I agree with Andrew. I don’t know many people who have disposable income waiting for anyone’s livestream.

There is probably a niche segment of shoppers that will gravitate to livestream shopping, but it may never be as pervasive as it is in China. The time and effort that consumers have to invest in watching livestream shopping are the biggest obstacles. However there is always brand or fashion fanatics that will seek out immersive experiences like livestream shopping.

There is definitely a segment that will gravitate towards livestream shopping. Add it to to the long list of options that customers have to shop.

There are some fundamental differences between China and the U.S. that will prevent livestreaming from reaching the same scale in the U.S. In particular, Alibaba and Tmall facilitate most of the notable livestreams, and the U.S. market is far more complex than that. A single retailer livestreaming a single or handful of brands will not have the same pull. It’s time to define what social commerce looks like in the U.S., rather than just replicate what was successful elsewhere.

I do predict an uptick in U.S. livestreaming, but not to the extent that we see in China. Culture is a big part of this. Having traveled to mainland China many times, my interpretation of consumers’ attitudes toward retail is that they treat it more like a sport than traditionally a secondary activity like in the U.S. Furthermore, over the last three decades, China’s urban population centers have continued to grow at massive rates, where cities now account for 64 percent of the nearly 1.4 billion people. As you might imagine, high density centers with access to speedy broadband coupled with high single/low double digit GDP growth are contributing factors to livestreaming attendance. All this said, livestreaming can play a huge role in how U.S. retailers differentiate their offerings from one another. And that is very exciting.

If livestreaming doesn’t take off in the next year, it probably won’t ever take off in the U.S. Brands need to find ways of being more engaging, educational, and accessible in their approach in order for this to work. In China, livestreaming is happening where consumers already are. In the U.S., consumers have to actively seek it out and know when to tune in. It needs to be more of a constant and more aligned to what shoppers need in the moment.

“The time and effort that consumers have to invest in watching livestream shopping are the biggest obstacles.” Well said David Naumann.

Yes, more U.S. companies and consumers will flock to livestreaming in 2022, as e-commerce gets entertaining.

Livestreaming is growing in influence across categories and industries like:

• Grocery: Albertsons and H-E-B;
• Beauty: Cover Girl, E.l.f. Cosmetics, L’Oréal and Ulta;
• Department stores: Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s, Nordstrom and Saks;
• Mass: Walmart partnered with TikTok and talkshoplive;
• Tech giants: Amazon, Meta and Google (YouTube);
• Media: NBC Universal, QVC and Cosmopolitan.

In China, livestream events have become the new “must-see TV” equivalent. Best practices include seamless integration of e-commerce, payment and social sharing functionality. Captivating content features sales-oriented influencers who are emerging as new celebrities. It will take time — and a concerted, industry-wide collaborative effort — for the U.S. to catch up.

It appears that I may be more bullish on livestreaming than most other BrainTrust members. I have spent a good bit of time researching and documenting my passion for associate livestreaming (versus influencer livestreams), but even I don’t think it will ever reach 10 percent to 20 percent of total e-commerce sales. The built-in adoption of e-commerce in China far outweighs the U.S. market. However if it could reach even 5 percent of e-commerce, that is still very meaningful and worth exploring.

Of course, I guess that all depends on how you define, “a spike.” If by spike you mean moderate growth off a small base which statistically looks at first blush to be a staggering uptick — maybe. If you think of “spike” as a real, sustainable rise in interest and use, the answer is, “no, not in 2022.” That said, let me say that I disagree slightly with some of my distinguished fellow BrainTrusters. Many of our discussions seem to wrestle with variations of the same question, “Does individual and collective human behavior evolve in response to the adoption of new tools?” And the answer is that there is a pretty well documented and unbroken history of exactly that since the dawn of modern humanoids. The effectiveness of printed words is (directionally) on the downturn and a consumer preference for visuals, symbols, and spoken words is (directionally) trending up. Livestreaming seems to be on the right side of the arc of communication, so it will grow in popularity – just not quite as fast and… Read more »

Livestreaming gained a bit of momentum during 2021 in the U.S. market. We should expect this growth trajectory to continue throughout 2022, as social selling, livestreaming, and content creation will continue to play a significant role in the digital commerce space. The more likely scenario will be a hybrid scenario where social selling will occur in TikTok and livestreaming content creation.

While there will be an increased level of engagement with livestreaming content, the U.S. market will not approach the omnipresent force in the China market. Livestreaming will continue to be a viable option for brand engagement and social selling.

Yes, livestreaming, social commerce, it will all grow significantly. Will it be as big a percentage of total sales as in China? Probably not, but will still be significant. Brands like Estee Lauder used live streaming successfully to increase digital summer sales by as much as 50% so the evidence is there outside of China. We may see a bifurcation in terms of platforms used and retailers using them. One option is to rely on the big social platforms to deliver livestreaming capability, likely favored by smaller retailers if perceived as a faster, easier router to getting up and running. But there are also numerous startups in this space delivering dedicated platforms for livestreaming that link to the social platforms but are not dependent on them. The lack of familiarity and platform choice is one reason for slow adoption, but this will be overcome as more brands try out the technology and see results. One area I like to distinguish, as Dave Bruno has done in his comments, is associate led livestreaming vs influencer led.… Read more »