YouTube stated earlier this year that it will begin testing livestream shopping with a small group of producers as part of a pilot program. Now, the business is preparing for a wider test of its live shopping platform, with plans to conduct “YouTube Holiday Stream and Shop,” a weeklong live shopping event, beginning November 15.
According to the firm, viewers will be able to purchase new goods, access limited-time specials, and communicate with artists and other viewers via Q&as and votes during the event.
The business originally announced its ambitions to invest in live shopping in early 2021, as part of a bigger campaign on YouTube centered on integrated commerce. Before the livestream pilot began this summer, the early experiments focused on videos on demand.
Since then, a number of YouTube creators have experimented with livestream shopping with their audiences, including Simply Nailogical, who launched her nail polish collection to 2.8 million fans on her Simply Not Logical channel.
Hyram who launched his “Selfless” skincare line to 4.5 million fans and Raven Elyse who ran a live stream shopping session where she sold products in partnership with Walmart, (Walmart had already tried live shopping on TikTok at a number of occasions.)
According to YouTube, some shops took a more active role. For example, Sephora had a live Q&A and Target did a live style haul utilizing the new capabilities. The forthcoming Stream and Shop event, which will display items from big retailers such as Walmart, Samsung, and Verizon, will open off with the Merrell Twins.
YouTube has not yet made livestream shopping widely available, despite taking moves in that direction. Rather, it will continue to experiment with live shopping with individual artists. In the meantime, TikTok, a competitor, has launched its own live shopping services.
TikTok began testing TikTok Shopping in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada earlier this year, in collaboration with Shopify. Square, Ecwid, PrestaShop, Wix, SHOPLINE, OpenCart, and BASE announced as new shopping partners at an event last month.
It also launched a TikTok Shopping suite of solutions and capabilities, which includes methods to incorporate items into videos, advertisements, and LIVE shopping assistance. This spring and summer, Facebook held its own series of live shopping events, and it now has dedicated live shopping areas in both its Facebook and Instagram applications’ Shop sections. As the day approaches, YouTube hopes to provide additional details about its next live shopping event.
