Amazon's live streaming sales hit a wall with less than 10,000 daily active users

Domestic live streaming e-commerce is booming, and foreign e-commerce platforms are following closely. Amazon started live streaming to sell goods a few years ago, but the results have always been unsatisfactory. Even during the Prime Day, when local big-name stars joined its live streaming room, it failed to reverse the current situation.

Amazon continues to increase its live streaming sales

Recently, Amazon is stepping up its plan to enter the live shopping market, trying to boost online sales through the online live market. But in fact, Amazon launched its live shopping platform Amazon Live in 2019 , and then this business also became one of Amazon's key businesses, but it performed poorly. During Amazon Prime Day this year, its active audience reached a maximum of 70,000, but the number of daily active users was less than 10,000.

Amazon Live , launched by Amazon, has stated that its live broadcasts usually last for more than an hour, but sometimes the broadcast time is only a few dozen minutes. There are about a dozen recommended products, which will be displayed next to the video to facilitate its viewers to add them to the shopping cart. The delivery time is usually within two days.

Amazon Live mainly provides buyers with a scenario-based shopping experience through product demonstrations, performance tests, tutorials, trials, etc. During the entire live broadcast process, buyers can also chat with the live broadcast staff in real time. Wayne Purbo, an executive of Amazon Live , once said that they believe that live shopping is the future of the retail industry , and video is the driving force for customers to buy .

According to Coresight Research , the US live shopping market will reach $20 billion this year and will grow to about $65 billion in 2023. In terms of video streaming, video traffic accounts for more than 80% of Internet traffic . In this context, Amazon is increasingly aware of the importance of seizing the opportunity in the live shopping market.

To this end, Amazon further increased its investment in the live shopping market, trying to occupy the high ground of traffic in the market in front of social media such as YouTube, Instagram and Tik Tok. However, things did not develop as expected. Amazon Live's tepid performance has become the norm. In contrast, the traffic indirectly introduced by Amazon through YouTube , Instagram and Tik Tok is surprising.

According to statistics, the total number of views of videos marked as "products found on Amazon" on Tik Tok has exceeded 23 billion. Previously, popular products such as dishcloths, handmade knitwear, and retro-style cameras on Amazon have been viewed from hundreds of thousands to billions on TikTok, and the popularity has quickly triggered a consumption frenzy.

Amazon naturally wants to use Amazon Live to guide the audience to sell directly on its platform, increase the purchase rate , and achieve the same effect as social media. However, for now, the traffic and conversion effects of Amazon Live are not obvious, and the response is average.

It is understood that in order to strengthen the traffic-generating effect in the live broadcast field, Amazon has held at least four events this year and invited more than a dozen influential Internet celebrities . According to relevant foreign media agencies , Amazon has provided these popular figures with generous bonuses to encourage them to live broadcast on Amazon. However, two creators working on the platform have revealed to the media that they have been working hard to build an audience on Amazon Live, but the benefits they have gained are not proportional to their efforts.

In addition, Amazon Live's live broadcast room also has strict regulations. Live broadcasters are required to share Amazon's live broadcast hyperlinks on different social channels. At the same time, during the live broadcast, anchors cannot exaggerate promotional prices, belittle competing products, use premature comments, etc. There are also strict requirements for Amazon Live's audience. Compared with domestic live e-commerce, the atmosphere is insufficient.

There are also differences in the commissions for live streamers. According to the rates previously announced by Amazon, the commission for digital video games is 2%, the commission for a physical book is 4.5%, and the commission for luxury beauty products is as high as 10%. However, when the Amazon Live audience has not reached a certain scale and is stable, it is a bit difficult for these live streamers to obtain large commissions.

Although Amazon Live’s ability to bring goods and its future sustainability are currently being questioned, it cannot be ruled out that it will develop against the trend in the future and become another driving force for Amazon’s performance growth.

Social media has become a "grass-planting machine" for hot products, and it is even better at bringing goods

Compared with the tepid popularity of Amazon Live , social media is clearly more capable of bringing goods. Tik Tok, YouTube, Instagram, etc. have become "grass-planting machines" for hot products. Among them, TikTok's ability to bring goods is particularly outstanding.

From home decoration accessories to beauty products, kitchen tools and small appliances, the number of video views related to them ranges from hundreds of thousands to hundreds of millions. In terms of fan groups, this type of social media is dominated by young people, who are the main consumers of today. At present, TikTok has more than 3 billion users worldwide and 1.2 billion monthly active users, taking the lead in traffic.

In terms of sales ability, some products that were originally "low-key" on major e-commerce platforms quickly became popular products under the promotion of social media influencers. Take some of the more popular products recently as examples, such as mini bag sealing machines, car power converters, smart reusable notebooks, portable ice makers, LED electric alarm clocks, pet hair removers , etc. The number of views of a single video related to them is more than hundreds of thousands. After becoming popular, sales have surged and product rankings have also improved significantly.

In order to enhance the user experience, Tik Tok also controls the audience's needs and content release. Outputting high-quality content can not only attract more fans for its platform, but also effectively promote the embedded advertisements and promote conversion rates. In addition, Tik Tok itself has a large base of creative groups, diverse and interesting forms, allowing the audience to interact through comments, sharing and likes, which improves consumer trust and shortens the product sales cycle.

In addition, studies have shown that live shopping can reduce buyers’ return rate by up to 50% because it can display products in a more comprehensive and detailed manner . As a result, social media such as Tik Tok have also reduced possible sales losses in many ways.

In addition, in a foreign media poll, half of the millennials and more than a third of the Generation Z said they had purchased products recommended on Tik Tok. In addition, many fast fashion brands and e-commerce platforms have also cooperated with Tik Tok, such as SHEIN, Walmart, Amazon, Shopify, etc., all of which have achieved impressive results.

While cooperating with other platforms and brands, TikTok has also established its own e-commerce business, opened TikTok Shop in the UK and Indonesia, and this year focused on the Southeast Asian market in TikTok Shop, opening five sites in Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, and Singapore. It is understood that many e-commerce platform sellers have increased their efforts to attract traffic from social media such as TikTok to enhance their promotion efforts.

While affirming the effectiveness of social media in bringing goods and developing e-commerce business, some issues cannot be ignored. For example, the scale of sellers, whether the product segmentation is professional, and the immature platform supervision system, while e-commerce platforms have formed a relatively mature system. If e-commerce platforms and social media want to expand each other's fields, they have a long way to go.