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July 7, 2025
Should Live Shopping Play a Bigger Role in US Retail Strategy?
It’s well-known that U.S. retailers have been slower to adopt live shopping than other countries like China, India, and Brazil.
At last week’s RetailWire Roundtable, our discussion focused on social commerce and live shopping. The panelists discussed how live shopping is influencing not only online sales, but also in-store traffic. One example came from a flagship fashion store in Manhattan that hosted a two-hour livestream. The team expected a short-term spike in digital sales.
“Customers bought more in those two hours than the flagship sold in a month,” said Michael Zakkour, founder of 5 New Digital, speaking at a recent RetailWire roundtable.
According to Zakkour, foot traffic to the store rose 40% over the next four weeks. Website visits increased by 30%, average order value grew 35%, and product return rates dropped from the usual 40% to just 10%.
Live Shopping Is Set To Grow Globally, But Can it Find a Foothold Stateside?
It’s one example, but it echoes larger market trends. Live shopping is gaining traction as more than a novelty. While adoption in the U.S. has been cautious, global forecasts suggest momentum is building. According to Precedence Research, livestream e-commerce is expected to reach $19.86 billion in 2025, with a projected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 33% through 2034. Business Research Insights projects the global live e-commerce market will grow from $1,350 billion in 2024 to $1,502 billion in 2025.
Still, live shopping is rarely part of the core playbook in U.S. retail. Many teams treat it as a one-off marketing event, rather than a trigger for lasting omnichannel effects.
That could be a mistake, however: Live shopping is emerging as a valuable channel in a company’s ideal array of video and immersive commerce strategies.
Zakkour believes the real value is in what he calls the “halo effect,” when live social campaigns influence behavior across channels and over time.
Return rates may be one place where that halo is clearest. In Zakkour’s example, livestream buyers returned fewer products, possibly due to better expectation-setting from live demos and Q&A. It reflects a growing belief that content-rich formats may reduce friction in categories known for high return volume, such as apparel and beauty.
Discussion Questions
Is live shopping starting to prove itself as an omnichannel growth tool?
What would it take for more retailers to view it as a strategic lever, rather than a one-time campaign?
Poll
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Live-streaming is growing in the US, but it simply does not have the penetration that is present in other markets. Part of this is because the US is less digital than countries like China – especially when it comes to integrated commerce platforms, and part is because a lot of consumers favor traditional e-commerce due to time constraints and the ability to compare and research at leisure. However, platforms like TikTok Shop are showing that with good storytelling, there is scope for growth in live-streaming.
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With as many limited-time sales events (ie: Prime Week) that we already have in the US, it’s highly unlikely that the American consumer wants to create a more-pressured shopping experience.
Where there may be some growth potential is SMBs hosting fashion shows or creator-led tours of their products, which could drive some ‘buy-it-now’ passion.
I think the people at Mary Ruth’s Vitamins, who are running almost 24/7 and growing exponentially, would disagree.
This is one of those rare – well, OK, maybe not rare, but still not the norm – times when the wording of the question inspires a philosophical response: if the question was “will it play a bigger part?” my answer would have been “yes”; but it was “should it play a bigger part?”: that calls for a “probably not”. It depends, I think, on what a retailer’s goal is. If it’s simply bigger (gross) sales, regardless of the consequences – returns, ability to pay, loyalty – then something which by its nature seems to juice sales by increasing impulse buying looks good. OTOH, if one thinks the best sales are thoughtful ones, live shopping maybe doesn’t look so great.
Fair assessment. When at its best, it’s a thoughtful tool to storytell, clarify benefits, uses, origins of materials, quality, and answer questions. At its worst, another medium promoting limited time deals, boosting product sales volume, but not making much of a meaningful brand connection in the long run.
OMFG, what has taken American retailers so long to embrace livestreaming? Maybe it never gets to the extent of its popularity in China but it’s something that is just made for the social media set here in the U.S. If QVC and HSN had jumped on livestreaming earlier they would be in so much better positions in the marketplace, it’s really just their format put on a handheld screen. What didn’t they get?
Astute observation about the TV shopping channels missing the boat on this.
It’s not the QVC-HSN model at all. They vet thousands of brands every year and only SELECT a relative few. With Live, anyone can do it across multiple channels. Also, QVC and HSN are polished studio shows, not anywhere, anytime, DIY authentic.
Agree. Having worked at The Shopping Channel in Canada, while there are strategies and sales techniques that translate into Live Shopping…it’s not exactly the same. I think the 2 barriers to getting more brands on board is 1) thinking it’s going to be like that viral video of the Chinese presenter moving one product to another per second…and 2) that it will be hard sales or sales focused like QVC/HSN “but wait there’s more”. I tell my brands it can look ANY WAY you want. Authentic to your brand. Shoppable interviews, podcasts, cooking segments on youtube…opportunites are endless!
I admit I had similar thoughts and I believe that QVC and HSN actually understand how to do retail really well! Better than most..
I could be wrong, but I see “Live Shopping” as a version of HSN or similar networks.The difference is that the brand gets 100% control of the narrative. When a retailer can showcase their merch in a way that gets customers to buy, it makes a difference. And more and more, the younger generation is tethered to their “phones” (mobile devices), like we’ve never seen. Yes, it will prove to be an effective channel.
Yes, meeting people where THEY are 🙂
Live shopping has promise with a smaller and dedicated following who love the experience. But attracting the larger consumer audience in the USA will be challenging. We’re already distracted as consumers, challenged to even find ample time to shop online or in store as it is. Time is a valuable currency, and setting aside more unavailable time to watch live video feeds will be for very specific products, brands, or for short segments.
The Manhattan store example perfectly demonstrates how live shopping transcends sales channels to become an omnichannel amplifier. Live shopping has evolved from a transactional tool to a relationship catalyst, with consumers integrating TikTok Shop and Amazon Live into their broader shopping patterns.
Three fundamental shifts are necessary for retailers to view live shopping as a strategic lever. First, measurement frameworks must capture halo effects over 90+ day windows. Second, stop treating it as social media marketing—assemble dedicated live commerce teams with P&L responsibility. Third, develop platform-specific value propositions: TikTok Shop for discovery, Amazon Live for conversion, owned platforms for premium experiences, and data ownership.
The sophistication gap isn’t between retailers who do live shopping versus those who don’t—it’s between those treating it as marketing theater versus omnichannel infrastructure. Retailers should stop asking if live shopping works and start figuring out how to use it to solve their specific omnichannel friction points. Live shopping is redefining how retailers create and capture value in their omnichannel growth strategies.
Michael Zakkour’s powerful stats speak volumes about how live commerce can draw eyeballs and impulse buys. Demos and crowd interaction elevate e-commerce trust. We get multisensory cues like how a dress fits and how loud a blender is, details the online reviews and pictures may not adequately capture.
Retailers can experiment with live shopping events as content-driven promotional tools for their targeted communities and team up with popular creators. Even a short series of live shopping tests can drive online-to-offline awareness and sales by making the brands the true stars of the show.
Sounds like the data in the article speaks for itself. Which does not mean it will work for every brand in every city. But it does mean that live shopping is an under utilized strategy for many brands in several markets. Just the one point about ‘expectation-setting’ is important. Even if a shopper does not buy at a specific live shopping event, the heightened awareness of the brand and the product attributes can only add value down the line.
If retailers are seeing lower return rates and a boost in traffic with live shopping, it’s hard to see why it wouldn’t play a bigger role in U.S. retail strategy. The real challenge may be rethinking how video fits into core operations, not just marketing.
The problem is, too many retailers still treat live shopping as a one-and-done moment instead of building it into a bigger strategy.
I’ve worked in this space from all sides: host, producer, strategist, trainer, and the brands I’ve helped see the best results are the ones who treat live shopping as a proper channel, not just a campaign. Some of them have seen conversion rates between 26% and 57%.
While most of my work is about getting brands set up to run this themselves, I still partner with a few as their on-air ambassador. One brand I work with actually saw four times more sales from the replay than my initial live shopping event. And those same segments were repurposed into shoppable videos that kept working long after the live ended.
Here in Canada, we don’t have access to TikTok Shop, so building your own strategy and owning the IP matters even more. And brands that have access to TTS, should reap those rewards, but also not put ALL the eggs in that basket (IMO).
Isn’t live shopping the mobile/web version of Informercials and TV Shopping Networks? (those didn’t exist in China which could explain why people jumped on live streaming concept.)
A big part of the Live Shopping appeal to the consumers is low price, flash sales, product demonstration by a live human. It works for certain type of shoppers – those who have time to follow the streaming and/or those who love a bargain. I don’t see it becoming a core channel in the U.S. market.
By the way, it’s losing momentum in China as the purchasing power diminishes and many consumers have turned their home into warehouses full of stuff they bought and don’t need.
Gen Z is reshaping how they discover and shop, and live shopping already aligns with their behavior. Retailers can begin by experimenting with small, consistent live shopping formats that feel natural to their audience and build on what already works across digital channels. Currently, live shopping is not a core part of retail, but it could soon become a much bigger part.
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/he-lili_china-chinese-ecommerce-activity-7349055082841198597-xnrs?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAAA_ImUBL5xVKdQokTmfb65bfBt_wKuBqBc