CommentSold is a live selling e-commerce platform that enables retailers to create and manage live streams, social media posts, customer contact, inventory, and order management functions. In the five years since launching the CommentSold platform, the popularity of live video selling has grown and become so widely adopted in the U.S. that 54% of consumers want to watch more videos from the brands they like.
Many e-commerce platforms offer social media integration, and some have features to embed YouTube or Vimeo videos on web pages and product listings. But the ability to live-stream on a brand’s digital storefront is new—at CommentSold, we refer to this functionality as Live on the Web, which is available to all retailers on our platform.
CommentSold consolidates many essential e-commerce features and centralizes live video streaming functions. Retailers who use the webstore can live stream videos linked directly to products while personalizing shopping experiences for customers they interact with directly in their live streams.
Professionally branded webstores are the focal point for customers. More than giving them just content and products, webstores provide an impression of a retailer’s brand persona. Going live on your webstore offers an even richer customer experience by allowing customers to meet and interact directly with store owners and staff, ask questions and learn about and buy products.
Now that we’ve introduced you to CommentSold and the live selling capabilities of the webstore, let’s dive into some of the key features that set it apart from other e-commerce platforms.
Live Streaming to Several Outlets From a Single Dashboard
It gets exhausting to shoot live video streams for each selling channel individually. One of the biggest reasons to try CommentSold is the convenience of going live and interacting directly with customers from a central dashboard.
Using Live on the Web in their branded webstores, sellers can simultaneously stream to their own website and multiple channels. A replay is automatically generated for use on a website, a retailer’s webstore or social media channels when a live stream has concluded.
Streaming to Webstore
Going live on your webstore requires that you have enabled your store and you’re using the most up-to-date version of the platform. You’ll need to use the CommentSold Broadcast App on your Apple iOS or Android, and manage your stream using Live Overview in your CommentSold Dashboard.
It’s as easy as checking a box to select any—or all—of the following live-sale destinations from your CommentSold Dashboard:
- Live to Facebook
- Live to Instagram
- Live to TikTok
- Live on the App
- Live on the Web
Once you decide if you want to stream to just your webstore, or all available channels simultaneously, you can set a dedicated link in your webstore’s navigation so visitors can go to a specific page to watch the live stream. If there’s no live stream, the link will show live video replays on that page.
Preparing For a Successful Live Stream
Here’s what you need to have a smooth live selling experience:
- A computer to manage the Live Overview of your live sale.
- An Apple iOS or Android mobile device with a good, working camera and the CommentSold Broadcast App installed.
- An Internet connection with a speed of at least 10 Mbps on the mobile device you’re using for streaming.
Webstore Streaming Video Interactive Overlays and Features
When you go live, your CommentSold Webstore automatically creates a dedicated page to house and display your live sale and assigns a unique URL, such as, “yourstorename.com/live.” As soon as you go live, shoppers on your branded webstore will see notifications on every page in your store telling them that you’re streaming live and, when clicked, directs them to the live stream.
While you’re going live on your webstore to promote and sell products, customers can watch your live stream, make purchases, and interact with you, without ever leaving the video stream.
Live on the Web has several interactive features to make the shopping experience easy and interactive:
-
- Live Stream Overlay on the video panel that appears on the left side of the live stream. You can set an overlay in the top left corner and show customers how many of a particular item you’ve sold to create a sense of urgency.
- Streaming Now and Most Recently Shown products appear in the middle of the page with your live stream. The Streaming Now box shows the current product with available sizes and a View Product button. When you move to the following product during your live stream, the recently shown product appears in the Most Recently Shown section, which also has a View Product button.
- Chat is displayed in the third panel on the right side of the live stream. In Chat, you’ll find customers commenting in real-time and interacting with each other. Ideally, they’re also commenting “sold” to make purchases. When they do this, the item they see in the live stream is automatically added to their cart so they can make secure online payments for their purchases, and the store inventory is adjusted.
- Live Replays appear under these panels, giving customers the option to view recent live sales. Live Replay videos are automatically added to your webstore once the live stream has ended.
Automatic Product Videos Created From Live Streams
A unique and timesaving feature is the ability to create individual product videos from live sales automatically. A clip is automatically created for each product presented in a live stream when this feature is enabled, and the clip is added to your products. Products can also be manually excluded from this feature.
How to Enable the Automatic Product Video Feature
Go to Setup in the CommentSold Dashboard, and then “Selling Preferences.” Find the “Automatic Product Videos From Live Sales” setting and turn it on or off.
Social Live Streaming and Webstore Is a Powerful Combination
Many retailers know that social media is ideal for attracting new customers. Social live selling increases retailers’ organic reach by increasing brand engagement, positively influencing social media algorithms, and boosting social live streams and posts to more potential customers.
Adding Live on the Web to a social media live streaming plan offers even more advantages. Live streaming to your webstore and social media channels strengthens retailers’ customer relationships and can boost sales:
- Live on the Web is number one for first-time purchaser conversions.
- It’s easy to browse and buy products without leaving a live stream when shopping live through the webstore.
- Live On the Web enables retailers to own their following and control the distribution of their content without having to rely on social algorithms.
- Live interactions build a community of engaged shoppers and are proven to increase return purchases by 6x.
The Takeaway
As e-commerce sales grow exponentially, more online shoppers search for video content from brands they support. In 2021, retailers generated $844 billion in e-commerce revenue; by 2025, the forecast is $1.3 trillion. Online video is becoming the preferred way to reach audiences, with 69% of consumers saying that they prefer watching videos to reading about products. Retailers looking to save time and provide more interactive live streaming customer experiences on their websites should try going live on their CommentSold Webstore.
