Source: TalkShopLive – “Let’s Get Cozy For Fall!” by Noah Schnacky
Will in-store pickup make livestream shopping more attractive to Americans?
Best Buy customers watching its livestream shopping events will now have the option of placing orders for in-store pickup. It marks the first time that pickup is being offered on a live shopping platform that is embeddable anywhere online.
The pickup option is now available, and Best Buy is counting on it to make its livestream shopping content more attractive to a larger number of viewers who, in turn, will buy more of its merchandise. The retailer will also benefit from a reduction in expenses as pickup is more profitable than delivery.
Best Buy, which is partnering with TalkShopLive for its livestream shopping shows, earlier this week went live with TikTok star Noah Schnacky and friends to highlight some of his favorite products sold by the retailer. The goal is to make it easier for Best Buy’s customers to buy goods while they watch livestream shows.
Best Buy, Amazon, Walmart and Target are among the retailers that have been moving into livestream shopping more aggressively as they seek to create points of difference with each other and their various competitors.
Coresight Research forecast that livestream shopping would generate $20 billion in sales this year, up from $6 billion in 2020. The research firm expects that sales will grow to $57 billion by 2025, according to a Wall Street Journal report in October.
If retailers want to attract viewers to their livestream shopping events, they better make them entertaining. Coresight found that 46 percent of those who attend livestream shopping events do so in search of entertainment.
One of the challenges associated with livestream shopping success is the cost of marketing the events. Retailers need to actively promote events to drive traffic with an audience who doesn’t have livestream as top-of-mind option when it comes to shopping for the goods they want to buy.
Platforms have increasingly sought to partner with high-profile celebrities and influencers to drive engagement. TalkShopLive, for example, offers livestream shopping channels with Kelsea Ballerini, Drew Barrymore, Garth Brooks, Gloria Estefan, Bobby Flay, Dolly Parton and Shania Twain.
- TalkShopLive Brings In-Store Pickup to Livestream Shopping with Best Buy – TalkShopLive/PRNewswire
- Noah Schnacky –TalkShopLive
- Retailers, Brands and Tech Platforms Bet Big on Live-Streamed Shopping in the U.S. – The Wall Street Journal
- Is livestream commerce about to break through? – RetailWire
- Will U.S. livestreaming soon take off like it did in China? – RetailWire
Discussion Questions
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: Will having the option of ordering an item from a livestream shopping event for in-store pickup make these shows more attractive to a larger number of consumers? Will the in-store pickup option make it easier for retailers to justify their investments in this form of shopper marketing?
Poll
Loading …BrainTrust
Carol Spieckerman
President, Spieckerman Retail
Lee Peterson
EVP Thought Leadership, Marketing, WD Partners
Offering in-store pickup for livestreamed products is a natural extension of the concept and retailers’ overall convenience arsenals. The trick will be to strike a balance between efficient pickup processes and encouraging shoppers to check out in-store merchandise at pickup time. Add-on sales are what will make the proposition pay off.
This doesn’t pass my “friction” test for mass adoption. It adds complexity to transactions rather than making it easier for consumers to find what they’re looking for quickly. I’m sure livestream events will have their fans and may generate some interest for Best Buy. For most consumers, I suspect sitting through what sounds like an extended advertisement, waiting for their favorite category to be featured, will be asking a bit too much of their limited attention spans.
Livestream shopping is a big deal. Whether or not in-store pickup is available, retailers need to be in the game of doing livestreams. It has worked with QVC and HSN for years and the sales and types of products they are selling surprised me. I saw people buying jewelry in the $3,000 to $5,000 range last night.
The power of having a great salesperson selling product that people will buy is proof.
I agree with the research that indicates livestreaming will continue to grow. It’s been extremely popular in Asia for some time now, but there are financial implications and I’m not as confident about the in-store pickup angle. Assuming most of the time consumers are watching livestreaming from their homes, and the purchased item qualifies for free shipping (above delivery price thresholds), what’s the appeal of hopping in the car, driving through frustrating traffic to pick up in-store, when I could have it delivered directly to my home without additional delivery expense? Sure, I can have the item today if I go to the store vs. two or three days shipping wait, but the pandemic has conditioned consumers for a reasonable delivery-to-home waiting period. Net-net — retailers will need to aggressively pressure test this business model due to the increased cost of livestreaming events.
QVC and Home shopping Network just launched the Qurate livestreaming video shopping channel on Roku at the end of November. The company has had a down quarter, but still generates over $3 billion in revenue. The in-store pickup option is the differentiator, as the livestream shopping is clearly a niche market but can extend to a wide audience. Extending entertainment value will make livestreams even more popular. As special events return in full force, livestreaming is a natural add-on with merchandising and pop-up shops. The in-store pickup makes it more convenient – I’d expect to see more of this by larger retailers and event coordinators.
Best Buy is an interesting test case since many of their featured items — appliances, etc. — really can’t be picked up by the average shopper. That said, for smaller items I’m sure it will help reduce cost to some degree and obviously, if it catches on, it will help justify the investment in livestreaming.
Funny how livestreaming took so long with U.S. retailers, as Alibaba reported that during the height of the pandemic in 2020, they did $44 billion using that platform. At the end of the day, you should be able to watch a livestream and get whatever you ordered the same way you normally do, so I believe this will help. A bigger issue though is the persistence of American retailers moving too slow. C’mon guys, we’re going on 25 years of fail fast — wake up. Check the average age of your leadership team and board for starters.
And so everything old is new again. Just this year, streaming services discovered cable TV — but not quite as good as it once was. (TiVO plus cable was a great combo.) Now home shopping is rediscovered as livestream shopping? Hopefully it will be better than the old version. And in-store pickup is a nice addition. Still, it’s ironic that it took streamers 20 years to discover what already worked.
The energy and excitement of livestreaming will absolutely drive in-store pickup sales! Before producing events retailers will need to put inventory and staffing plans into place to deliver on-demand.
Once again, Best Buy (and other retailers) is trying to create a more convenient experience for their customers. It’s simple. The easier you are to do business with, the more likely you’ll get the business, and get customers to come back. For now, it is in the trial/experimental stage. I’ll be interested to see if this turns out to be a good option for both the customer and the retailer.
It would seem that getting up to get dressed to go pick up something you’ve just purchased from the comfort of your couch rather defeats the purpose of buying from your couch.
The real winner here (if there is one) are retailers saving money on fulfillment. The real challenge here (if we’re honest) is that live streaming is a social buzz word in retail and commerce used to promote a shiny new object that American consumers have yet to latch onto.
There is a saying that comes to mind here: “If it don’t fit, don’t force it.”
Livestream shopping is today’s “Retailtainment”! It has the power to connect shoppers in all geographies to retailers and brands. In store pick-up works within a certain proximity.