The Rise of Reinvention
QVC. HSN. These are household names in the televised home shopping industry. Literally. These names were present in every home in the U.S. as long as there was a TV.
If you had a Dooney & Bourke tote bag, chances are you got the complete 3 piece set along with the coin purse key chain and it was a steal from QVC.
But does anyone shop via television anymore? Does anyone even have cable anymore?
Goodbye Live TV. Hello Livestreaming.
As cable television slowly exits many households and streaming networks replaces them, there is a new gap to fill. With streaming devices such as Apple TV, Roku, Amazon’s Firestick — the cable line running from your wall is collecting dust and now Americans are tuning in online. More specifically, people are now watching livestreams.
Livestreaming has already proven its popularity in the gaming world thanks to platforms like Twitch. Popular gamers, celebrities, and even politicians like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have already used Twitch to access their audience. Now, brands are utilizing livestream to sell.
The New Way to QVC
As a freelance content creator, I am always on the lookout for brand affiliate opportunities. Verishop first piqued my attention in April 2021 when a fellow content creative told me to check out their affiliate program. At the time Verishop had just announced they were unlike other e-commerce platform applications because they verified their shops. Hence the name, Verishop. I found their group shopping feature unique. For example, influencers could shop on the platform with their audience in a group of 5 people or users can shop with their friends. At the time, it sounded like a socially distanced shopping trip. Totally pandemic appropriate. They also just enabled product tagging and allowed users to post their own content. Their own version of Instagram shop, if you will.
Just last week, Verishop announced they will be releasing a livestream shopping feature on their app. The platform boasts a robust livestream program — going live for 12 hours per day hosted by 115 expert streamers. They hope that this will improve their platform’s functionality and make discovering new products more seamless — something that social media fails to do.
My Takeaway
Aside from my past interactions with Verishop as a company, this news caught my eye because personally, I don’t tune into livestreams. I rarely tuned into televised home shopping and I never bought anything from QVC or HSN. However, I am aware that historically QVC and HSN are highly successful so I am interested in seeing where livestream shopping will go. Personally, I mainly discover new products to purchase through trusted influencers I follow on social media such as Instagram or Youtube. Unfortunately, I am usually turned off by content that is obviously trying to get me to purchase something so livestreaming would not be effective for me.
I wonder what type of audience will tune into livestream shopping and if the current Verishop users are interested in livestream shopping already.
So I’d like to know, do you livestream shop already? If you don’t, can you see yourself tuning in? Let me know in the comments down below!
Disclaimer: I do not have any past or current affiliations with Verishop at the time this post was published.
