The Update:
Twitter Blog (22/11/21):
Live video has been transforming the way we shop for years. Earlier this year we announced our plans to better support shopping on Twitter, and today we’re excited to announce the next step in that journey: Live Shopping.
While watching a Live Shopping stream on Twitter, people can take several actions that make the shopping experience on Twitter seamless, such as:
Check out the Shoppable Banner and Shop Tab on the Live event’s page.
Toggle back and forth between the Latest Tab and the Shop Tab throughout the livestream, allowing them to be a part of the conversation as they check out products.
Continue to watch the livestream on the merchant’s website within an in-app browser, so they don’t miss a thing while making a purchase.
Earlier this week Twitter announced Live Shopping features, which will allow for a relatively seamless shopping experience while streaming live video within the Twitter app and on desktop. The very first shoppable livestream on Twitter will be hosted on the 28th of November by none other than Jason Derulo. Viewers will be treated to a 30 minute variety show, where they will be able shop from Walmart.
I am wary of this kind of product development. Firstly, Twitter is not a consumer e-commerce platform. That is not to say that brand advertising isn’t effective on the platform, or a certain kind of infopreneur (I cringe to use the term) doesn’t find Twitter useful for disseminating their wares. What I am trying to say is that in my mind the fact that consumer advertising is so poor on the platform, and the lack of almost any helpful e-commerce features shows a lack of proof-of-concept here. To be clear the convergence of social and direct e-commerce is natural in my mind. It seems to me like Twitter are attempting to sprint before they learn to walk.
My gripe is not with shoppable livestreaming. This kind of medium has a long, if not somewhat shady, history. The Shopping Channel comes to mind. Morning television still hawks vacuum cleaners and all-in-one miracle wipes. The most extreme example of the efficacy of livestreaming is the renowned Chinese beauty influencer Li Jiaqi, better known as ‘Lipstick Brother’. Li hosts his events on Taobao, an Alibaba property, and recently pre-sold $1.9B (not a typo, and yes that is USD) worth of goods, ranging from AirPods to lotions during Single’s Day. In perhaps his most infamous commercial exploit, he once sold 15,000 lipsticks in less than five minutes. The point here is that Lipstick Brother cultivates his main audience on Douyin (Tik Tok) - where he has over 40M followers - BUT he sells, and streams, on a dedicated e-commerce platform. I would reasonably entertain the argument that the Chinese e-commerce environment is structurally different from what we have experienced in the West. I would respond that where individual influencers are facilitating billions of dollars worth of sales in a single livestream, their experience could be instructive to our own.
Ultimately I think this move by Twitter is probably a enhancement to two of the stronger parts of its commercial offering. Firstly, being able to facilitate events within the platform, with the option to step off onto a third-party site, is a real enhancement to brand advertising which is well suited to the platform. This would combine existing technology that Twitter has - video - with the ecommerce offerings of powerful brands. Initially, that would be likes of a Walmart. It also dovetails in with the much anticipated ticketed spaces and events, which is a much better service to the interests of those who use twitter regularly. No offence to Lipstick Brother, but I’m not logging into Twitter to be sold on accessories and toiletries. I would, however, happily login, and pay, to hear an interesting conversation between subject experts. In that circumstance I could see myself purchasing a book, or a course after the event. Naturally that would be facilitated on a 3rd party site using this functionality.
I’m interested to see how the livestream goes on the 28th (and quietly rooting for it to be wildly successful) but it seems like another oblique, off topic development. I think these kind of features would be better suited to other platforms (like Instagram) but it also indicates just how cutthroat the competition is to capture the creator economy at the moment.