Live selling is a lucrative and exciting new way for brands to reach shoppers virtually—and it’s transforming how retailers do business, especially during the holidays.
This immersive sales strategy meshes e-commerce with entertainment, customer engagement, and automated checkout to create an unmatched shopping experience that benefits both seller and shopper: shoppers get to enjoy a live show and can checkout with ease, while sellers get the benefit of automated invoicing and strengthened customer relationships that lead to higher ROI.
“Live sale shoppers = 6x higher repeat purchase rate than conventional e-commerce customers“
So how do retailers tap into this explosive new sales strategy? A live selling platform like CommentSold specialize in creating opportunities for their sellers to reach more shoppers in new and exciting ways during the holiday season.
Read on to learn from our top live sellers with specific examples for how to make the most of your holiday revenue.
1. Turn Your Live Sales into Television
A failproof way to lock in loyal, repeat shoppers is to turn your live sales into routine, regularly scheduled programming—like a beloved television show viewers can’t wait to tune in for.
Justin Strickland, president of the Hunstville Havoc, a professional, Alabama-based ice hockey team, has seen how viewers look to consistent live sales for entertainment and fun.
The Havoc began hosting live sales at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 as a way to keep sports fans engaged, even while games were put on halt. The team’s players joined the live streams, to the delight of their fans, and sold merchandise, season passes, and tickets to future games.
“When we started going live on a regular schedule, our viewership and sales started going up. Our fans looked forward to our live sales the way they would an actual hockey game or their favorite T.V. show,” Strickland said.
Fashion retailer Freckled Poppy Boutique also knows how well consistency can play in your favor. The brand goes live every night at 10 p.m. without fail—to the tune of more than 1,000 live sale viewers.
By creating a daily, weekly, or even monthly experience—versus a one-off event—shoppers can look forward to and celebrate live sales like they would their favorite show each week, something they would never miss. Work your Black Friday and holiday sales into this schedule and promote your holiday specials during your regular programming.
One of the best draws to a live sale is the one-on-one, digital face time viewers have with live sale hosts. Hosts should be hyper-engaged, inviting personalities that followers look forward to spending time with virtually.
Katie Wilson, CEO of Mason Jar Boutique, a clothing company built to help new and working moms feel good in their day-to-day attire, has seen how powerful live sales are when it comes to connecting with their audience. According to Wilson, the relationship building from their live sales—and the return they see from it—is incomparable.
“My customers know everything about me: they know how many kids I have, they know my husband’s name, they know where I live, they know my dog’s name,” she said. “When you build a relationship with a customer like that it makes them very loyal to you and it makes them trust you—and a big part of buying online is trust.”
This connection helped the brand increase annual revenue 375% and acquire a 93% customer return rate.
“Live commerce has had a huge impact on our business because we’re building relationships. Our customers will ask us to find items for them because they don’t want to buy it from anybody else.” Wilson said. “I really think my customers are getting to know me as a person and that makes me trustworthy and it makes them want to spend more with my company.”
Brands can leverage live selling solutions like this to build brand loyalty, and ensure followers shop with them during the holiday season.
A unique way to play off of customer loyalty and the shopper/seller relationships is to add new, fresh faces to the mix. Shoppers look forward to spending time with live sale hosts—and welcoming trusted friends and new personalities to the mix only increases shopper excitement.
Payton Reed, owner of Verge, a women’s fashion brand that aims to make “everyday, elevated” through versatile women’s casualwear, did just that.
“We started adding a model to our live sales—a woman I love engaging with. It gives me someone fun to banter with while going live, and it brings a new audience to our events as well.”
By bringing on special guests—friends of the host or influencers with an established following—shoppers get introduced to another personality they can fall in love with and retailers get more eyes on their products. 92% of shoppers today trust influencers for guidance when shopping, so adding established personalities to mix can only increase brand appeal.
Another perk? Increased user experience. Reed uses new faces to give Verge live sale viewers twice as much insight into the clothing they showcase. “Our second model wears a different size than I do, and we’ve received amazing feedback about how helpful this is,” she said. “Size inclusivity is huge for our brand, and we want our customers to get a true sense of how our inventory will fit, no matter their shape or size. The addition of our guest models helps us do this, and our shoppers love it.”
4. Change Your Backdrop/Location
Another great way to keep things fresh and interesting is to update your live sale backdrop or location.
Think of your live sale backdrop as an ad campaign. To avoid ad fatigue—your shoppers seeing the same ad image over and over again—you would make a point to swap out your creative often enough to keep followers excited and on their toes about your brand’s vision and offerings.
A live sale backdrop is a consistent visual your followers will come to look forward to and recognize, but switching this up will keep your viewers from tiring of the same old imagery.
A concept that works best? Go seasonal. Summer, spring, winter, and fall each present an opportunity to update colors and decor. Better yet, go with holidays like Thanksgiving or Halloween to take things one step further with playful costumers or backdrops.
A second live selling solution is to take the show on the road. CommentSold seller Jackie Dierickx, owner of women’s fashion brand Willow & Grace Boutique, utilizes the flexibility live selling offers to ensure her shoppers are engaged.
“I’ve done live selling on vacation, I’ve done it in hotel rooms, I do it in my house, at my warehouse, and at my store.” Because retailers don’t need much to host a live sale—a smartphone, a live selling platform like CommentSold, a ring light, and a tripod—hosting live sales on the go is more than possible.
“Live selling goes along with your life,” said Dierickx. “You don’t have to stop selling because you are not at your office that day—it’s a whole different experience.”
Retailers using the CommentSold live selling platform can go live and blast their stream across multiple channels at once, including their Facebook Pages and Groups, Instagram, their website, and their mobile app (the latter a feature CommentSold will build and customize for their clients). Streaming your live sales to multiple channels is a proven way to increase sales and reach more shoppers, and is especially important during the holiday shopping season.
Mobile app users on the platform see up to 3 times the sales on their apps alone, but this doesn’t mean their other streaming channels aren’t lucrative.
Successful live sellers use their social platforms to reach followers and create hype for their live sale events on all platforms.
According to Reed, “we post Instagram stories throughout the week leading up to our Wednesday evening live sales. We want people to know it’s happening, to get excited, and to remember when to tune in. Most of our viewership comes from our app, but the awareness comes from our push on social media.”
Reed also utilizes push notifications right before a Verge live sale to drive followers directly to the event. Multichannel campaigns with push notifications acquire a 614% higher order rate—a benefit Verge has seen time and time again.
A successful multichannel live selling strategy can make all the difference. Retailers using 3 or more channels see a 500% increase in order rates. The right live selling platform facilitates this omnichannel approach to help retailers reach their shoppers where they prefer to shop.
In the end, finding success during the holidays for your retail brand is a fun opportunity to explore new strategies through live selling solutions that work.
Live selling allows retailers to create consistent, entertaining events for their followers, to shake things up with new and exciting locations, and to reach more shoppers in more places through powerful multichannel streams. All of this combined makes live selling—with the right live selling platform—a smart addition to your Black Friday—and every day—sales strategy.
5 Live Selling Solutions and Tips from Top Retailers to Drive More Holiday Sales
Live selling is a lucrative and exciting new way for brands to reach shoppers virtually—and it’s transforming how retailers do business, especially during the holidays.
This immersive sales strategy meshes e-commerce with entertainment, customer engagement, and automated checkout to create an unmatched shopping experience that benefits both seller and shopper: shoppers get to enjoy a live show and can checkout with ease, while sellers get the benefit of automated invoicing and strengthened customer relationships that lead to higher ROI.
“Live sale shoppers = 6x higher repeat purchase rate than conventional e-commerce customers“
So how do retailers tap into this explosive new sales strategy? A live selling platform like CommentSold specialize in creating opportunities for their sellers to reach more shoppers in new and exciting ways during the holiday season.
Read on to learn from our top live sellers with specific examples for how to make the most of your holiday revenue.
1. Turn Your Live Sales into Television
A failproof way to lock in loyal, repeat shoppers is to turn your live sales into routine, regularly scheduled programming—like a beloved television show viewers can’t wait to tune in for.
Justin Strickland, president of the Hunstville Havoc, a professional, Alabama-based ice hockey team, has seen how viewers look to consistent live sales for entertainment and fun.
The Havoc began hosting live sales at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 as a way to keep sports fans engaged, even while games were put on halt. The team’s players joined the live streams, to the delight of their fans, and sold merchandise, season passes, and tickets to future games.
“When we started going live on a regular schedule, our viewership and sales started going up. Our fans looked forward to our live sales the way they would an actual hockey game or their favorite T.V. show,” Strickland said.
Fashion retailer Freckled Poppy Boutique also knows how well consistency can play in your favor. The brand goes live every night at 10 p.m. without fail—to the tune of more than 1,000 live sale viewers.
By creating a daily, weekly, or even monthly experience—versus a one-off event—shoppers can look forward to and celebrate live sales like they would their favorite show each week, something they would never miss. Work your Black Friday and holiday sales into this schedule and promote your holiday specials during your regular programming.
Related Reading: A Guide to the Best Time to Go Live on Facebook
2. Create Customer Connections
One of the best draws to a live sale is the one-on-one, digital face time viewers have with live sale hosts. Hosts should be hyper-engaged, inviting personalities that followers look forward to spending time with virtually.
Katie Wilson, CEO of Mason Jar Boutique, a clothing company built to help new and working moms feel good in their day-to-day attire, has seen how powerful live sales are when it comes to connecting with their audience. According to Wilson, the relationship building from their live sales—and the return they see from it—is incomparable.
“My customers know everything about me: they know how many kids I have, they know my husband’s name, they know where I live, they know my dog’s name,” she said. “When you build a relationship with a customer like that it makes them very loyal to you and it makes them trust you—and a big part of buying online is trust.”
This connection helped the brand increase annual revenue 375% and acquire a 93% customer return rate.
“Live commerce has had a huge impact on our business because we’re building relationships. Our customers will ask us to find items for them because they don’t want to buy it from anybody else.” Wilson said. “I really think my customers are getting to know me as a person and that makes me trustworthy and it makes them want to spend more with my company.”
Brands can leverage live selling solutions like this to build brand loyalty, and ensure followers shop with them during the holiday season.
Related Reading: How Live Selling Gets People to Love Your Brand
3. Add Special Guests to the Mix
A unique way to play off of customer loyalty and the shopper/seller relationships is to add new, fresh faces to the mix. Shoppers look forward to spending time with live sale hosts—and welcoming trusted friends and new personalities to the mix only increases shopper excitement.
Payton Reed, owner of Verge, a women’s fashion brand that aims to make “everyday, elevated” through versatile women’s casualwear, did just that.
“We started adding a model to our live sales—a woman I love engaging with. It gives me someone fun to banter with while going live, and it brings a new audience to our events as well.”
By bringing on special guests—friends of the host or influencers with an established following—shoppers get introduced to another personality they can fall in love with and retailers get more eyes on their products. 92% of shoppers today trust influencers for guidance when shopping, so adding established personalities to mix can only increase brand appeal.
Another perk? Increased user experience. Reed uses new faces to give Verge live sale viewers twice as much insight into the clothing they showcase. “Our second model wears a different size than I do, and we’ve received amazing feedback about how helpful this is,” she said. “Size inclusivity is huge for our brand, and we want our customers to get a true sense of how our inventory will fit, no matter their shape or size. The addition of our guest models helps us do this, and our shoppers love it.”
4. Change Your Backdrop/Location
Another great way to keep things fresh and interesting is to update your live sale backdrop or location.
Think of your live sale backdrop as an ad campaign. To avoid ad fatigue—your shoppers seeing the same ad image over and over again—you would make a point to swap out your creative often enough to keep followers excited and on their toes about your brand’s vision and offerings.
A live sale backdrop is a consistent visual your followers will come to look forward to and recognize, but switching this up will keep your viewers from tiring of the same old imagery.
A concept that works best? Go seasonal. Summer, spring, winter, and fall each present an opportunity to update colors and decor. Better yet, go with holidays like Thanksgiving or Halloween to take things one step further with playful costumers or backdrops.
A second live selling solution is to take the show on the road. CommentSold seller Jackie Dierickx, owner of women’s fashion brand Willow & Grace Boutique, utilizes the flexibility live selling offers to ensure her shoppers are engaged.
“I’ve done live selling on vacation, I’ve done it in hotel rooms, I do it in my house, at my warehouse, and at my store.” Because retailers don’t need much to host a live sale—a smartphone, a live selling platform like CommentSold, a ring light, and a tripod—hosting live sales on the go is more than possible.
“Live selling goes along with your life,” said Dierickx. “You don’t have to stop selling because you are not at your office that day—it’s a whole different experience.”
Related Reading: Essential Equipment for Live Streaming: A Guide
5. Promote and Stream Across Channels
Retailers using the CommentSold live selling platform can go live and blast their stream across multiple channels at once, including their Facebook Pages and Groups, Instagram, their website, and their mobile app (the latter a feature CommentSold will build and customize for their clients). Streaming your live sales to multiple channels is a proven way to increase sales and reach more shoppers, and is especially important during the holiday shopping season.
Mobile app users on the platform see up to 3 times the sales on their apps alone, but this doesn’t mean their other streaming channels aren’t lucrative.
Successful live sellers use their social platforms to reach followers and create hype for their live sale events on all platforms.
According to Reed, “we post Instagram stories throughout the week leading up to our Wednesday evening live sales. We want people to know it’s happening, to get excited, and to remember when to tune in. Most of our viewership comes from our app, but the awareness comes from our push on social media.”
Reed also utilizes push notifications right before a Verge live sale to drive followers directly to the event. Multichannel campaigns with push notifications acquire a 614% higher order rate—a benefit Verge has seen time and time again.
A successful multichannel live selling strategy can make all the difference. Retailers using 3 or more channels see a 500% increase in order rates. The right live selling platform facilitates this omnichannel approach to help retailers reach their shoppers where they prefer to shop.
Related Reading: Why Omnichannel Retail is a Must
Holiday Live Selling Success
In the end, finding success during the holidays for your retail brand is a fun opportunity to explore new strategies through live selling solutions that work.
Live selling allows retailers to create consistent, entertaining events for their followers, to shake things up with new and exciting locations, and to reach more shoppers in more places through powerful multichannel streams. All of this combined makes live selling—with the right live selling platform—a smart addition to your Black Friday—and every day—sales strategy.
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