Livestream Commerce in the United States & Amazon Live

Live Commerce in the U.S. & Amazon Live: Key Insights

• Amazon Live: With the withdrawal of Meta-owned platforms from live commerce, the market is ripe for other players. Amazon is in a leading position to drive the trend through its Amazon Live platform.

• Live Creator App: A dedicated app for live commerce, influencers and brands can use it to create and publish livestreams on Amazon. Features include live interaction, chat, and shoppable links. Viewable to the large base who already shops at Amazon, these livestreams boost the likelihood of discovery and consumer engagement.

• Live commerce and social media: Amazon uses existing social media followings through its Influencer Program, which re-routs influencers’ audience to Amazon’s platforms. This suggests that social media and live commerce cannot be fully separated yet.

Shoppertainment refers to the act of combining entertainment with a sales pitch. The purpose, of course, is to drive higher sales.

Live commerce is a form of shoppertainment. It involves influencers, friendly online interactions, education, plus entertainment. The trend is yet to truly take off in the United States. But retail kingpin Amazon’s focus on livestream shopping may accelerate market recognition and growth.

What is the status of live commerce in the United States and what role is Amazon playing in promoting it?

The State of Livestream Shopping in the United States

A combination of online shopping and live streaming, live shopping allows hosts to demonstrate products and interact with shoppers in real time. It is a form of social commerce, which is predicted to surge exponentially across the world, according to Grand View Research.

The United States is the world’s second largest eCommerce market. But live commerce is still in its infancy in the U.S. as compared to, for example, China where the trend has skyrocketed, achieving revenues worth US$6 trillion in 2023.

In 2022, Facebook and Instagram were the top platforms for live commerce in the United States, according to Statista. Amazon Live ranked next to TikTok, each drawing 18% of livestream shoppers. However, livestream shopping on both Facebook and Instagram were shut down, in 2022 and 2023 respectively.

Meta’s decision to retreat from the live commerce business left a gap in the market. Can Amazon become the frontrunner in U.S. live commerce industry?

What is Amazon Live?

A video streaming service, Amazon Live enables sellers to livestream and demonstrate Amazon products to millions of shoppers around the world.

The feature was launched in 2019 but is poised to garner a greater level of interest, particularly as the live commerce trend accelerates in the United States.

Brands can livestream in real time or stream a pre-recorded video. People shopping on Amazon’s app or website can discover livestreams, participate in them, and buy products based on hosts’ recommendations.

Amazon’s Live Creator App

Amazon Live is Amazon’s dedicated app for livestream commerce. Through it, brands and influencers can register their channels, create, and manage livestreams.

However, Amazon Live can only be used by:

1. Influencers who are registered under Amazon’s Influencer Program.

2. Vendors with published storefront on Amazon’s Advertising Console (AAC; through this feature, vendors create pay-per-click or sponsored ads).

3. Sellers who are part of Amazon’s brand registry.

There are three ways for brands to interact with the audience:

1. Amazon Hosts: Produced by Amazon, these shows include demonstrations or tutorials of products. The livestreams are themed and curated – for instance, Today’s Deals and shopping days like Thanksgiving, Black Friday, etc. – and appear in prominent places on Amazon to shoppers browsing relevant products. Brands can expect to invest at least US$50,000 if they take this route.

2. Brand-to-Viewer: Also called self-service, through this function, brands can log into their Amazon Live Creator app and stream directly on Amazon. These livestreams allow brands to have control over their content, which appears on their product pages as well as other places on Amazon. This route incurs no additional costs.

3. Influencers: Brands can pay influencers who are registered with Amazon and are already popular. They can promote the brand’s products using the Live Creator app, which is free to use.

The Amazon Live Creator app is widely available in the United States only, as of now. Moreover, only registered individuals can go live on Amazon. This suggests that Amazon’s live commerce venture is controlled and monitored, unlike social media platforms that tend to be more autonomous.

What Does Amazon Live App Offer?

Amazon Live’s key premise is to deliver an interactive experience to drive engagement and sales.

With live product demonstrations, sellers provide information about products with a storytelling aspect. They share product features, tutorials, and deals. The videos can be shoppable – viewers are able to buy products being promoted with a click.

The livestreams include question and answer sessions, chat, and reacts, creating a more personalized experience for shoppers. Through in-app analytics, influencers can gauge their performance, in terms of views and sales. The follow feature further helps them build a loyal customer base.

Amazon’s Influencer Program

Influencer marketing is a key driver of social commerce, as proven by its triumph on social media platforms. Amazon’s influencer program capitalizes on the success of influencer-driven eCommerce.

With the Influencer Program, livestream hosts create content to demonstrate and recommend products. They may integrate shoppable links on videos and pictures that they publish on their personalized page on Amazon.

Their content is monetized, and they earn a commission on purchases that come through their affiliate links. Since their videos appear on Amazon’s website, it allows them to reach a wider audience, beyond their followers list.

Influencers are required to have an active social media following. This indicates that, though it is adapting livestream shopping into its own online platform, Amazon maintains a dependency on social media presence. And where it does not require a social media following, it expects a heavy investment from brands for successful live streams.

Live Commerce in the U.S. & Amazon Live: Closing Remarks

As viewers get more comfortable with shopping through lives, the livestream commerce market in the United States is expected to perform well going forward. Amazon’s example shows that the trend is not restricted to social media platforms anymore, though it does build upon social media success.

The results of U.S. shoppers’ response to Amazon’s live commerce push is yet to fully materialize, with most of Amazon’s revenues reported from its established services. Nonetheless, there are lessons to be learned for influencers or brands using Amazon Live.

Studies are exploring aspects such as video display time per product and effectiveness of different promotion strategies on Amazon. Such factors may be instrumental in determining the success of those aiming for greater success through live commerce.

Amazon Live: FAQs

Sources: Statista; Tech Crunch: 1, 2