Have you ever come across small businesses like jewelry artisans, dressmakers, and toy shop owners live stream on Facebook to sell their products? This new sales strategy is called live stream selling and has become a popular trend globally especially when the pandemic hit.

With live selling, a store owner simply has to demo their products on social media, and viewers can ask questions and reserve or buy the products through the live chat. This process eliminates the need for customers to be in the store premises - making it a great tool for shops that had to close down.

This trend has also bled into big retail brands who are exploring new avenues for revenue and have also been affected by COVID-19. Here are some of the biggest retail brands that started investing in live selling to promote their products.

Burberry

In 2018, Burberry participated in Tmall’s Collection fashion show which was streamed on the Tmall website. The show was a “See Now, Buy Now” stream, meaning viewers could purchase the items going down the runway using their mobile phones.

Other notable brands that participated are Estee Lauder, Stella McCartney, MCM, La Perla, Giuseppe Zanotti, and Stuart Weitzman.

Alibaba, the largest e-Commerce company in Asia, and possibly the world, owns Tmall, Taobao, and Alibaba.com - the three biggest eCommerce sites in China.

Louis Vuitton

When the pandemic hit China, Louis Vuitton was one of the brands that immediately pivoted online to reduce the impact of mall closings. 

They tapped Yvonne Ching, a popular Chinese fashion blogger, and Zhong Chuxi, an actress and celebrity, to host a live stream on Little Red Book eCommerce site to show how to style Louis Vuitton products. Although the products were not available on the platform, the two hosts constantly reminded viewers to head to the Louis Vuitton website to purchase the items they saw in the stream. Months before this, they also launched a Mini Program on WeChat that featured gift recommendations that they can buy on the platform itself.

Tommy Hilfiger

Since 2018, Tommy Hilfiger has participated in Amazon Live, the eCommerce platform's live streaming program. The brand has also been active in various live sales platforms in China where live shopping has been a trend even before the pandemic.

It was only in October of 2020 when the brand decided to take ownership of how the products are presented by streaming a show on their own website. The stream included a panel that showed all of the products modeled in the video. Lewis Hamilton, Formula 1 driver and Tommy Hilfiger endorser, also appeared in the stream to answer questions from fans.

The recorded stream is still available on Tommy Hilfiger’s global website. 

L’Oreal

L’Oreal Group owns 36 of the biggest beauty and fashion brands across the globe. It only makes sense for them to also be a pioneer of new online shopping channels.

Urban Decay, Lancôme, NYX Cosmetics, Kiehl’s, and It Cosmetics are some of the brands under L’Oreal that started doing shoppable live streams on their respective websites in 2020. These live streams featured celebrities and influencers doing makeup tutorials and skincare routines. The stream also included various discounts and giveaways on top of the free shipping for orders made on the same day.

L’Oreal is also experimenting with other digital platforms like 1 on 1 video consultations, virtual makeup try ons, and AI skin diagnosis, in the hopes of improving the customers’ experience in the comfort of their own homes.

Estée Lauder

Estée Lauder group of companies, a beauty brand competing with L'Oreal, also jumped into the live shopping bandwagon when the pandemic first started. 

Aside from A-list celebrities like Emilia Clark (also an endorser of Clinique), Estée Lauder also tapped makeup artists and dermatologists for their live streams on La Mer, Clinique, and Bobbi Brown’s websites to add another layer of credibility in the discussions.

Clinique, so far, has hosted around 20 live streams while Bobbi Brown has 8 and more upcoming.

Swarovski

Instead of live streams for the public, Swarovski uses live video to provide 1 on 1 virtual shopping and consultations via their website to allow customers to roam around the store and ask questions without being physically present. Customers simply have to visit the Swarovski website and click the connect now button or the video chat bubble. This is a one-way video chat so customers don’t have to show their face during the whole conversation. 

This feature is only available in select regions.

Solving the Brand Challenges

Two of the most common barriers to entry in live streaming for retail brands are staying on brand and driving audiences to watch the live streams. In China where marketplaces have already established their platforms as the go-to channel for shoppers, retail brands have no choice but to be on their platform. The issue is that they have little control over the setup and creative aspects which makes the live streams off-brand - a big issue for luxury brands and companies with strict brand guidelines. On the other hand, brands that are opting to stream their videos on their own websites find that viewers can be very limited.

With Flux Panda, retail brands can have complete control over the live stream and simultaneously cast on various streaming platforms like Facebook Live, Instagram Live, Twitch, etc. to ensure maximum exposure. 

Curious about how Flux Panda, video shopping platform, can give you a seamless and hassle-free live selling experience? Book a demo today.