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Are Amazon’s Livestreams a Natural for TV Shopping?
Expanding the reach of Amazon Live, Amazon has launched an interactive, shoppable, and free ad-supported (FAST) channel on its Prime Video and Freevee streaming services.
Customers gain access to Amazon Live’s FAST channel by navigating to the “Live TV” tab on Prime Video, Fire TV, or the Freevee app, as well as through the Amazon Live tab on desktop and mobile.
The channel offers 24/7 programming of the “most-watched and most-loved content” from Amazon Live, a QVC-like shopping experience launched in 2019 in the U.S. on the Amazon site and app.
Content includes shoppable shows featuring reality TV stars and influencers Lala Kent (“Vanderpump Rules”), Kandi Burruss (“Real Housewives of Atlanta”), Paige DeSorbo (“Summer House”), Ashley Iaconetti and Jared Haibon (“Bachelor in Paradise”), and Madison LeCroy (“Southern Charm”). Brands including Tastemade and The Bump will also host episodes.
Viewers browse and purchase the items influencers show off by using the Amazon Shopping app on their mobile devices. When entering “Shop the Show” into the search bar, users are directed to a shopping carousel featuring the products they see on TV in real time.
Citing findings from Samba’s TV H2 2023 U.S. State of Viewership report showing that 75% of U.S. adults look at a mobile device while watching TV, Amazon said the technology “provides customers with a seamless, interactive, and convenient shopping experience.”
DeSorbo, who is launching her own original show on the Amazon Live TV channel, said in a statement, “Watching Amazon Live is like shopping with a friend who is also a personal stylist. I get to share my honest opinions, demonstrate products, and help customers discover their next great find.”
While long predicted, Amazon only recently began linking Amazon Prime content to e-commerce, marked by the launch of a virtual store selling merchandise as part of a promotion for “The Boys” spinoff series “Gen V.” Last year, QVC and sister channel HSN introduced linear offerings on Freevee, representing the only livestream shopping channels on the service at the time.
According to Amazon, more than 1 billion customers in the U.S. and India streamed Amazon Live’s shoppable videos in 2023. It had introduced the offering in India in 2022. According to Footwear News, more than 76% of direct sales from Amazon Live sponsored streams come from new-to-brand customers.
“Fashion and beauty perform really well for live streams, because creators can demo the product and bring it to life,” Julie Haleluk, global head of growth for Amazon Live Shoppable Videos, told Footwear News last year. “Ultimately, the goal is to create as frictionless of an experience at point of sale as possible for the customer. Customers are coming here every day across various shopping journeys and we see that video can add tremendous value to their shopping behavior.”
Led by Amazon, YouTube, eBay, TikTok, and HSN, livestream e-commerce revenues tripled in size in the U.S. from 2021 to 2023 to $31.7 billion, and the market is expected to reach $68 billion by 2026, according to Coresight Research. Still, livestreaming has taken off much faster in China and only represents 3% of e-commerce sales in the U.S.
Coresight cited multichannel streaming and expansion into new retail verticals among underlying trends expected to drive future growth in the livestreaming market, as well as incentives and special offers during streams and the creation of online communities via livestreaming.
Discussion Questions
Is bringing Amazon Live to Prime Video and Freevee streaming services a potential game changer for livestreaming’s growth in the U.S.?
Do you see strong synergies between livestreams and TV shopping, or are the shopping experiences more incongruent than assumed?
Poll
Loading …BrainTrust
Shep Hyken
Chief Amazement Officer, Shepard Presentations, LLC
Melissa Minkow
Director, Retail Strategy, CI&T
Adding livestreaming to Prime video is sensible as it will expand access and make it more visible – currently awareness that Amazon even offers livestreaming is relatively low in the US. Of course, not everyone will ‘tune in’, but this will help provide a boost. The challenge is to ensure that content is consistently engaging and entertaining; at the moment I think it is a bit hit and miss! There is much to learn from Qurate (which owns HSN and QVC) – which is an expert at content production because it has a very long pedigree in the space.
Amazon’s interactive, shoppable, and free ad-supported (FAST) channel on its Prime Video and Freevee streaming services isn’t as revolutionary as we might think, but it will successfully capture a “natural” audience in a “natural” marketplace.
Imitators will have a hard time duplicating a similar “natural” marketplace. If Walmart decides to do something similar using its own tools and resources, it might be a somewhat formidable competitor, just as Walmart.com is to Amazon. Other than Walmart, no one else is anywhere close to being able to compete in the same way.
Most consumer will never admit publicly that they like to buy this way. And maybe they don’t like to buy that way, but guess what? They will buy, and when its done right, they will spend a great deal more, incrementally, than they did before.
Sellers need to avoid using cheap shortcuts. The quality of the videos need to be “advertising agency” grade, in order to be most successful because the video is competing with everything else that human eyes and ears are subject to right at the time.
In its prime (no pun intended) QVC and other home shopping channels were immensely professional, captivating, and successful. Fast forward to 2024, this is what will be similar, and almost the same, but using today’s greater technologies, and what’s even better is that the consumer doesn’t have to make as much effort to watch, react, and buy, as they might once have done with home shopping channels. – Db
Live-streaming is a very 1990’s model. I see no value in it. QVC is very sticky and gave people from tiny little towns a voice in the 90’s (I confess that I used to watch and listen to the testimonials when I couldn’t sleep…just for fun). But we have social networks now. To me, it’s pointless
I think for most people it is pointless. But there are certain demographic segments who are into it. I think most of the hype we heard around it during the pandemic has failed to materialize.
I ALSO Agree with you guys!!!! It is a Very 1990’s model. I Guess they should be happy IF they acheive only a small increase in over all sales numbers. I can not imagine a bump of more than 2 to 3 percent, which I think would be good. Do the costs support that ? But you guys are RIGHT! There IS a niche customer group who seem to just LOVE home shopping TV style.
With Amazon’s scale, even a small uplift is worth a lot in dollar terms. But some of this is also about Amazon experimenting so it stays ahead of the curve. If it doesn’t work out in the long run they will ditch it – as they’ve done with many other experiments!
Amazon Live? More like Bravo Live.
This strikes me as a natural evolution. We will see the addition of similar services on other providers. It is surely no differnet than QVC or HSN. Indeed, it is not a monumental decision for the networks.
I am all for it as long as it doesn’t interrupt my viewing habits.
Before even reading the article, the first thing that came to mind was, “This is Amazon’s version of QVC or HSN.” This is a brilliant move. For Amazon, there is a relatively low risk of trying out a live-streaming channel on Prime. I’m surprised it took this long for them to come up with this!
But you get that QVC and HSN are not doing all that well, right? Their customers are very sticky, but are also aging out. That’s why QVC bought Ziuilily some years back. They thought they could gain a younger demographic and remain sticky. But…well, we all know how that turned out.
This is a natural evolution for Amazon, but I don’t see it as a game changer for livestreaming growth. Instead, it’s another digital access point where consumers can view, engage and purchase goods in the home or on the go. Content and TSV (time-spent-viewing) will be two critical aspects to success and continued growth.
I’m not sure it’s a game changer but it’s more in line with what drove the success in China and with what makes livestream shopping in China so popular (ignoring cultural and market differences). People still watch “content” and now more than ever they watch that content on Smart TVs. The problem with Smart TVs is they’re almost useless (in fact frustrating) for browsing or shopping using their out of the box remotes so the idea of coupling professional hosts on TV with a mobile based app is extremely cool. Maybe they’ll even partner with a few of the most annoying reality shows – I mean “popular.”
The primary issue is that this new technology and business model has been put into a pigeon hole by everyone who has QVC on the brain. I’m obviously biased given my background but see a great opportunity to humanize the online retail space. Remember, the article states that livestreaming only accounts for 3% of ecommerce and, as we all know, ecommerce accounts for less than 20% of total global retail. Something is keeping us humans from going completely digital and all one has to do is look at the evolution of ecommerce to see that it has been desperate in its attempts to become more and more human (while doubling down on its primary, competitive advantage, convenience).
Regardless, it’s a cool idea and Amazon certainly has the resources to give it a good old college try and maybe make a game of it. And I think online retailers should abandon the QVC paradigm and experiment with the idea even without professional hosts – concierge shopping, live assisted chat shopping, etc.
It’s hard for me to get excited about anything that adds more friction to consumer engagement or shopping patterns. The heyday of long-format video for selling has long passed. HSN, QVC, and others have significantly declined as their customers have gotten older and better, and faster and more interactive channels have been developed.
Younger (and more valuable) consumers are far more interested in short subject videos from influencers on Facebook and TikTock (At least for another week until TicTock goes away). There will be some audience for this, but I don’t believe it will be even close to becoming a game changer for eCommerce.
It does make sense to expand this extension. As Neil mentioned , QVC and HSN are the pros in this arena and I have learned a lot from them over the years.
Paraphrasing George Carlin: 5,000 channels and nothing to buy…..
“Led by Amazon, YouTube, eBay, TikTok, and HSN, livestream e-commerce revenues tripled in size in the U.S. from 2021 to 2023 to $31.7 billion, and the market is expected to reach $68 billion by 2026, according to Coresight Research.”
That’s not a bad bit of growth and forecast for Livestreaming. I figured most of the comments on this article would be negative. I think some of our Brian Trust and many retailers and brands are vastly underestimating the power of video in retail.
Livestreaming, Shoppable Video, TikTok Shop, 80% of physical stores purchases influenced by video. All are part of the “V-Commerce” movement within the “Immersive Commerce” evolution.
I can see this being very successful as long as they choose the right influencers. That said, consumers do really go to Amazon to maximize shopping efficiencies and get what they want quickly. So, I could also see this ultimately not working out. Only time will tell!
Anything that increases product relevance and insights to customers without a ton of investment will be a winner. Live streaming brings customers one step closer to a purchase.
Amazon has both its own stylists and influencers to drive short videos about products, point out key features, and questions about use or comfort. This is a no brainer for a boost even if only some customers use it.
Adding Amazon Live to these streaming services brings livestreaming into the heart of millions of American homes. If the content is fun and binge-worthy, more viewers will make a habit of tuning in as products become the stars of the show. [Porsha Williams’ pink tops give me life.]