Retail Media Vibes

Extra Vibes: Live Shopping In 2025

• Brandon Viveiros

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0:00 | 11:09

Live shopping is booming, just not equally everywhere. We tackle why China’s live commerce machine towers over the U.S. and what has to change for 2025: cultural expectations, seamless payments, and the invisible tech that makes “watch, want, buy” feel effortless. From the early QVC playbook to TikTok Shops, Amazon Live, and Whatnot, we break down where the channel wins, where it stumbles, and how to design streams that people actually want to watch, and buy from.

We dig into the power of story over category, showing why beauty, fashion, cooking, home improvement, and collector communities respond when the format teaches and entertains rather than hard‑sells. You’ll hear why hybrid models, creator‑led on camera, retailer‑led on operations- consistently outperform, and how the best hosts turn chat into real conversion. We share a creator‑driven haircare stream that outpaced expectations, then list the practical fixes that move the needle: one‑tap wallets, persistent carts, clean variant selection, bundles that simplify choices, and rehearsal that stress‑tests every link.

To keep things fun, we also spotlight Crocs x T‑Pain’s “boots with the fur” moment, a playful, meme‑friendly collab that shows how cultural resonance drives attention and action. If you’re building a live commerce strategy for the year ahead, consider this your checklist: lead with narrative, pair the right host with the right platform, and make checkout disappear. Subscribe, share this with your team, and drop a review telling us which category you think is primed to break out next.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, we're gonna talk about live stream commerce in twenty twenty five, sometimes called live shopping. Um, live stream commerce definitely had a huge surge during the pandemic, uh, for some probably some very obvious reasons. Uh, but it's it's been a huge shopping channel in China for a long time. I mean, it's a$700 billion business in China. And here in the US, it's about a$40 billion. I mean, we're still talking about B billion, so it's it's not not tiny, but it just shows how big it is, um, big it is overseas in Asia. And so it's about 6% of e e-commerce sales. And so we have you know platforms who have kind of leaned into this, like TikTok shops and Amazon, uh, Amazon Live, and um even our our friends at Walmart have have done their uh their live shopping uh capabilities and uh as well. So, you know, it's it there are a lot of efforts being invested in this shopping uh shopping channel. I think sometimes, you know, when something new comes out and is kind of flashy, I think a lot of people kind of lean into it and probably maybe a little bit too early or maybe not be the right brand fit. I mean, I personally know you and I have worked on a few of these types.

SPEAKER_02:

I maybe trauma bonded over a live stream or two.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, they're high pressure and they definitely take a lot of coordination, a lot of effort to do them professionally. Uh, you know, and then you have stuff that's a little more casual, like a whatnot, where you know, people are selling you know, those sneakers and and uh baseball cards uh through a live auction and uh live commerce opportunity. So I do feel like it really does have legs within our our society. I mean, QVC and home shopping network have been around for years and years, but you know, it's it's it's it's in a good place here, but it's not exploded like it has in China. Why do you think like it's not quite as as big here as it is uh there?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I think there's really two things that stand out for me. So, first is just the cultural context and how they they want to shop and be entertained, and it's kind of the seamless integration. Um it it kind of goes hand in hand. And then the truthfully, the the sale, the conversion, the payment has been a more seamless integration there. You think about um WeChat, it just is a seamless mobile wallet, um, makes things a lot easier in other in a lot of other ways there. But um when we are doing a live stream, a lot of time we're taking people out of the live stream to go and buy and have a different user experience. And I think that that friction is gonna is gonna cause some of that um to just not be as popular, not be as um accessible to to the US masses. I think also like we're not willing on our attention span to be in that mode. Um, so I think those two kind of kind of slowed the adoption down. Like you said, we saw definitely some rise during the pandemic and and found ways to really enhance that. But we we definitely have a way to a ways to go. Those those billions are a few um a few uh points off there.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and I think, you know, sometimes, as I said before, you know, when something's new and it's shiny, like everybody wants to participate, even though it may not be the right brand or category. I think you know, beauty and fashion lean into probably this, you know, this type of commerce uh easily. What but what are some in your mind, what are some other categories that you know could uh could fit into this and into live stream commerce?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I think for me, I I kind of don't start with the category necessarily.

SPEAKER_01:

I think toilet paper?

SPEAKER_02:

Maybe.

SPEAKER_01:

I don't think so. I don't think so.

SPEAKER_02:

This I think it's the storytelling. I think how it comes together. Um so many categories could fall into that successfully. I think some that do lend well to like a storytelling mindset, and maybe it's the girl and me that grew up on Food Network, it's it's a cooking demo, whether that's selling the cheese product that they're cooking with, the pans that they're using, the plates that they're going on, or in the instances where maybe we have a retail-led one where you bring brands together and you're actually selling all of them. I think those, those stand out because it doesn't feel like you're trapped in a commercial. It feels like you're part of the story that's being created. So I think something like that is a great space and the products that lean into them really well too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. You know, you have the opportunity to do this live stream commerce across a few different platforms, right? Like, you know, Amazon Live, you know, TikTok shops, you know, whatnot. And then you even have creators that kind of do their own their own thing. You know, where have you seen the most success? Like, is it is it the influencer that's doing things on their own? Is it someone who is partnering on doing Amazon Live? Like, you know, obviously it's going to depend on what your KPI are KPI is, but yeah, it's you know, where have you seen like success in those channels?

SPEAKER_02:

I think the hybrid where you lead with the creator as the storyteller, they're the one that brings the audience, right? Like the host is who captivates them and who keeps them engaged and and brings them in. Um, but I think when you can lead with whether it's the retailer, the brand, the platform, um, to operationalize it, make sure that things are going well on the back end and like helping the creator um or the host be prepared. I think those hybrid models are gonna set you above because then the the person can shine as a person and and let their kind of um connection to the audience reign true. Um, drive whether it's driving engagements in a KPI, sometimes that's all they want. They just want people there. They want people to engage in a chat. So more likely you want people to, you know, add to cart and and buy a thing or two.

SPEAKER_01:

To be honest, I've never seen anything in the chat that I was like, oh, that was really great to to read in the chat. Like, I mean, anyway, it is engagement, I guess.

SPEAKER_02:

I have there was one we did um that was more of a creator-led, like they had a little more leeway, and that was the top performing from a sales perspective as well. The person just did a really good job engaging, they had an audience that really engaged. They were more of a beauty, beauty influencer. And so um, we were doing hair care products, and it just they they actually were engaging, but also drove sales. So, you know, in the perfect world, you get both.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I think you know, some people have the mindset I don't want to be sold to, right? So if you're bringing value to that viewer, um, that's beyond just I'm trying to show you my product and convince you to buy it, like are you with whether you're doing a recipe or you're providing some sort of tips, um, you know, fashion tips or uh how to, like I think that value equation with that viewer increases significantly. Oh, and by the way, if you want to buy this, then we have that ability to do that. You also hit on something earlier that I was thinking was such an important point, which is you can have the best creator on a great platform, but like the it's the little things, it's the little details that I think trips up the commerce experience. And you, you know, you talked about the ability to buy, right? And the shopping experience. And I think you know, that actually has to evolve and make it easy as easy as as possible in order to uh help that commerce become a more viable channel because people are gonna just people are gonna spend time creating content in those channels if they're seeing conversion, right? And if the thing that's holding up conversion is it takes forever for me to check out, or I've got to put in my credit card and I've got to put in my CVV three times and all of that stuff before I can check out. I'm gonna see the conversion. I guess I mean people are just like, that's too much friction. You've you've lost me in the moment, and that and I'm moving on. So I think I think my takeaway is make sure you fully understand the complete experience all the way through, and put yourself in the shoppers' shoes and ensure that every step in your process, every step in that process works and has as little friction as possible. And sometimes friction has to be there for various reasons. So the more we can streamline that, I think that's gonna allow live stream shop uh shopping or live stream commerce to advance.

SPEAKER_00:

All right, and then you have one more campaign.

SPEAKER_01:

You want to talk about some Crocs and T-Pain?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I mean, remember I said I was a millennial, so might not end with T-Pain. Okay. Um T Pain and Crocs partnered up earlier in October to launch a boots with the fur line. I mean, a little bit weird, which is Crocs. Yeah, a little bit funky, which is also T-Pain.

SPEAKER_01:

I did buy Crocs cowboy boots, by the way. But you did? Well, actually, my wife did because I convinced her to do it. But anyway, regardless.

SPEAKER_02:

Um, but you know, nodding back to his buy you a drink from the 2000s. Um, I just kind of love it because it's a fun, unexpected, but kind of expected, I guess, based on kind of their two brands. Yep. Um, and it was really kind of a meme-worthy type thing, social moment, which T-Paint is pretty, pretty ingrained on social media. So love that as somebody that went to his concert recently, you know, I thought it was a good mix. Um, and just kind of a funny, funny way to to tie into maybe the the millennial culture. I'm not probably gonna buy them, but I do appreciate I do appreciate the the collab and and the unexpected mode.

SPEAKER_01:

That's that's awesome. Yeah, I think that's a good thing.