Tag Archive for: ecommerce news

Why Live Shopping Is The Future Of Ecommerce

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Brick-and-mortar retail was a significant revenue-driver as recently as 2019, but Covid-19 has changed everything. The pandemic has already accelerated levels of e-commerce growth not previously expected until 2022 at minimum. Live shopping is coming up as the latest Ecommerce trend that combines advances to technology and social media channels with the familiar, quaintly nostalgic concept of at-home shopping. Envision the Home Shopping Network (which continues to be quite successful) but streamable on mobile phones through websites and on social media apps such as Instagram with influencers that help to sell goods.

Onimod Global experts are here to break down what live shopping is and why it will be crucial to the success of your Ecommerce strategy in 2021 and coming years.

What exactly is live shopping?

Livestream shopping is a natural confluence of several current tech trends—streaming, influencers, social, commerce—and offers companies a new approach based on an old shopping trend to consumers’ hearts and wallets. Think back to when the Home Shopping Channel began to appear on televisions, first across North America and then worldwide. Previously catered to housewives, the live shopping on channels QVC and HSC allowed women to shop from the comfort of their couches just by calling in to the show.

Several decades and gender role changes later, live shopping provides a convenience that has now been completely taken over by ecommerce and the ability to do it all from one’s computer or mobile phone instead. Live shopping provides a real-time feedback loop for all consumers tuned in, including reviews and recommendations of products. Influencers and customers sharing among followers and friends, and asking questions about the product on the platform in use is an important piece of the puzzle for brands to embrace “social commerce.” As we’ve already mentioned, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of live shopping, giving ample space and opportunity for it to reach customers in North America and Europe. Beyond fashion and beauty, live shopping can be extended into many different types of categories. For example, cars and houses and all sorts of accessories sold in a variety of industries are emerging in popularity.

Live shopping platforms

Live shopping used to come from one customer and one customer only: the ones watching tv at home. Now the landscape has shifted entirely, where live shopping can happen on a buyer’s phone or computer, and, yes, streamed on their smart television, too.

This list of already existing streaming platforms from Shopify is a great place to start looking if you’re interested in offering live shopping:

The most important and largest platform to start live shopping for your business is of course, Instagram. Instagram live shopping is used in the following ways:

  • Product demos: Educate and engage buyers. Test the products for interested customers, answering any questions they may have.
  • Collaboration: Give buyers authentic reviews. Bring on other creators or brands with an influencer to give a level of insight and realistic product presentation to the process.
  • Human interaction: Invite buyers to participate. All of these options allow for your buyer to participate in the testing, learning, and shopping experience in a way that straight Ecommerce doesn’t necessarily provide space for.

The future of Ecommerce

Live shopping brings a humanized element to an otherwise human-less experience. One thing Ecommerce always had going for it was the fast and easy process, however no one had yet figured out a way to bring interaction to the table to match the USP of convenience. COVID-19 catapulted Ecommerce and online shopping in this direction, with no signs of slowing down.

Though a post-COVID life is hopefully coming soon, and whatever version of “normal living” is sure to resume soon after, live shopping—like many other new or adapted consumer behaviors and technologies—is likely to remain a pillar of the buying experience.

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New Facebook Report: COVID-19 Impact On Small Businesses

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This pandemic has not only been a world health crisis, it also serves to be an economic crisis. While the world as we know it has been impacted significantly as a whole, among the hardest hit sectors looks to be small businesses. Mom and pop shops are the heart of all of our communities, and they are facing the ultimate challenge. Small to medium businesses generally operate at very tight margins as it is, and they don’t have the same safety nets that larger corporations are able to fall back on. While forecasts for the future are grim, it’s important to capture what’s happening in the moment. How are small businesses dealing with the impact of COVID-19 and how do they feel about their situations moving forward?

The State of Small Business Report, by Facebook and Small Business Roundtable, based on a survey of 86,000 owners, managers and workers in companies across the US with fewer than 500 employees, is a somber image of the struggle they are facing as they fight for their business to survive.  The data also includes 9,000 operators of “personal” businesses (i.e. people who reported that they were “self-employed providing goods or services”). You can read Facebook’s full report here, but below are some of the key points.

Insights of impact

Facebook’s report provides insight as to how many businesses have been significantly impacted by the COVID-19 lockdowns, with a look at the percentage of SMBs in each sector that are currently cannot operate.

small business facebook report 1

As per Facebook:

“According to the survey, 31% of small and medium-sized businesses have shut down [entirely] in the last three months. The situation is worse for personal business (52% of which report shutting down), hotels, cafes and restaurants (43%) and services like wellness, grooming, fitness or other professional services (41%).”

These trends have been in expected in some way, with high exposure businesses of course being forced to close their doors. The numbers also wrap some further context around the 36 million unemployment claims in the US over the past six weeks. The big question is, how many of these businesses will be able to recover and bounce back?

Businesses re-opening

In general, the majority of small businesses remain optimistic with a respective amount of caution.

small business facebook report 2

Lots of “maybe’s” here, but most significant is the lack of “no’s”. This definitely provides hope of most people getting back on their feet and resuming employment, with the economy getting back on track at some stage. Of course, the longer that businesses are forced to remain closed then the path to recovery is significantly more difficult.

Current impacts on revenue

In later notes of the report, Facebook provides some context as to current impacts on revenue, even for those businesses that have remained in operation.

small business facebook report 3

2020 will certainly not be a year of growth for the majority of businesses, if any. However, there are some indications of future potential.

Digital opportunities for small business

small business report 4

More and more business are exploring online opportunities and going digital. This was already a trend, and the pandemic has catapulted all business into the world of online sales and e-commerce. This will most likely end up being the biggest long-term shift we see stemming from the COVID-19 shutdowns. While e-commerce accounted for only around 16% of total US retail sales in 2019, this number is expected to significantly increase in the next years. While retail is the most common e-commerce sector, the pandemic crisis may prompt more businesses to consider their options for digital operations, meeting consumers where they’re spending more and more of their time.

You can read Facebook’s full, 36-page “State of Small Business Report”, which includes a heap of more specific insights and data, here.

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How To Link Your PayPal And Google Merchant Center Accounts

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Google announced last month that it will now be allowing free listings in Google Shopping search results. Google also released information that retailers can integrate PayPal with their Google Merchant Center accounts. That integration is officially live!

This means that retailers and brands using PayPal as a checkout option on their site can now link their PayPal account to the Google Merchant Center which will apply to all products for listings across Google. If you’re new to Google Merchant Center, the PayPal connection can also speed up the merchant verification process.

Where to start with PayPal integration

To integrate the PayPal platform is quite simple. Just follow these three simple steps from Search Engine Land:

  1. After you log into the Google Merchant Center, select tools in the upper left navigation.
  2. Select “linked accounts” under the settings menu. Here you will see the option to link your PayPal account.
  3. In order to have your products eligible to be listed on Google Shopping, Search, Images and elsewhere, you will need to opt into Surfaces across Google.

And that’s it, easy and efficient for everyone involved. Total win-win for retailers and shoppers alike.

Why This Integration Matters

At this moment, PayPal is the only integrated platform. Google says there will be more options for integration payment platforms in the future for retailers to choose from. When there is integration of a variety of payment platforms, it significantly lowers the barrier for entry for merchants to list their products on Google shopping search. This helps retailers expand to new unpaid channels and helps Google broaden the universe of products it can show users. Another win-win!

Bill Ready, President of Commerce at Google, also mentioned in the initial announcement additional information to make e-commerce more accessible:

We’re continuing to work closely with many of our existing partners that help merchants manage their products and inventory, including Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce, to make digital commerce more accessible for businesses of all sizes.

More From Onimod Global

Onimod Global releases the latest digital marketing news and essential marketing tips every Tuesday and Thursday! To catch up on the top digital marketing news and trends, click here. To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here.