Shopee LIVE launched to let sellers and buyers interact in realtime through in-app live-streaming

Live streaming is such a huge platform for selling things online today, and it’s not surprising to see why. 

For one, it’s entertaining — folks get to gather online and watch someone make a live sales pitch on camera, which could be amusing to see. There’s a reason why Lerine Yeo (aka S-hook ah lian) shot to fame last year — hilarious antics were used to market and sell her wares on Facebook Live. 

With fellow e-commerce portals Taobao and Amazon jumping on the live video shopping bandwagon, Singapore-based e-commerce platform Shopee has joined the fray. Now, the company has launched Shopee LIVE, which caters to “Singaporeans’ growing demands for captivating video content”.

Even though the concept is not entirely new, Shopee touts its live feature as a “new cutting edge online shopping experience” — one that lets viewers directly engage with sellers by asking questions in real time. While platforms like Taobao and Amazon lets vendors live stream market their products on desktop and mobile devices, Shopee LIVE is strictly mobile only. When used via the Shopee app, it lets customers purchase the featured items without having to exit the live stream. Official brands, small and medium-sized enterprises and micro-entrepreneurs are welcome, says Shopee. 

The platform swears by the efficiency of its live streaming feature— it claims that participating sellers and brands saw sales increase by up to 75 percent. To perk up the live streaming concept, there’s something called Shopee Quiz, which has local influencers hosting interactive live trivia games (touching on various topics like pop culture, nothing too fancy) where participants can win prizes should they get the answers right. 

“I am able to directly connect with my customers in real-time and be creative with my content to boost engagement,” commented Smileouppa.SG CEO Jae-min Kim, an early adopter of Shopee LIVE. 

“Having successfully live streamed on Shopee three times, I am excited to host more interactive sessions to create long-term customer value with Shopee users.” 

Better late than never to the live stream shopping bandwagon, we’d say. After all, it’s hard to ignore the concept, especially since it’s worth billions of dollars in the Chinese market alone. 

ilyas@asiaone.com