Brief:

• Online retailer Betabrand began livestreaming shopping events that urge customers to participate by leaving comments, emojis and other reactions in a feed, per an announcement shared with Mobile Marketer.
• The livestream appears on its website every Friday at 9:10 a.m. Pacific time to showcase product drops in an interactive feed.
• The livestreamed event is an extension of a participatory experience that Betabrand creates for customers, giving them a voice in the design of its latest products. Its website tallies votes from customers and lets them comment on clothing designs for work, travel, leisure time or working out.

Insight:

Betabrand has turned crowdsourcing into a key part of its process of designing clothing and direct-to-consumer (DTC) sales of merchandise. By livestreaming a shopping event every week, the online retailer can take the same approach that QVC does in showcasing products, answering questions from viewers and ultimately making a sale.

Betabrand already is set up to receive reactions from consumers with its website that lets shoppers vote on design decisions and to express their enthusiasm for its products. Earlier this year, Betabrand began proactively monitoring comments on its products from Facebook users and creating original content to respond to the most common posts. The idea was to engage users in an ongoing conversation about its collections, and urge them to make a purchase.

Amazon this year adopted a similar livestreaming strategy with the introduction of Amazon Live, which showcases products with video demonstrations and lets viewers ask questions through a chat box. The e-commerce giant has had mixed success with video shopping, having canceled its Style Code Live show that resembled QVC in 2017.

Consumers have grown to expect brand conversations to be two-way, especially as most say they see the same ads over and over and often feel bombarded with the amount of marketing messages that they receive. Among millennial women, 84% say comments, customer ratings and reviews influence their purchase decisions, and 70% think brands listen and respond to their needs, according to Merkle and Levo research.