How livestreaming engages beauty and personal care shoppers

8 December 2021 | By Jareen Imam, Sr. Content and Editorial Manager

From an influencer livestreaming their weekend on social media, to a football game airing live on streaming video, to a gamer broadcasting their gameplay in real time, livestreaming is becoming a common way for creators, brands, and businesses to directly engage with their audiences. Audiences passionate about a wide range of interests – food, fitness, beauty, fashion, decorating, movies, music, travel and sports – are turning to livestream services like Amazon Live to engage with content they love.

Livestreaming is becoming more interactive. Through its ability to drive engagement and monetisation opportunities for creators and brands, livestreaming features are being used in some shopping and entertainment industries. Already popular in China and South Korea, livestream shopping is gaining momentum in the US. According to Coresight, in the US, livestreaming is expected to grow to $11 billion by the end of 2021 and to $25 billion by 2023 – that’s more than 400% growth.1

Here’s a look at how livestreaming is helping to transform the shopping experience, especially for beauty and personal care brands.

Embracing a digital makeover with livestreaming

When it comes to beauty and personal care, customers have typically wanted to try a product before purchasing it. Therefore, growth in online shopping has previously challenged beauty and personal care brands to identify unique ways to enhance consumers’ online experiences. However, customer behaviour has started to shift in the past two years. Now, nearly 40% of beauty consumers are more comfortable shopping online than they were before 2020, according to a Stella Rising report.2

From virtual try-ons to personalised product matching to livestreaming product demonstrations, brands are changing their focus toward building experiences for consumers that feel inclusive and interactive online. In addition, as more brands lean into livestreaming opportunities to showcase their products in real time, there’s an opportunity to reach a potentially larger audience.

It’s not just shopping – it’s an experience

Live shopping, first seen by networks like Home Shopping Network or QVC, has evolved to meet the needs of consumers today. Livestreams can facilitate an engaging online shopping experience. They can be entertaining, timely and informative because livestreams lean into features like chat, Q&A and live-only deals. Livestreams can even help consumers learn more about brands and products from creators they trust by providing information to audiences in real time. This gives customers the opportunity to shop along with brand ambassadors, influencers, and product experts – all from the comfort of home.

Livestreams also offer a sense of immediacy that enable creators and brands to connect with their audiences with authenticity. Many consumers are seeking recommendations from individuals who have similar tastes to them, and consumers wants to have fun while shopping too. For example, audiences may want advice on the best protein powders and they also want to know how to use that product to make a delicious protein shake in real time. With livestreaming, audiences can ask those timely and specific questions to a livestreamer and get an immediate answer from a trusted source. In addition, audiences want to hear this information from product experts they trust. And the “show, don’t tell” expression couldn’t be truer for beauty and personal care brands – especially when launching new brands and products.

The Honest Company is an example of a brand that uses Amazon Live to connect with Amazon audiences. Amazon Live is a livestream shopping destination where customers can watch their favourite influencers stream about their product finds, then instantly shop via a product carousel alongside the video. Jessica Alba, founder of The Honest Company, regularly goes live with “Get Ready with Me” streams, showing viewers her favourite Honest beauty products and discussing product application techniques. This is an example of how livestreaming can facilitate opportunities for brands and creators to educate and help inspire consumers through live video storytelling. Through demonstrations and conversations, brands can communicate the value of products and how those products can fit customers’ needs.

JLo Beauty is another brand that used Amazon Live to connect with Amazon audiences. When the new skincare line launched, Jennifer Lopez, the brand’s founder, hosted a Q&A on Amazon Live in which she introduced the brand’s products and answered questions from viewers. Through real-time audience engagement and communication, Lopez was able to bring an authentic experience to customers and help them learn more about JLo Beauty.

Brands don’t need a major celebrity in order to stand out in the livestreaming space though. For example, Stevenné is an Amazon Live influencer and the talent behind BEAUTYBYCARLA, and she has built a fan base through her consistent livestreams by using her authentic approach with her audience. Each weekday, Stevenné shares makeup tutorials and home and fashion finds live with her viewers. By doing this, Stevenné has grown a thriving community rooted in real friendships. Audiences watch daily to ask Stevenné questions, and chat with her and each other in real time.

All three examples demonstrate the power of livestreaming and its ability to connect with audiences in innovative and engaging ways. Since Amazon Live launched, it has helped audiences more easily find and watch content from brands in real time. And with features like “Follow,” audiences can be notified when their favourite brands and influencers go live so they won't miss a livestream.

Livestreaming is offering brands more ways to connect with audiences while also showing off new products. Brands looking to reach an engaged audience in real time through livestreaming may want to consider using Amazon Live as a way to bring their brand and products a bit closer to audiences.

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1 Coresight Research, US, 2020
2 Stell Rising Report, US, 2021