And that’s a wrap! It was a great pleasure joining Figaro Digital to discuss the latest trends in the beauty industry. If you were unfortunate enough to miss out on attending, we have provided an overview including a link to the Confer With presentation which was led by our great CEO, Serge Milbank here. The presentation also includes a demonstration with the delightful Francesca from the skincare and wellbeing retailer, Light Salon.
What to expect
- Introduction
- Live stream shopping
- One to one
- One to many
- Demonstration of using Confer With
- Q&A with Serge and Francesca from Light Salon
- Final words
- Six key takeaways
The Introduction
Figaro Digital’s host, Skip Fidura, gave a beautiful introduction to the Confer With presentation:
“How do you take a personal shopper and put it in your customer’s lounge?”
And that’s true. How can you recreate that shoppable experience that we quite frankly took for granted a little over a year ago?
Check out this before and after overview of the beauty retail sector:
- Pre-pandemic 85% of us would visit a store before purchase
- That has decreased between 25% to 30%
- Online growth has increased between 30% to 100%
Live stream shopping
Serge spoke about live stream shopping and its ability to recreate lost experiences in social interaction. It enables shoppable products within a digital experience and strengthens the relationship between eCommerce and physical shopping experiences.
For a brand or retailer, live stream shopping offers the ability to demonstrate and promote to a live online audience and they can interact with shoppers in that live experience too.
One to many
This focuses on infotainment. One-to-many streams target a broad reach of people from anywhere in the world. Much like QVC, this is engaged because people want to be there or they are at the consideration funnel.
One to one
This is less infotainment but more close to encapsulating a personable and individualised service. It carries customers through the purchasing funnel, allowing the advisor to navigate between exploration and evaluation.
It truly offers a more real-life experience over video from the comfort of your own home.
Light Salon’s demonstration showing Confer With
After a great introduction from Serge, a demonstration of Light Salon using Confer With begins, We strongly recommend you to check it out here!
It was a fantastic opportunity to showcase how clienteling can be encouraged via video channels. Francesca did a brilliant job of immersing the customer (our very own Megan) with the products and seamlessly suggested recommendations too.
Light Salon talks about using Confer With
Serge and Francesca from Light Salon spoke about using the Confer With tool and the impact it has had on the business so far.
Serge (Confer With): You have used zoom before using a live shopping tool, what was it like when comparing the Confer With tool against a pure straight product, like zoom?
Francesca (Light Salon): Much easier using this, with Zoom we didn’t have anywhere we could show the products. We would have a certain amount of products on us to show the clients. But this is much easier as we can get anything up and they have visuals. It makes the selling process easier.
Serge (Confer With): Is making products shoppable having a tangible impact on your business?
Francesca (Light Salon): I would say so, definitely! having that vision and being able to have the interactive experience where they can add things to the basket. Going through different products and adding more things to what they were originally looking for. It has made a huge difference!
Serge (Confer With): Brilliant, how are you personally finding it selling over video?
Francesca (Light Salon): It’s different! We’ve been doing it for a while now and clients are used to it too. We are all on video now. It’s different obviously, we’re not doing any hands-on treatment but we can still talk about skincare routines. And one good thing is they always have their skincare products on them! Whereas in the salon they wouldn’t bring them in.
Serge (Confer With): How are the customers finding this?
Francesca (Light Salon) They are loving it. People are getting used to this way of life. They are super happy going on the video call (even if they are on the treadmill or at work!) and we are receiving great feedback.
Final words
Finally, Serge begins to wrap up the presentation commenting that shoppers who have moved online during the pandemic will intend to make it permanent once restrictions ease.
17.2 million shoppers are moving online and UK consumers expect to make that permanent.
“Retailers who adapt to that change can win“
Many years of driving volume in eCommerce shows consumers love face to face. The customer journey requires dialogue to complete a purchase and live video shopping plays a key role. Chatbot or Augmented Reality can do it at scale but real people and expertise make a difference when there is a complicated purchase journey.
Video commerce will reach out to these key groups even after the pandemic:
- Those not close to retail
- Those with accessibility problems
- Those who are time poor
- Those who have a preference for video
The six takeaways for video commerce
- Live video shopping is the blending of live video and eCommerce data to create a new shopping experience for consumers
- Engage audience creates an environment where they will convert more
- Creating high conversions means more repeat custom too
- Average order value will rise due to effective digital dialogue
- Video commerce is growing
- Video commerce is becoming a channel choice not just at the back of the pandemic but afterwards as well
At Confer With we have expert knowledge in video commerce and we are always on board to help guide you through that journey. Schedule a free demo to find out more about how we can help supercharge your business.
