SINGAPORE: Livestreaming e-commerce, where businesses use video content on digital platforms to sell products and services in real time, has become all the rage in recent years.

However, the sector in Singapore has not quite seen the success stories the likes of larger countries such as China, where livestreaming has reshaped consumer behaviour and transformed e-commerce.

Industry players said that while local demand has grown over the past few years, live shopping has not yet become mainstream in the retail sector.

Some businesses said they sometimes finish livestreaming sessions without a single sale.

Observers attribute the lukewarm reception to a lack of talents who can push sales live on air, as well as a small market where goods are easily available in stores.

PIVOTING TO LIVE SELLING

One such business which has incorporated livestreaming into its marketing mix is jewellery retailer Lovelotsdiamond.

The firm started selling its gems live on Facebook about one-and-a-half years ago to drive more traffic to its online store, especially from potential customers who are unable to travel to its physical shop.

“They may be housewives or homemakers who don’t have time to visit stores. That’s where they go to find what they want to buy online. Increasingly, (online shopping) will become more of a consumer behaviour,” said the company’s co-founder and director Peter Ang.

Sales over livestreams now account for about 15 per cent of the retailer’s total revenue, and help to increase its clientele by about 3 to 5 per cent every month.

However, some of its livestreaming sessions also generate little or no sales.

Mr Ang said talented hosts and good content creators are key to convincing more users to make purchases, and enticing more offline shoppers to go online.

“The main challenge is getting the right livestreamers,” he said. “(They need to have) the right personality, the skills to explain the product and get the message across to the audience, and actually convince them to buy,” he said.

CHALLENGES FACING THE SECTOR

Mr Kenneth Tan, co-founder and CEO of BeLive Technology, a Singapore-based livestreaming solutions provider, said the demand for talents outstrips supply in the sector.

He added that while brands have invested in celebrities or influencers with huge social media followings to front livestreams, their popularity does not always translate into sales.

“You need a very different personality when you’re doing livestreaming – you need to be affable, authentic, and able to sell. For brands, the biggest challenge will be to engage someone like that and work with them on a consistent basis,” he said.

In fact, Mr Tan believes that having just one superstar livestreamer here can help the medium go mainstream.

Another reason why live shopping has not quite taken off in Singapore is the accessibility of brick-and-mortar shops, said Dr Kapil Tuli, a marketing professor at Singapore Management University’s (SMU) Lee Kong Chian School of Business.

“We have an incredible retail footprint, we are surrounded by stores that are very conveniently located. There is that ease of going in and trying things physically and talking to a person. In a lot of other countries, this is not the case,” he said.

CHINA’S LIVE-STREAMING BOOM

Livestreaming e-commerce boomed during the COVID-19 pandemic in China, when authorities there imposed some of the toughest lockdown measures in the world.

Millions of Chinese, confined to long spells at home, turned to online shopping and propelled the explosive growth of live selling.

“It is an exciting channel that allows people to, from the comfort of their home, see a master salesperson in action, in product categories where they might not have complete information and they want to know more, and even interact one-on-one,” said Dr Tuli.

The phenomenon is projected to rake in over US$562 billion in China this year, with more than 373 million shoppers expected to make purchases through livestream platforms, according to research firm Insider Intelligence.

However, unlike China, Singapore did not experience prolonged, intense lockdowns where the only option for shopping was online, said Dr Tuli.

Population size also makes a difference. Chinese businesses have a potential market of over 1 billion internet users in the nation.

“The population size (here) doesn’t match the scale of the business impact that is required from brands’ investment point of view. So that’s a key part that’s also missing,” said Mr Tan.  

WILL THE SECTOR GROW LOCALLY?

Dr Tuli said that while the industry has become much more popular, it is mostly due to a novelty effect, and he does not expect livestreaming to be able to command a sizable portion of retail sales.

However, Mr Tan held hope that there is much room for growth, pointing to China’s seemingly insatiable appetite for livestreaming.

“In China, almost 30 per cent of e-commerce GMV (gross merchandises value) is driven by livestream. I would say Singapore is at an average of 4 per cent. So there is still so much room for live commerce GMV to grow here,” he said.

Jewellery retailer Lovelotsdiamond is also positive about the future of livestreaming as a major form of e-commerce, and plans to continue using such platforms to attract more customers.

“I think livestreaming will be a mainstream mode of purchase for viewers in the near future, as it becomes a daily habit for many people to look through their Instagram, Facebook or TikTok as a daily form of stress relief or buying behaviour,” said Mr Ang.