If there is one constant in the digital world and the world of ecommerce, it is continuous innovation. Consumers are increasingly demanding and looking for new ways to buy and receive their products.
With the events resulting from the pandemic, this process was also noticeably accelerated. Businesses acted quickly to keep innovating and offer a shopping experience that met — and exceeded, if possible — the consumer’s expectations when making a purchase, regardless of the channel, whether on the Internet, on social media or in brick-and-mortar stores.
In this context, it is important to understand that there is no longer a “physical” limit to the stores. The consumer’s journey flows through the physical and the online worlds.
This is a clear example of a complete omnichannel experience, a concept that was being explored even before the pandemic and that is well-established among large retailers.
In parallel, new online sales strategies that take into account this multi-platform approach have been growing as well, and one of them has been standing out for its impressive results: Live Shopping, which can be a great ally to explore all the benefits that an omnichannel business model can offer.
But before exploring how Live Shopping can expand your omnichannel strategy, let’s understand a little more about each of these concepts.
Live Shopping is a new sales trend. When setting up a live-streaming event, the goal is to get people to buy products during the broadcast.
Unlike standard “one-to-one” selling, Live Shopping arises as a “one-to-many” approach that enables you to reach several people simultaneously.
The main features of Live Shopping are:
The Live Shopping sales model has become a real hit. Some success cases include Grupo Éxito in Colombia and Samsung in Chile. Grupo Éxito recorded a 6% increase in daily sales volume, while Samsung’s Chilean branch saw its daily order intake increase by 163%.
This is a consequence of the unique connection created with customers during the live events. The customer builds an interpersonal relationship, similar to the one with the sales associate in a physical store, thus feeling more reassured about the brand and the purchased product.
The omnichannel strategy integrates physical stores, virtual stores and the public. It represents the possibility that consumers have to choose where and how to buy and receive their orders. The goal is to provide a seamless and unique experience across all channels and touchpoints to the consumer, without interrupting their journey.
There are three types of omnichannel delivery strategies, and you can adopt as many as you want.
Adopting an omnichannel strategy is very beneficial to the retailer and the customer. It also increases the conversion rate and the competitiveness level of the company in the market. The main benefits are:
As we can see, the main benefits of adopting an omnichannel strategy lie in logistics and brand value perception. Both are decisive factors that will motivate the end-customer to complete the purchase.
With the dynamic way of working with an omnichannel strategy and the many benefits it brings, Live Shopping becomes a powerful tool to disclose these benefits.
Such action not only is a great sales argument that will positively impact the conversion rate of the store, but also positions the brand before the public. These two points help create “connection”, which is key for the success of an omnichannel action.
These are some ways to leverage your omnichannel strategy through live shopping actions and you’ll find them below.
Use the Live Shopping stream event to explain your delivery and exchange options. Seize the opportunity to interact with the public in real time and understand their main questions and wishes regarding your store’s shipping and pick-up options.
Work with more than one host and stores in different regions. Explore the reach of your points of sale and alternate the events among them, focusing the demonstrations on strategic products for each store.
Interact with the audience by asking where people are from. An interactive experience helps create connection with the public and also to direct your speech and actions to the audience of that specific region, choosing products that are in stock in these places and reinforcing the lower shipping cost and faster delivery, which is one of the greatest benefits of the omnichannel system.
Run free shipping campaigns for pick-up in-store and other types of shipping/exchange promotions as an incentive for customers to try new ways to receive your products.
To test and benefit from these initiatives within VTEX, you just need to have the VTEX Live Shopping App installed in your account. It will replicate all your account’s delivery and pick-up settings in your live-streaming sales.
It is possible to enhance an omnichannel strategy by taking advantage of the reach that Live Shopping events have. Furthermore, it’s important to keep in mind that you can test different strategies to understand which one works best for your store and audience, and thus leverage your multi-channel sales even further.
And adding the Live Shopping app to your store is seamless. The infrastructure is so flexible and scalable because it’s built on a cloud architecture in Amazon Web Services, which is one of VTEX’s most trustworthy partners.
The CCX Company, in collaboration with VTEX Commerce Cloud, expresses gratitude for having had the opportunity to enhance its understanding of the advantages, trends, and other elements addressed in the current topic. This article was jointly developed and is brought to you by the VTEX Commerce Cloud team.
