Livestream Shopping: A $500 Billion Market In 2022 As Amazon, Google, Facebook, TikTok Jump In?
Forbes | January 22, 2022
Livestream shopping is projected to rake in a massive $480 billion in China this year, according to eMarketer, but only $11 billion in the United States, according to Foresight Research. That could change quickly, however: Facebook, Amazon, TikTok, Twitter, and other tech giants like Pinterest are jumping into livestream shopping hard.
Live social shopping is certainly big in the verticals you might imagine: fashion, beauty, fitness, home decor. But it’s not just for women, Beganovich says. Home improvement is also a major vertical for livestream shopping, and marketers also target men for tech devices and in fitness verticals.
The key, perhaps surprisingly, isn’t necessarily the shopping. Rather, it’s the entertainment, the fun, the interest, and the engagement that an interesting and passionate influencer brings to a space. And if it happens to be one you care about, and the product happens to interest you, you might just click the buy button.
Just three years ago this was almost nonexistent in the west, and was a small segment of commerce, just 3.5% of all retail e-commerce, in China. Last year it was a $300 billion segment in China at just under 12% of retail sales, and in 2023, eMarketer estimates it will be 19.4% and worth over $600 billion. The corresponding numbers in the U.S. are $11 billion this year and growth to $25 billion by 2023.
Amazon is investing big in Amazon Live. Google has live shopping on YouTube. Pinterest, seemingly a great fit for this kind of venture, announced a livestream shopping project late last year. Twitter, which has put innovation around creators and monetization in overdrive lately, is working on livestream shopping. Facebook is investing, particularly on Instagram. TikTok, with roots in China, is a particularly interesting player to watch here.
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