myPOS e-commerce payment gateway for your live shopping strategy

We all remember those days sitting in front of the television, watching an infomercial or a sales channel. The presenters were sometimes cheesy but they were so convincing that they made you want to purchase their products all from the comfort of your own sofa. From frying pans to beauty products or even painting materials to dolly up your home, all you had to do was pick up the phone and place your order.

In this day and age with social media booming in every direction you look, it seems almost intuitive that this type of traditional sales platform would soon evolve and come to you straight to your mobile phone or computer. 

Introducing live shopping.

But what is it, how does it work and what are its benefits? Let’s take a closer look.

What is live shopping and how does it work?

Live shopping introduces products to your end consumers through a live stream where influencers, celebrities or some rather enthusiastic member of your staff introduces a product by modeling it, showcasing it in its best light, all with the aim of getting your customer to buy from you online.
While this trend started in China, Amazon quickly picked up on it right before the start of the pandemic and is slowly making inroads into this space.

The potential for reaching younger generations through a medium they feel comfortable in – social media – is huge, although significant prior preparation is required to ensure everything during the live stream goes without a hitch.

During the live stream, customers can send queries and questions to the organisers or presenters and these are answered in real time. This elevates the shopping experience, making it not only comfortable from your own smart device, but also safer in a world where lockdowns continue to be imposed and physical retailers can no longer open their doors to their customers.

What are the benefits of live shopping?

In a Covid-19-sticken world, the benefits of live shopping seem to be endless. But here are just three of them that we find to be the most pertinent.

Real-time information exchange:

The influencer, celebrity or member of your staff can engage with your consumers in real time. This means showcasing the product, receiving questions from your customers and answering them in real time, too. This real-time information exchange is just like a consumer going to a store and asking a sales person about the product on offer. This timeliness in responses is going to give your customers instant gratification and an opportunity to make up their mind right away whether they will end purchasing the product right now or not.

Improved collaboration:

If you make use of influencers in your marketing, this is a perfect time to increase collaborations with them. By fostering strong relationships with your brand and them, you’ll be better able to arm them with the right information about your product so that they become even stronger brand ambassadors. Remember that influencers usually work for a fee or a commission on each product sold so it’s in both parties’ interest to have strong teamwork.

A boost in sales:

The figures around sales from a live shopping event are staggering. We won’t go into details about the number of visitors or the amount in purchases made on Singles Day in China, which is a loose equivalent of Black Friday or Cyber Monday. All we will say is that the real-time interactions and the use of celebrities or influencers is likely to rake in more sales and this is something that every business strives for.

What about payment methods when it comes to live shopping?

When all is said and done, and the customer is about to press the shopping cart button on your page to make the purchase, are you prepared for this? You will need to look at each stage of the customer’s journey through to the actual sale. This is where myPOS checkout comes in handy.

Compared to the industry standard, the myPOS checkout pages are up to three times faster in terms of loading, whereas you can also make use of online payment acceptance tools such as Payment Requests, PayLinks and PayButtons. Payment Requests are one-time links that are sent to your customer via SMS, chat or email which takes them to a secure page to pay.

On the contrary, PayLinks are similar links but they can be sent to multiple customers at the same time. PayButtons are buttons integrated on your website which lead to secure pages for your customers to make a purchase and they can be tailor-made to fit your brand’s design and overall image.

Conclusion

In wrapping up this brief discussion about live shopping, it’s apparent that this method of making purchases is only going to grow as an outgrowth of the rising popularity of e-commerce. With it, you can target younger generations who are more comfortable with using social media and other types of technology to gain their attention, trust and ultimately make the next sale. Live shopping is the future of e-commerce and it’s important you implement this in your online offering to take advantage of all the opportunities it offers.