Introduction

On July 26–28, 2022, Verb Technology Company (VERB), held Shopfest, a three-day interactive livestream shopping festival, on its MARKET live shopping platform. As more brands and retailers turn to livestreaming to stimulate demand and drive sales, Shopfest sought to support retail companies by generating hype and demand with exclusive discounts and live engagement.

We present key highlights from Shopfest, including its multichannel livestreaming approach, emerging live shopping categories and tactics driving consumer engagement. Coresight Research collaborated with VERB to offer insights into Shopfest 2022.

• Read more Coresight Research coverage of livestreaming e-commerce.

VERB’s MARKET Hosts Shopfest 2022: Coresight Research Insights

Key Highlights

Shopfest enabled retailers to generate demand and traffic, capitalizing on the burgeoning live shopping opportunity. The event was designed to meet consumer demand for entertaining content, authentic engagement and a frictionless purchasing process. Consumers enjoyed a retail experience that combined live shopping, entertainment and charitable giving.

• The three-day live shopping festival saw strong consumer engagement, with 15,444 unique users visiting MARKET. These online viewers exhibited high rates of returning, browsing and purchasing, leading to 45,161 total website views over the three-day period.
• Shopfest saw a total of 8,511 livestreaming views through the MARKET platform alone—many viewers will have accessed content through external social or video channels.
• Shopfest was a global festival, featuring livestreams from 55 international brands and retailers from a diverse range of categories, including clothing and accessories, beauty, home and pet supplies (see Figure 1).

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Figure 1. VERB’s Shopfest 2022: Brands and Retailers That Hosted Livestreams

 

• MARKET’s simulcasting live shopping solution allowed sellers to simultaneously stream to multiple channels and locations, including Australia, Brazil and the US, during the event’s 63 live shopping sessions.
• VERB’s MARKET team produced 18 of the live shopping shows—the “Main Stage” sessions—in its Los Angeles and New York City studios; the rest were broadcast by merchants remotely.
• Shopfest provided shoppers with user-friendly charity donation opportunities during the live shopping experience through its partnership with charitable organization Good360.
• During the event, consumers could browse and purchase from 200 stores spanning multiple retail categories—and these stores remain active on the MARKET platform. Many of the participants that did not launch livestreams during Shopfest can do so following the event, giving consumers an incentive to return and remain engaged on the platform.

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Figure 2. VERB’s Shopfest 2022: Store Categories

Arts and crafts	Entertainment	Office products
Baby products	Grocery and gourmet food	Pet supplies
Clothing and accessories	Health and personal care	Sports
Collectibles and fine art	Home	Toys and games
Electronics	Industrial and scientific

Source: Shopfest

• Since Shopfest, MARKET has continued to attract shoppers, who can make purchases and watch live replays of the event’s sessions. As of August 11, 2022, MARKET had garnered a further 3,408 views of on-demand Shopfest videos.

Dialogue Drives Peak Engagement

Authenticity from hosts when testing out products and replying to live chat comments builds brand credibility and influences viewers’ purchase decisions. Engagement metrics peaked when hosts asked viewers simple questions, creating a dialogue and forging personal connections.

For example, premium liquor and wine retailer ReserveBar provided entertainment value with a mix of insight and comedy that translated to a 9% conversion rate, with average order value of $80.

 

Being responsive was also essential for brands wishing to drive engagement and sales. One viewer noted after the event that she would not have felt confident purchasing a pair of sneakers if she had not been able to ask the host about their size—and be confident that her question would be answered. In addition, waiting for the host to answer kept the viewer attentive and engaged.

Dietary supplement brand Organifi used interactive and personal stories to drive engagement, resulting in a 9% conversion rate and an average order value of $125. The brand’s CEO and Founder Drew Canole shared personal stories behind product creation and his own belief in the importance of using organic and vegan ingredients.

 

Single Shopping Cart Enables Multi-Brand Purchasing

To enable a seamless shopping experience for consumers, VERB’s MARKET platform enabled shoppers to make purchases from multiple brands via one shopping cart.

 

Multichannel Strategy Promotes Organic Viewership Growth

Shopfest enabled a multichannel strategy, with dozens of sellers simultaneously broadcasting their streams on multiple social media channels. The 18 “Main Stage” multicasts attracted 1,219,672 Facebook views in total between July 26 and August 10, 2022.

According to a Coresight Research global survey conducted in June, retail companies currently using livestreaming as a sales or promotional channel use an average of 3.9 platforms for livestreaming, enabling them to reap the benefits of each platform and connect with a bigger audience. Multichannel broadcasting gives MARKET users access to more viewers without the upfront commitments of creating multiple accounts on individual websites—but allows presenting brands to leverage their previously built audiences on platforms such as Instagram and Facebook for additional exposure.

Chat moderators and hosts were able to encourage viewers to watch on MARKET for an enhanced experience: the majority of shoppers who jumped from social platforms to MARKET did so because they learned of the opportunity to win prizes or easily chat with the hosts and other shoppers, according to VERB.

 

Food and Beverage Category Sees Highest Engagement

Of all categories featured at Shopfest, food and beverage saw the most sales and engagement, followed by beauty and jewelry. Many hosts presenting food and beverage products hooked viewers with informative content. For instance, South African farm and winery Babylonstoren shared its story as one of the oldest Cape Dutch farms still operating, and educated consumers about wine tasting and food pairings.

 

Meanwhile, celebrity chef David Burke, who has 107,000 followers on his Facebook and 73,800 on Instagram, entertained online shoppers with a foolproof steak and side recipe, achieving a 9% conversation rate with an average order value $95.

 

What We Think

The interactivity of livestream shopping—with shoppers getting more product information and one-to-one personal communication—allows brands to build intimate engagement and loyalty with their customers, on top of driving sales.

VERB’s MARKET platform looks to be tapping into three important trends for brands and retailers in the live shopping space:

1. Driven by tech-savvy consumers and cross-functional e-commerce platforms in China, livestream shopping took less than five years to become a predominant sales channel. We estimate that the livestreaming e-commerce market in China will total $497 billion in 2022. In the West, livestreaming e-commerce has lagged the China market but is now seeing a surge in adoption as online shoppers’ choices are increasingly inspired by influencers, and brands and retailers seeking to make their products more discoverable. We project that the US livestreaming e-commerce market will total $20 billion in 2022 and grow to $68 billion by 2026. Livestreaming is a key opportunity for sellers to offer consumers interactive and engaging content and exclusive experiences.
2. MARKET’s Shopfest amplified the live shopping experience through festivalization, presenting enticing opportunities for brands and retailers to improve brand awareness, attract new consumers and drive sales. While most livestreaming platforms are brand-focused, Shopfest also enabled influencers and content creators to set up storefronts and implement a livestream-driven customer experience. Shopfest served not only as a promotional event but as a destination for consumers to discover new products and spur their spending outside of traditional shopping holidays. Online shopping events are increasingly gaining popularity among consumers globally and can drive monumental sales—for example, Amazon’s 2022 Prime Day captured around $9 billion in sales worldwide, and JD.com reported total GMV of $56.6 billion during the 18 Shopping Festival in China.
3. VERB’s MARKET platform supports US-based and global brands and retailers with seamless live shopping integrations and operates a marketplace model that marks a new addition to the livestream shopping space. We believe that livestream shopping experiences will hold heightened importance through 2022 and beyond, with brands and retailers looking to adopt innovative technologies to engage consumers online as the retail landscape continues to digitalize.