Live selling effectively in the Philippines
Have you been browsing through your Facebook newsfeed or have been scrolling endlessly in your Shopee app only to find out online sellers conducting live selling? Does this give you an idea to start up your mini online business and start live selling as well?
Consumers now prefer to purchase goods and products online because of public transportation limitations due to the present pandemic. It paved the way for businesses to change their sales and marketing strategies. Everybody shifted from selling everything online. You will see that a lot of Filipino online sellers are going live to sell more. These live broadcast videos are all over the internet because it is an effective way to increase sales.
Based on online research and reports, people are most likely to buy a product when they watch its video first. According to Social Media Today, 90% of buyers say that a video helps them with their buying decision and 54% say that they prefer video content over the other. Wyzowl has a similar claim that backs this up. 84% say that consumers have been convinced to buy products and services by watching its video.
The saying “To see is to believe” holds true to live selling. People prefer to see actual products than just seeing pictures alone. A video post is the most engaging content that is more likely to be consumed by its audience. This is because consumers can see the actual product with an actual seller that explains the product. It also builds brand trust, according to Digital Marketing Institute. Live videos are also more interactive than any other form of online selling strategies.
Are you now convinced to start your own? There are 3 things that you have to consider to perfectly pull it off — the before, during, and after part of your live selling.
BEFORE GOING LIVE
1. PLAN AHEAD
Yes, you have to. Planning is an important part of your business strategy. Let us go to the specifics. Consider these pointers and ask yourself these questions:
- What products am I going to sell online?
- Who is my target market?
- How much is my budget for my capital?
- Where can I look for and locate my suppliers?
- Which platform will work best for me?
Facebook and Shopee are the most preferred platforms to conduct a live selling broadcast. Some sellers use Facebook more and some the other way around. Be experimental on this so that you will know next time which will be more efficient for you.
Now that you have a plan, let us now proceed with the next step.
2. PREPARE FOR THE ACTUAL LIVE SELLING BEFOREHAND
You may be excited doing live selling and increase your sales, but before that, you may have to set it up first.
FREQUENCY AND DURATION
Determine the frequency and duration of your live sell. Do you prefer to do this every day or weekly? Once or twice a week? What day of the week and what time are you going to do this? How long does your video going to last?
AMBIANCE AND LIGHTING
Treat your live sell broadcast as a professional video or film production. Here is a checklist that will guide you.
- Set up the area visible to your camera
Put some effort into designing and putting decors such as your wall color and furniture placement.
- Fix the lighting
Assess if it helps you improve the quality of your video. It should highlight you as a seller, and it should accentuate your background or decor.
- Make yourself presentable
Dress up a little bit and put on some makeup. It does not have to be grand. Just make yourself appear presentable and credible.
- Organize your products
Sort out and arrange your products in categories such as sizes, colors, styles (for clothes, bags, and shoes), then, if it is for food, categorize it according to taste or price. For example, this day, you will only live sell denim pants, then on the next live selling, you will be selling outerwear.
You will find this helpful on your actual live sell broadcast since you don’t have to rummage and look for the item, which is not time efficient and might cost you to lose viewers. It will also help you to set your viewers’ expectations at a manageable level.
- Name your product codes in advance
Be creative as much as possible. What are product codes? Have you seen Facebook and Shopee live videos’ comments like “mine 1”, “mine 2”? These are called product codes that will help miners to determine which products they bought. Miners are the one who comments “mine” on your video and they are your buyers as well. Some sellers named their oversize shirts after superheroes (for example, Captain America, Superman). So when miners comment, it will be like “mine captain America” It sounds catchy, and it will help you to catch your audience’s attention.
You have prepared everything and have come this far already, but there are things that you still need to do.
TEST PILOT YOUR LIVE SELL BROADCAST
You now need to test pilot your live sell video so that you may not encounter technical difficulties during your actual broadcast. Professionals do an internship first. Athletes and pianists devote their time to practice before the actual competition. You are no different from them, so this applies to you too.
3. PROMOTE YOUR LIVE BROADCAST
With everything in place, now is the perfect time to promote your live sell broadcast. Share it across to all your social media accounts. Send messages to your friends and group chats in advance. Post on Facebook groups so that you will let others know you are going live. Tell them that you broadcast live on this date and time.
Treat your live broadcast as an event that will take place and make sure to generate interest.
Now is the day you’ve been waiting for — the actual live selling.
DURING ONLINE LIVE SELLING STREAM
DO’S AND DON’TS DURING LIVE SELLING
- Introduce briefly
Avoid long introductions about you and your shop. Just a concise one would suffice.
You can go straight ahead in selling and showing your products to your viewers as some audience will immediately leave your video if you beat around the bush too much.
Some sellers would wait for a specific number of viewers before starting the live selling. Let your audience know this so that they know what they are waiting for. This varies from seller to seller.
2. Be honest
When showing the product, be honest with the description as much as possible. If it is second hand, say it. If it has damage or stain, let your customers know. Don’t set your customers’ expectations too high, as this will lead out to disappointment.
- Keep your viewers engaged
Keep your audience or miners engaged as much as possible. You may keep them engaged thru discounts and freebies. Some sellers would do it at the start of their live video so that their viewers will get excited, and some would do it at the end so that their viewers will stay until the end because there is something to look forward to.
- Respond immediately
Be accommodating and responsive to your customers. Unresponsiveness will drive your customers away and will look for another seller who is more responsive to their inquiries and requests.
It would be much better if there will be someone helping you in responding to your customers while you are hosting the live sell video.
AFTER STREAMING LIVE SELLING VIDEO
WHAT TO DO NEXT AFTER LIVE SELLING?
- Reply to your customers’ messages
Some customers prefer to send PMs (personal messages), and you have to reply to all of these. Be quick to respond because customers stick around to sellers or brands that are responsive.
2. Organize and pack the items that you will ship out to your customers
Make sure to do a quality check before shipping out an item. I had a personal experience in selling online that I still treat as a valuable lesson to me. I shipped out some of my pre-loved clothes to my buyer, and I was asking her if she received the items already. She told me that one of the tops has a stain, but the item description didn’t say so. I felt sorry for that buyer that I had to offer her a freebie, a discount, or a full refund. She responded that it’s such a hassle. I knew I lost a future customer.
- Track sales and profit
Use Facebook’s data analytics and insights or Business Insights if you are using Shopee, to measure important metrics of your live selling video. Evaluate the data and use this to assess which works best for your live selling. Check these things in the data you have gathered:
- If people viewed your video through their mobile phones, laptop, or desktop
- If they stayed and how long did they watch your video
- Geographic location of your viewers
- How people engaged to you during your video
- Demographics of your audience
These things will help you to strategically put a plan in place for your next live selling.
Now that you have everything you need to know, apply all of these in your next Facebook or Shopee live videos.
Do all of these sound overwhelming to you? Would you need a social media expert that can help you with your live selling? Ratchet Up would like to be of service! Click here to learn more about what we can offer to boost your business’ success.
Happy live selling!
