Although it may appear that live 1-2-1 video shopping and 2-way video are merely synonyms for each other, that couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, they differ greatly when it comes to providing a truly immersive shopping experience; one does just that to turn your browsers into shoppers, whereas the other one falls flat on helping solve your customers problems.
But which one is it, and why is it important to know the difference between the two? Below, we explain the difference between live 1-2-1 and 2-way video shopping, as well as the greatest problems that come when only helping customers with part of their journey.
What is the difference between live 1-2-1 and 2-way video?
Live 1-2-1 video shopping is the ability for your online shoppers to connect directly with your retail staff by bridging the gap between digital and physical. In the same way that you wouldn’t have a shop with no one inside it, why would you have a website with no one there to help your customers?
Now, here’s the difference. 2-way video involves the sales expert walking through the retail store, holding a phone and gimble, showing the customer what is available on the shop floor. It can also involve an influencer just presenting products to thousands of people – as with TikTok shopping or Instagram live. More often than not, the influencer is unable to cater their products or shopping experience to the customers, due to the volume of people’s needs they would have to meet.
Why is it important to know the difference between live 1-2-1 and 2-way video?
It can be easy to assume that these forms of live shopping are pretty similar to each other; delving further into it, that couldn’t be further from the truth. The most important reason to know the difference between the two is that they heavily depend on the audience you are catering towards.
By recognising if you want to give your customers a truly immersive personalised experience (such as with live 1-2-1) or make them wait for your retail staff to figure out the best lighting to show a product that may not even be available on the shop floor (such as with 2-way video) is the decision you need to make.
What are the main problems of using 2-way video?
Well, as an immersive, live 1-2-1 shopping platform, where do we even start? Here are some of the main problems we have identified with using 2-way video:
- Communication is not just about what you say
- The retail expert should be able to pick up on facial/body signs as you are talking – it can get you closer to the sale
- Location of the sales expert
- Sometimes it’s not down to the retail staff themselves, but the shop floor they’re recording on
- The shop floor doesn’t have live availability or recommendation of next best items
- The shop floor can also have patchy WIFI, be noisy, and bad lighting
- The physical store has a closing time, whereas the online store is always open
- Unable to build a relationship between the retail staff and customer
- If an influencer is presenting to thousands of people, it’s impossible for them to know which products are best suited for each individual customer
- For example: knowing the room size for a sofa, wall size for a TV, or body shape for sizing
- Finishing the job
- 2-way video doesn’t allow you to add items to a shared shopping basket
- With 2-way video, you are unable to connect to checkout to complete a transaction
The solution
The solution for solving these problems can be summed up in less than a sentence: Immersive 1-2-1 video. Specifically, Confer With’s live 1-2-1 video shopping platform, and here’s why:
- We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again, live 1-2-1 video shopping allows customers to build relationships with the retail staff, in turn creating trust between them so people feel more comfortable explaining their needs
- The Confer With platform shows products from the whole catalogue, not just what is available on the shop floor at a given time
- The customer is confident in their product choice as the shopping experience is catered just towards them, and not just an advert for the whole store. As a result, brands and retailers see their NPS scores soar to an excellent benchmark of 80
And there’s results to prove it:
It is reported that the top factor driving customer loyalty for online consumers is customer experience, with 44% of consumers spending more on valuable experience. How can you expect to give all your customers the best experience if you’re not catering it to everyone individually?
Furthermore, the number one reason that consumers shop online is their ability to shop 24/7. With the highest peak of online shopping being between 9pm and 11pm for the next generation of shoppers, how will you be able to help your customers then if your store has a closing time?
Here’s our results to prove it:
Our live 1-2-1 video shopping platform has been the solution for increasing conversion rates, average order value, and basket size, as well as reducing abandoned baskets. We are working with some of the largest retail brands across the world, including: Snug, Bridgman, Dunelm and Nordgreen, as well as many others. But our list of success stories doesn’t stop there; take a read of our case study page to get just a little taste of who we are and what we do.
Three key takeaways
- Live 1-2-1 video shopping provides a truly immersive shopping experience to turn your browsers into shoppers
- 2-way video is unreliable in terms of building a relationship between the retail staff and customer, connecting to checkout to complete a transaction, and live availability or recommendation of next best items
- Communication between retail experts and customers is much more than what you say
What’s next?
The most important things to note about live 1-2-1 video is its incredible ability to provide a personalised and immersive shopping experience to every SINGLE customer – especially yours.
We believe that with our expertise and success stories, live 1-2-1 and 2-way video are no longer seen as synonyms of each other, but instead as alternative ways of bridging the gap between physical and digital retail. Of course, one being a lot more superior than the other (ps. that’s live 1-2-1 by the way)!
Book in a call with one of Confer With’s sales strategists who will explain to you just how our immersive platform will benefit your customer’s live shopping experience.
