience “immersive and engaging”.
Furthermore, live shopping opens new opportunities for direct selling businesses to engage with customers on a much deeper level, offering customers behind-the-scenes footage and an exclusive look into operations, product manufacturing or even streaming from a warehouse. This transparency helps the company build authenticity and trust, as customers feel more connected to the brand and its values.
Live Stream Shopping’s Evolution
Initially popularized in China, live shopping has now become a global trend, with U.S. companies beginning to adopt the format. In 2026, live shopping is expected to generate $67.8 billion in U.S. sales, more than doubling its 2023 value of $31.7 billion.
The role of social media platforms in this growth cannot be overstated. Platforms like TikTok, YouTube, Meta, and Twitch enable independent sellers, influencers, and affiliates to share products in real time, blending entertainment, social interaction, and shopping. This fusion is driving significant engagement and reshaping the way consumers experience e-commerce.
Live Commerce: A Game-Changer for Direct Selling
Live commerce is still in its early stages in the U.S., making up less than 5% of total e-commerce sales. However, the adoption rate is rising quickly as more brands begin to implement live formats into their digital strategies. Simplifying the process, by improving mobile access and streamlining checkout, is key to encouraging consumers to make their first live shopping purchase.
Nano-influencers, who have between 1000 and 10,000 followers, are playing a significant role in this shift. These influencers often resonate more deeply with their audiences, and in direct selling, they represent your own sales force and affiliates. This relatability boosts engagement and makes live shopping an ideal format for companies in the direct sales space.
- Creating Live Commerce Events
Direct selling companies must equip their sales force with the right tools, training, and resources to make the most of live shopping. While not all sellers may feel comfortable on camera, those with experience in virtual events will have a competitive advantage.
Key elements for a successful live commerce event:
- Simplified event setup: Integrate event tools seamlessly into your sales force’s existing personal marketing sites that they already use for easy promotion. Sharing a straightforward link for the online live shopping event on social media, email, or text, eliminating the need for app downloads or complex navigation for the audience to access and make purchases.
- Take time to show successful event video examples so the new hosts can get to see and experience them in action.
- Setup corporate events helping support a host for their first-time event.
- Providing the right content and material is key to focusing the event on educating the audience, not selling.
- During the livestream, the host showcases products, educates, and addresses online audience questions. That’s why it’s important to carefully consider the host’s lighting, camera setup, and background, occupying most of the screen space.
- Images of products being promoted will automatically be presented and appear on the video screen with descriptions and pricing typically on the bottom or side of the video screen space.
- The chat allows viewers to ask questions and engage with the host and others. “Active live chats” enhance engagement, fostering a connection with brands. Instant answers to questions aid consumers in solidifying their purchasing decisions.
- A reaction button to send instant reactions is often displayed as animated emojis.
- Let the online audience know how simple it is to purchase, pay and checkout right from the live shopping event.
- Inform the host that real-time sales results will appear instantly from the live shopping event as the online audience purchases and notifications along with sales volumes are immediately updated.
- Choosing the Right Live Commerce Platform
Selecting the right live commerce shopping platform is crucial. It should seamlessly integrate into the digital direct sales ecosystem, providing a complete omni-channel e-commerce experience. This played a key role in Asia’s success, with advanced technologies enabling direct purchases in live commerce events, reducing friction, and ensuring a unified experience from joining to checkout.
Additionally, first party “shopper” data and capturing it is a key differentiator. With recent announcements from Google and the elimination of third-party cookies combined with disparate live shopping platforms not fully integrated into the direct selling e-commerce ecosystem, often a company cannot collect valuable data about their customers, which in turn could have been used to offer a better personalized shopping experience.
The ability to offer products at the right time boosts conversion and cart size. Analyzing video completion rates offers a gold mine of customer information and consumer intent. This is missing when companies depend on streaming marketplaces or for that matter most social media apps.
Live shopping is a way to connect with end consumers and drive repeat engagement. For every live stream event, the content can be re-used as a “replay event” on the sales forces personal marketing sites or shared on social media platforms to continue to drive engagement.
Go Live and Grow!
“With an existing army of selling advocates, direct selling companies are in an envious position compared to traditional retail brands as many cannot afford influencers or celebrities to promote their products”, states Greg Fink, Vice President, Global Sales for Jenkon. Your sales force now has the convenience of e-commerce and the interactivity of live video streaming events to capture better customer engagement showcasing products like never before.
For direct selling companies, it is essential to invest in the right technologies and platforms to thrive in this new era of online shopping. That’s where Jenkon stands ready to empower direct selling businesses, their sales forces, and affiliates. Jenkon offers the latest in cutting-edge technologies, including live stream shopping and one-on-one shopping experiences. “Embrace the future of online shopping with Jenkon’s JoTLive Shopping Platform, fully integrated into your direct selling ecosystem, where innovation and interactivity blend seamlessly to redefine the way your sellers and affiliates meet their customers. Get ready to embark on an extraordinary journey of live commerce like never before!” states Fink.
