70% of Europeans are open to live shopping

Live shopping in Europe is becoming more and more popular. This trend started in China and the rest of Southeast Asia, but now consumers in Europe are increasingly watching live shopping events to get inspired to buy some clothes and other fashion items.

Live shopping is hot, especially in China. There, on average 50,000 livestreams are held daily with approximately 260 million viewers. According to forecasts from Coresight Research, live shopping will generate sales of over 250 billion euros this year alone, and the trend is rising.

Teleshopping 2.0

Live shopping is basically nothing more than traditional teleshopping. Think of home shopping television stations such as QVC (US, UK, Germany, Japan, Italy, China), TJC (UK), Tel Sell (the Netherlands) or Tvins (Scandinavia). With live shopping, not only the medium is different, customers are also more involved as they can interact with a brand via chat or other on-screen functionalities.

Europeans are discovering live shopping events.

A study by Arvato Supply Chain Solutions shows that more and more consumers in Europe have begun to explore virtual shopping events. Now, 70 percent of European customers answered favorably when asked if they would be open to live shopping. But while in Southeast Asia the majority of live shopping customers are young millennials, those interested in Europe are mostly between the ages of 32 to 43.

1 in 3 fashion/beauty brands offered live shopping event

About one in five brands analyzed started using live shopping as a sales channel since summer last year. And now, more than one in three fashion and beauty brands have offered at least one live shopping event. “While beauty companies rely on regular livestreams, fashion companies offer occasional events. Both branches clearly prefer the integration of live shopping into their own webshops but advertise events on social media channels”, Arvato explains.

Most live shopping events are held on the company’s website.

Last year, the use of shopping apps increased by almost 50 percent. Brands and online shops can of course use this development to connect directly with their customers via app-based live shopping events. It’s also possible to organize live shopping through social media, but Facebook Live for example has not yet been used by the brands in the Arvato study. About 70 percent of live shopping events are currently held on brands’ and retailers’ own websites.