What Is Live Streaming Ecommerce?
Live Streaming eCommerce is an unconventional yet effective way of building social proof whilst boosting sales.
Published April 30, 2025.
Live streaming eCommerce combines the traditional shopping experience with entertainment as commerce. This sits it on the crossroads of the social media era and dynamic sales, and is perfect for the Gen Z market.
Online shopping is huge. Shoppers are not interested in heading to retail stores for the traditional brick and mortar experience. The ease and convenience brought by buying things online and having them delivered to your door is unrivalled by anything else. However, it lacks the sense of community and experience that came with shopping in person.
This has led younger generations to yearn for new retail avenues that do offer this. With Social Media being the main avenue for Gen Z product inspiration (97% of them, in fact), a door is opened for potential new strategies. This is where live streaming comes in.
What Is Live Streaming?
Live Streaming is the practice of influencers, or other content creators, showcasing products in real time, usually through social media channels. In China, live streaming is already a huge market, and is set to become even bigger in the global eCommerce market in the next few years.
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Why Is Live Streaming Gaining Traction?
The reason why live streaming is gaining popularity in the eCommerce world is because it sits at the intersection of entertainment and retail product showcasing. Think of teleshopping from the past, but updated.
The reason live streaming has success where its predecessor failed is because of the impact of social media. Having influencers and other popular figures making authentic endorsements over livestreams is different from broad, generic marketing campaigns.
Entertainment Is Important
As we have seen through the growth in dynamic marketing, images and advertising, shoppers want to be entertained. Videos that follow formats like those found on TikTok tend to have higher success rates, especially with younger generations such as Gen Z.
These days, entertainment is a central component to commerce. Shoppers need to be engaged, and content needs to capture attention and create emotional connections. This enhances the shopping experience and leads to higher sales.
Immersive Element
Live-streams are great because by their nature they are interactive and immersive. There is a live interaction element to these streams which means that the audience can ask questions and receive responses immediately, as the stream is aired. This gives viewers the trust that the responses they get are genuine, as opposed to scripted and manufactured. This is a high level of social proof.
It also maximises the reach of social media. If a customer has already been engaged on your social media, a livestream will add a new element. Alternatively, if their first interaction with your brand is through a live stream, this might lead them to follow and interact with your brand via your social media channel afterwards.
Practical Benefits
There are also practical benefits for merchants, such as the data benefits gathered. Decisions around the promotions of popular products can be made taking into account the success of livestream views and responses.
Customers are able to understand the products more deeply before purchasing them, which reduces the risk of returns. This is great for creating greener eCommerce and the overall user experience.
Conclusion
It’s not surprising that live streaming is becoming so popular. The benefits for merchant and shopper are both high, and with the popularity of social media and social commerce, live streaming makes sense as the next step.
