It is very difficult for Europe and the United States to copy China's live shopping!

Recently, retail banker international released an analytical report titled "Why are the UK and the US far behind China in live shopping?"

According to eMarketer, live shopping in China is expected to bring in $480 billion this year. In contrast, according to Foresight Research, its American counterpart is expected to only bring in $11 billion by 2022. Judging from these data, the live shopping industry in the UK and the US is still far behind China.

In 2016, live shopping was pioneered by Alibaba, which linked online live broadcasts with e-commerce stores. The form of consumers watching and buying immediately caused sales to soar, especially during Alibaba's annual Singles' Day festival, when the live shopping wave reached its peak. In the first 30 minutes of Singles' Day in 2020, the total transaction volume of Taobao Live reached a record high of US$7.5 billion.

In just a few years, live streaming e-commerce, led by platforms such as Alibaba and Douyin, has become an important part of China's e-commerce market.

The sales concept proved to be a huge success, and live shopping quickly took over China's retail landscape. The huge success of live shopping in China has prompted Western platforms and brands to try to get a piece of the pie and have begun to try to emulate it. TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest, Amazon, and YouTube have all launched live shopping features and activities in Europe and North America. Although it has achieved some results, it is far from reaching the level of a large-scale outbreak.

As for the reason, Carat USA's innovation director believes that Asia's unique purchasing culture makes live shopping easier to start; others say that Chinese consumers are accustomed to ordering things online because they can be delivered quickly, but Western consumers do not have this habit yet.

With the emergence of the epidemic, the probability of people turning to online shopping has increased significantly, which has not only further promoted the development of online shopping in China, but also seen such a trend in the West.

Despite this, live shopping in Western regions such as the United States and the United Kingdom remains tepid and faces a difficult road to development. Recently, Facebook announced that it would suspend its Live Shopping feature; due to low consumer engagement, TikTok also suspended the expansion of its Live Shop solution in Europe and the United States.

Some payment analysts say that in order for live shopping to gain further momentum, the platforms must find a way to convince consumers that buying products on Facebook or TikTok is as easy and secure as buying through Amazon.

Although live shopping in Europe and the United States has not developed as rapidly as in China, information from Retail Banker International shows that promoters in the field of live shopping in the West still have great confidence in this sales format. A study conducted in June 2021 by creator marketing platform LTK showed that 92% of all Generation Z adults aged 18 to 25 purchased products on the recommendation of social media influencers.

The CEO of Playrcart, a British advertising technology company , said that live shopping will play a vital role in the coming years, not only for brands, but also for retailers and marketplaces. According to McKinsey data, by 2026, 10-20% of all e-commerce will come from sales initiated by live e-commerce.

However, with Facebook and TikTok suspending their live e-commerce platforms, it may take longer before we see a true live shopping boom in the West.

Live Shopping

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