How Live Stream Shopping Influences Buyers’ Purchase Decisions ---- 3 min read

Last Updated on August 22nd, 2023 in Get Started with Live Shopping & Shoppable Videos by Navneet Bali

How do buyers make Purchase Decisions? Why do they buy one product over another? Many studies have shown that buyers’ buying decisions are significantly influenced by cognitive biases. As a result, customers’ buying decisions are partially influenced by emotions.

In e-commerce in particular, studies show that purchasing decisions are triggered by the following biases: Social Proof, Scarcity, Improved Product Experiences, Authority and Power of Gratuity.

Livestream Shopping is undoubtedly one of the most promising techniques to trigger these biases. This is not only powerful for enhancing the relationship between customers and ecommerce brands, but it is also a powerful Tool for Sales and Marketing. In particular, it gives brands direct opportunities to trigger biases that make people buy products.

First, let’s discuss the five biases mentioned above:

Social Proof

There is no doubt that social proof is one of the most powerful biases brands can leverage. Social proof describes the tendency to mimic the buying behavior of others when evidence is presented.

Live Shopping Shows offer brands the opportunity to invite customers who are already satisfied with their products and are using them. The mere presence of others using these products offers social proof that products are worth purchasing.

Scarcity

A technique for increasing sales widely used in the context of Live Commerce solicits scarcity by offering shoppers exclusive offers, deals and discounts on products showcased during a live shopping show.

Scarcity during a live shopping show can take 3 different forms:

A time limit: “Only 2 hours left to take advantage of this discount!” Customers feel pressured to buy as soon as possible so that they can take advantage of the discount.

A quantity limit: A statement like “We have only two products in stock,” amplifies the value proposition of the product. As a product becomes scarcer, it becomes more desirable.

An access limit: A statement like “product available only to shoppers” is highly effective in creating exclusivity.

Improved Product Experiences

Product experiences are when your buyers experience aspects of products that can lead to an informed purchase decision. Live video shopping offers brands the ability to demonstrate and advertise their product live to an online audience in such a way that customers can truly see a product in all its perfection and flaws and experience all the aspects of a product in real-time. While doing so if they have any questions, then those can be answered in real-time as well.

Authority

One’s buying behavior may be modified in order to match that of an informed expert for a specific product when subjected to authority bias.

Live Stream Shopping Shows are usually hosted by experts or famous influencers, who engage with audiences and explain the functioning and different uses of the products and it directly solicits authority bias by encouraging audiences to modify their buying behavior to match that of the expert giving the presentation.

Power of Gratuity

Gratuity refers to the concept of preferring a product when it’s free. There is no doubt that free items can be powerful persuasive tools. Brands hosting Live Commerce Shows may prefer to give buyers free shipping, samples, etc rather than exclusive access to promotional codes.

Conclusion

The customer experience is driven by two essential axes: information and feeling. Live Commerce allows spectators a 360° view of the products presented, to see them in action, and to ask questions to the seller.

By engaging shoppers in entertainment, shoppers get a much more memorable shopping experience than just clicking an “add to cart” button. By leveraging buyer biases, live streaming shopping shows are a powerful way to influence buyer buying decisions.

Planning to venture into Live Streaming ecommerce or want to build an even more reputable and buzzworthy business?

You can Book a FREE DEMO to get started with Live Shopping or visit our Webpage to Know more.

We also offer Plug-and-play integration plugins/apps available for the popular e-commerce platforms listed below, and we will provide extensions for other e-commerce platforms shortly.

Install and activate the plugins on their respective platform:

Shopify: https://channelize.io/live-shopping/shopify

WooCommerce: https://channelize.io/live-shopping/woocommerce

Magento:https://channelize.io/live-shopping/magento

Prestashop: https://channelize.io/live-shopping/pestashop