Search by Algolia
Feature Spotlight: Query Rules
product

Feature Spotlight: Query Rules

You’re running an ecommerce site for an electronics retailer, and you’re seeing in your analytics that users keep ...

Jaden Baptista

Technical Writer

An introduction to transformer models in neural networks and machine learning
ai

An introduction to transformer models in neural networks and machine learning

What do OpenAI and DeepMind have in common? Give up? These innovative organizations both utilize technology known as transformer models ...

Vincent Caruana

Sr. SEO Web Digital Marketing Manager

What’s the secret of online merchandise management? Giving store merchandisers the right tools
e-commerce

What’s the secret of online merchandise management? Giving store merchandisers the right tools

As a successful in-store boutique manager in 1994, you might have had your merchandisers adorn your street-facing storefront ...

Catherine Dee

Search and Discovery writer

New features and capabilities in Algolia InstantSearch
engineering

New features and capabilities in Algolia InstantSearch

At Algolia, our business is more than search and discovery, it’s the continuous improvement of site search. If you ...

Haroen Viaene

JavaScript Library Developer

Feature Spotlight: Analytics
product

Feature Spotlight: Analytics

Analytics brings math and data into the otherwise very subjective world of ecommerce. It helps companies quantify how well their ...

Jaden Baptista

Technical Writer

What is clustering?
ai

What is clustering?

Amid all the momentous developments in the generative AI data space, are you a data scientist struggling to make sense ...

Vincent Caruana

Sr. SEO Web Digital Marketing Manager

What is a vector database?
product

What is a vector database?

Fashion ideas for guest aunt informal summer wedding Funny movie to get my bored high-schoolers off their addictive gaming ...

Vincent Caruana

Sr. SEO Web Digital Marketing Manager

Unlock the power of image-based recommendation with Algolia’s LookingSimilar
engineering

Unlock the power of image-based recommendation with Algolia’s LookingSimilar

Imagine you're visiting an online art gallery and a specific painting catches your eye. You'd like to find ...

Raed Chammam

Senior Software Engineer

Empowering Change: Algolia's Global Giving Days Impact Report
algolia

Empowering Change: Algolia's Global Giving Days Impact Report

At Algolia, our commitment to making a positive impact extends far beyond the digital landscape. We believe in the power ...

Amy Ciba

Senior Manager, People Success

Retail personalization: Give your ecommerce customers the tailored shopping experiences they expect and deserve
e-commerce

Retail personalization: Give your ecommerce customers the tailored shopping experiences they expect and deserve

In today’s post-pandemic-yet-still-super-competitive retail landscape, gaining, keeping, and converting ecommerce customers is no easy ...

Vincent Caruana

Sr. SEO Web Digital Marketing Manager

Algolia x eTail | A busy few days in Boston
algolia

Algolia x eTail | A busy few days in Boston

There are few atmospheres as unique as that of a conference exhibit hall: the air always filled with an indescribable ...

Marissa Wharton

Marketing Content Manager

What are vectors and how do they apply to machine learning?
ai

What are vectors and how do they apply to machine learning?

To consider the question of what vectors are, it helps to be a mathematician, or at least someone who’s ...

Catherine Dee

Search and Discovery writer

Why imports are important in JS
engineering

Why imports are important in JS

My first foray into programming was writing Python on a Raspberry Pi to flicker some LED lights — it wasn’t ...

Jaden Baptista

Technical Writer

What is ecommerce? The complete guide
e-commerce

What is ecommerce? The complete guide

How well do you know the world of modern ecommerce?  With retail ecommerce sales having exceeded $5.7 trillion worldwide ...

Vincent Caruana

Sr. SEO Web Digital Marketing Manager

Data is king: The role of data capture and integrity in embracing AI
ai

Data is king: The role of data capture and integrity in embracing AI

In a world of artificial intelligence (AI), data serves as the foundation for machine learning (ML) models to identify trends ...

Alexandra Anghel

Director of AI Engineering

What are data privacy and data security? Why are they  critical for an organization?
product

What are data privacy and data security? Why are they critical for an organization?

Imagine you’re a leading healthcare provider that performs extensive data collection as part of your patient management. You’re ...

Catherine Dee

Search and Discovery writer

Achieving digital excellence: Algolia's insights from the GDS Retail Digital Summit
e-commerce

Achieving digital excellence: Algolia's insights from the GDS Retail Digital Summit

In an era where customer experience reigns supreme, achieving digital excellence is a worthy goal for retail leaders. But what ...

Marissa Wharton

Marketing Content Manager

AI at scale: Managing ML models over time & across use cases
ai

AI at scale: Managing ML models over time & across use cases

Just a few years ago it would have required considerable resources to build a new AI service from scratch. Of ...

Benoit Perrot

VP, Engineering

Looking for something?

facebookfacebooklinkedinlinkedintwittertwittermailmail

On many ecommerce websites and mobile apps, it’s common to see user reviews of various products sold on these sites. Such user-generated content offers site visitors an authentic personal opinion and feedback of people who have already purchased and tested the products before. 

User reviews play a critical role in shoppers’ ability to make a purchase decision. User-generated reviews featuring pictures or videos of the products make these products and sites that sell them more trustworthy. Yet, 34% percent of ecommerce sites don’t allow users to upload images along with the review.

Today, user-generated reviews are transforming from an advertising tool supporting commerce into an independent sub-industry of live-streaming ecommerce. In 2016, Chinese ecommerce platforms began experimenting with live-streaming ecommerce. By 2019, live-streamed ecommerce had become so competitive that large players began to consolidate the space, leveraging Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) to accelerate sales. (Sources: ARK Investment Management LLC, EqualOcean). 

We can see that celebrities and brand associates used in conventional advertising and marketing strategies are currently perceived less as a trustworthy source of information than influencers and real users on, for example, Social Media. For instance, companies such as rewardStyle (LKT) are specializing in connecting influencers with brands. Currently, rewardStyle is serving over one million brands and 150,000 creators who are constantly generating original content for these brands. This is just a single example of a strong growing trend towards user-generated content in brand promotion and advertising. 

(Source: ARK Investment Management LLC

In 2019, Kim Kardashian, a popular US influencer, sold 15,000 bottles of perfume within minutes of her TaoBao live-streaming shopping event. 13 million viewers watched this live video session and 1,000 bottles were already sold in the first few seconds of the event.

(Source: The Star)

Current trends in the ecommerce live-streaming sector

The live-streaming ecommerce trend is now spreading to the rest of the world. In the US, the trend is taking off rapidly due to the almost exponential correlation between ecommerce sales and social media monthly active users. 

(Source: ARK Investment Management LLC

The social aspect of ecommerce is becoming adopted as an essential feature by leading ecommerce marketplaces, such as Alibaba and Amazon. For instance, Amazon has recently launched Amazon Live, with live-streaming video product reviews. The recommended products are displayed directly below the video or inside the video frame, with the interactive chat available for direct communication with the influencers during each event.

An Amazon Live live-streaming event:

(Source: Amazon Live)

Live-streaming video recommendations are featured under each user-generated live-streaming video:

(Source: Amazon Live)

Alibaba’s TaoBao live-streaming drove $6 billion USD in sales during the 2020 Singles Day event, a shopping festival comparable to the Black Friday and Cyber Week events in the US (Source: Forbes)

Alibaba’s TaoBao live-streaming events:

(Source: Forbes)

Implementing ecommerce Live Streaming functionality

Live-streaming commerce market projection is showing rapid growth. From “nice to have”, it is quickly turning into “must have” functionality. For ecommerce businesses, especially marketplaces, dealing with extremely large product catalogs, live streaming can exponentially increase product discovery and boost sales.

(Source: ARK Investment Management LLC

UI elements for live streaming on desktop or mobile devices

  • Live-streaming window
  • Live chat where re-direct links can be posted and users can communicate with the live-streaming host
  • Product suggestions/banners with CTA buttons allowing users to purchase the products during the event
  • Recommended live-streaming sessions carousels, featuring future events that might be of interest to the users
  • Login prompt

Implementation

  • Product recommendations:
    • in addition to static product listings during the live-streaming event, related or frequently bought together products can be recommended to the viewers using a product-recommendation engine

 

 

 

  • Upcoming live-streaming sessions can be:
    • Suggested to viewers using AI recommendation engine

 

 

 

    • Personalized according to each user’s shopping preferences and online behaviors

 

 

 

    • Automatically re-ranked and ordered using AI-based popularity

 

 

 

Conclusion

Live-streaming commerce has grown exponentially in China and is now taking the rest of the world by storm. The social aspect of shopping is rapidly transforming from a “nice to have” to a “must have” capability for the ecommerce industry. Live-streaming commerce market projection shows tremendous growth globally, and retailers need to leverage this trend to increase product discovery, boost sales on their platforms, and take their online shopping experience to the next level – live stream shopping.

About the author
Tanya Herman

Product Manager

Recommended Articles

Powered byAlgolia Algolia Recommend

How to boost ecommerce with social media
e-commerce

Tanya Herman

Product Manager

How to stand out in the crowded streaming media landscape
ux

Pauline Lafontaine

Sr. Product Marketing Manager

Essential building blocks retailers consider when moving from Monolith to Headless architecture
product

Tanya Herman

Product Manager