What’s next: Now the US is trying to catch up. Ecommerce marketplaces and social media sites have been rapidly introducing livestreaming ecommerce onto their platforms in an effort to replicate the success the format has seen in China.
- On the marketplace side, Amazon introduced Amazon Live in 2016, but the feature was available only to a limited number of sellers until a wider expansion to members of its influencer program in July 2020. Though still new, it’s been a success for those in the program, per Digiday.
- On the social media side, Facebook and TikTok have introduced live shopping elements over the course of the past year, trying to get in on the social commerce trend.
The key takeaway: The rapid expansion of shopping livestreams on marketplaces like NTWRK and Amazon, plus the proliferation of live shopping features on social media sites, are both signs that livestreaming ecommerce is on its way to taking off in the US. But even though all the pieces are in place on the platform side, the shopping format will need to see strong adoption from both consumers and brands before it approaches China’s level of success.
For more on this topic, read our “Social Commerce Forecasts 2021” and our “Livestreaming Landscape 2021” reports.