What is live commerce?

Live commerce is a combination of online retail, e-commerce and video live streaming. It allows retailers to showcase products in real time, answer questions and take immediate orders online.

Its popularity has been driven by markets like China where the world’s largest e-commerce platform Taobao connects retailers and producers with consumers, using a standalone app and live streaming features.

Wowza notes the trend promises to transform retail in a similar way to the advent of e-commerce 20 years ago.

In the case of live commerce, “this convergence of video and shopping helps improve engagement, close the gap between customer and product, drive sales, and — in cases where bidding is involved — increase the average sales price”.

Enter ShopShops

In 2017, a new take on this trend was presented in the US. Pioneered by Parsons graduate Liyia Lu, who had grown up in China and the US, it was known as ShopShops and its aim was to connect Chinese consumers with American retailers using live streaming.

The idea sees ShopShops prearrange then host events at retail outlets. Armed with smartphones ShopShops hosts spend time instore asking questions and trying items on or testing them out.

As the National Retail Federation explains: “All of this is live-streamed to consumers in China. They send questions to the host: Does it come in other colors? Can we see that in a different shade? Would you ask her to lean a little closer to the camera?

“And they buy things, right there on the spot. ShopShops accepts payment, collects their commission, packages the product and mails it to the purchaser in China. It’s sort of like American e-commerce, except it’s interactive and there are no returns.”

Each session can potentially draw 30,000-40,000 Chinese viewers and potential customers. In the interim, it not only allows global and interactive retail but also enables merchants to test products in new markets prior to release.

ShopShops explains the concept has three key components: hosts who manage the Livestream events, acting as stylist, fit model and translator to the viewers; stores which have the opportunity to host two-hour live events and open their doors to thousands of global customers; and viewers who tune into the Livestream events to shop the world from the palm of their hands..

The success of the concept has seen ShopShops grown to encompass offices in New York, Los Angeles and Beijing. The company has more than 300 hosts, does 20 to 25 events a day, and is active around the clock except for the hours between 2am and 6am China time.

More to come

ShopShops isn’t the only US player embracing the Livestream trend. In 2019 Amazon launched Amazon Live, which allows retailers to host their own Livestream events and connect with a digital audience.

Last year also saw the launch of Shopping Party, which looks to recreate the traditional experience of shopping with friends at a shopping mall.

The virtual mall experience combines scrolling products on display, and live videos of influencers promoting each item, along with a chat box for viewers to ask questions.

In the future, Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality are expected to further amplify the trend.

For the retailers taking part, live stream offers a wealth of exciting possibilities where the lines between digital and physical become more blurred and the customer could feasibly be anywhere in the world

Valentine’s Day – $27.4 billion

This year the National Retail Federation (NRF) has issued some very ‘loved-up’ forecasts for Valentine’s Day. They tip consumers will spend an average of $196.31 each and $27.4 billion collectively.

Top-selling items will include jewelry, cards, candy, clothing, gift cards, and flowers.

St Patrick’s Day – $5.61 billion

The luck of the Irish quickly translates into revenue rises for retailers, with consumers last year spending $5.61 billion on the event, or $40.18 each on St Patrick’s Day.

The NRF noted top purchases included food, beverages, clothing, decorations, candy and greeting cards.

Easter – $18.11 billion

This year Easter falls on April 12, and if last year is anything to go by around $18.11 billion will be spent by the 79 per cent of the population who celebrate this event.

Last year that equated to about $151 average spend for each consumer. Top-selling items were candy, food, gifts, clothing, greeting cards, decorations, and flowers.

Mother’s Day – $25 billion

Mother’s Day on May 10 sees major spending in the retail sector, with consumers last year forking out a record $25 billion collectively, or $196 each.

Top gift purchases by popularity were:

• Greeting cards – $843 million
• Flowers – $2.6 billion
• Special outing – $4.6 billion
• Gift cards – $2.6 billion
• Clothing and accessories – $2.3 billion
• Jewelry – $5.2 billion
• Personal service – $2 billion
• Housewares or gardening tools – $1.1 billion
• Books or CDs – $544 million
• Electronics – $2.2 billion

Father’s Day – $16 billion

Held this year on June 21, Father’s Day is one of the fastest growing holidays in terms of expenditure. In 2019, the NRF noted spending had increased by 70 per cent since 2009, rising by $6.6 billion to equal $16 billion in total.

That equated to an average consumer spend of $139 each, with top gifts including greeting cards, special outings, clothing, gifts cards, and books and CDs.

Independence Day – $6.7 billion

The July 4 Independence Day holiday sees US consumers in a celebration mode, with major purchases including food and patriotic items.

Last year the NRF put total expenditure on food at $6.7 billion, with each consumer spending an average of $73.33.

Back to class – $80.7 billion

Between children heading back to school and tertiary students heading back to college, ‘back to class’ spending from mid-August is one of the biggest periods of the year in retail.

In 2019, the NRF put total expenditure at $80.7 billion, with average household spending for back to school estimated at $696.70 each, and average household spending for college at $976.78.

School supplies, clothing and accessories, shoes and electronics are the major purchase items for back to school, while back to college sees spending on school supplies, clothing and accessories, personal care, shoes, food items, collegiate brand gear, electronics, furnishings, and gift cards.

Winter holiday season – $730.2 billion

Including Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Super Saturday and spanning the six weeks prior to Christmas, the winter holiday season is the most anticipated spending period in US retail each year.

In 2019, sales revenue grew 4.1 per cent to $730.2 billion, with key NRF statistics indicating:

• Online and other non-store sales were up 14.6 per cent year-over-year.
• Grocery and beverage stores were up 2.9 per cent year-over-year.
• Furniture and home furnishings stores were up 2.6 per cent year-over-year.
• Health and personal care stores were up 1.6 per cent year-over-year.
• Building materials and garden supply stores were up 1 per cent year-over-year.
• General merchandise stores were up 0.4 per cent year-over-year.
• Sporting goods stores were down 0.4 per cent year-over-year.
• Clothing and clothing accessory stores were down 1.6 per cent year-over-year.
• Electronics and appliance stores were down 2 per cent year-over-year.

Need help securing your store?

If you’re looking to a busy year ahead and planning to secure your store against shoplifting and loss, you can view our range of security tags here and labels here, or contact our friendly staff for further advice.

Asset protection is all about the customer experience

Often loss prevention and asset protection are viewed separately from the customer experience. The reality is effective loss prevention and asset protection is all about improving the experience that the customer has instore, and the lines between what were once separate concepts are increasingly blurred.

Asset protection helps eliminate out of stocks, keeps the cost of products down, improves the safety of the retail environment, and also improves customer service.

Many of the tools utilised in both loss prevention and asset protection also cross over into efficient and effective store management.

This includes things like:

• Traffic counting – which can be incorporated into Electronic Article Surveillance
• RFID – which allows retailers to more accurately stock take and track the chain of supply
• Electronic Article Surveillance – which minimizes out of stocks and helps make the retail environment more secure
• Smart locks – which indicate which staff member has accessed what cabinets how often thereby illustrating customer interest in products

The customer experience is critical

The customer experience has always been important but never has it been more critical than now.

Recent years have seen closures of big-name brands, while online retail continues to emerge as an expected component of the retail experience. In addition, social media means customers are more than willing to voice their content or discontent to a wider audience.

The takeaway is retailers need to ensure their online and real-world offerings provide an equally positive experience for customers.

Meanwhile, in-store, out of stocks are no longer tolerated, queues should be eliminated where possible, and services that bridge the online and real-world experience such as Buy Online Pickup In-Store should be standard.

The self-checkout becomes mainstream

Over the past few years, there have been numerous headlines about self-checkouts, self-scanning and even cashierless retail. 2020 sees these trends continue and the options become more mainstream.

This presents new challenges in the arena of loss prevention when it comes to ensuring customers do the right thing at the checkout.

In the interim, a seamless checkout experience has become a customer expectation, and if that experience is lacking it can seriously damage a brand.

The role of the sales associate is changing

In the wake of the increased customer expectation and innovations like the self-checkout, the role of sales associates is changing. Now sales associates are sought after for their knowledge and expertise as trusted advisors who enhance the customer experience.

That mans retailers need to arm with technology they need to truly embrace this role.

This includes available technology like mobile tablets on the sales floor so they can check stock levels, and mPOS so they can quickly process sales.

IoT adoption continues to rise

The Internet of Things has almost become a mainstay of modern life, and that’s set to continue in 2020. In terms of asset protection and retail, IoT impacts everything from CCTV to RIFD.

As Loss Prevention Media explains: “IoT devices fitted with RFID technology can be used to create smart shelves, which can improve inventory management by automatically tracking inventory and sending alerts to managers if a certain item is running low on stock or will expire soon”.

Meanwhile, they also note 88 percent of early adopters of IoT in retail reported that IoT helped them gain increased insight into customer preferences.

As we mentioned, some of these trends are new while some have been gathering pace for years, but the reality is they impact the whole retail arena affecting not just the customer experience but loss prevention and asset protection as well.

Big spending

The NRF is tipping record-breaking Valentine’s Day expenditure in 2020, with the anticipated $27.4 billion total up 32 per cent on last year’s previous record of $20.7 billion.

Individually shoppers are predicted to spend $196.31 each, up 21 per cent on the $161.96 they spent last year.

Reasons for the increased spending include high consumer confidence and the fact more people are buying for friends, family, co-workers, and pets when it comes to spreading the love.

“The increase in total spending comes as the number of people celebrating Valentine’s Day returned to 55 per cent, about average for the past decade, after a dip to 51 per cent last year,” the NRF noted.

Splashing out on significant others

While many will purchase a token of appreciation for friends or family, the majority of spending will be splashed out on spouses and significant others.

An average of $101.21 will go towards purchasing gifts for people’s nearest and dearest. That’s up from $93.24 in 2019.

An average of $30.19 will be spent on family members other than spouses; $14.69 on friends; $14.45 on children’s classmates and teachers; $12.96 on co-workers; $12.21 on pets; and $10.60 on others.

Meanwhile, the biggest spenders will be those aged 35-44. They intend to fork out an astounding $358.78 on Valentine’s Day gifts.

Just behind them are the high-earning 25-34-year-olds who will spend $307.51, while those aged 18-24 plan to spend an average $109.31.

And, as is historically the case, men intend to spend more than women – almost three times as much – with men averaging $291.15 compared to women who average $106.22.

Valentine’s gifts by expenditure

Jewelry will command the biggest expenditure with 21 per cent of shoppers indicating they plan to buy jewelry to the collective value of $5.8 billion.

Next up is an evening out where $4.3 billion worth of cash will be directed. A third (34 per cent) of people said they’re planning on heading out on Valentine’s Day to celebrate in a romantic style.

A further $2.9 billion will be spent on clothing (given by 20 per cent), $2.4 billion on candy (given by 52 per cent), $2.3 billion on flowers (given by 37 per cent), $2 billion on gift cards (given by 9 per cent) and $1.3 billion on greeting cards (given by 43 per cent).

Experiential gifts will also be highly sought after, with 41 per cent of people indicating they would like to receive an experience such as tickets to an event or a trip to a spa.

Twenty-eight per cent of people are planning on making those dreams come true, indicating that’s the item they will be buying.

Where people will shop

The most popular shopping destination for Valentine’s Day remains department stores, which will be visited by 36 per cent of consumers.

Discount stores and online then tied as the next most popular destination of choice for shoppers at 32 per cent. Specialty stores will be frequented by 19 per cent of shoppers, 17 per cent will visit florists, 15 per cent will patronize local small business, 11 per cent will shop at clothing stores and a further 11 per cent will head to jewelry shops.

Positive sentiment

NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay explained both retailers and consumers had much to be positive about this year.

“Valentine’s Day is a sentimental tradition, but gift-giving can be driven by the economy,” he said.

“Consumers spent freely during the 2019 winter holidays and they appear ready to do the same in the new year.

“The same strong employment numbers and higher wages that boosted holiday sales should make it easier to spend a little extra to say ‘I love you’ this year and to spread the gift-giving beyond just your significant other.”