In the past few years, much has been made of the influence of video and shopping. Video was always going to play a part in the shopping experience, it was just a matter of time. Even back in the late 1990s, Boo.com knew this before everyone else did, but the technology was not quite there yet. ‘It used technology for its own sake’ they cried at the time. Now, that technology has caught up, albeit some 20 years later, video and shopping has come into its own beyond influencers.

The main change has been internet speed, gone are the days of waiting 30 minutes for dial up to show us one photo on our screens, we can now effortlessly stream a 2 hour movie without a hitch (most of the time). Riding on the crest of this change, was of course, Youtube, with 500 hours of video footage uploaded every minute. (1) With this came the advent of influencers, who would then help viewers with their shopping experience. This started with reviews and moved on to the likes of unboxing and hauls.

Some retailers were quick to jump on the phenomenon, brands such as Gymshark were built on utilizing influencer content to reach out to the masses (2). Now that even that this D2C via influencer/social model is starting to get saturated, what would the next step be?

Watching review or unboxing videos on Youtube are likely to remain popular, but outside of a brief live stream, the experience is ultimately one way. The influencer says what they need to say and are mostly unchallenged on any questions or issues around the product. This is why the 121 live video shopping experience is becoming such an exciting area, allowing brands to re-build direct relationships with customers and owning the influencer relationship back. Your online shopping assistants become your influencers.

What does this look like? Let us take the scenario of launching a D2C online luxury goods brand. It can be challenging to convince people who have never heard of you to make a significant purchase. So, what better experience than for them to chat directly with one of your online assistants without leaving their home? Even better than this, the assistant can show the customer the product, talk through any concerns that customer has and close the transaction. The assistant is now the influencer and the customer turns into the advocate, spreading through word of mouth the seamless video shopping experience they have just encountered.

This has the potential to be expanded further. What if the customer records the video shopping experience and shares it with their peers? The FOMO factor will come into play and many others will want to indulge in the same process.

Video shopping is already becoming big news in Asia, if you think your company would like to be at the forefront of the technology that is now ready to allow 121 end to end video shopping, come and have a chat with Confer With today.