Gradually, UK Businesses are Finding Success in the New Realm of Live Commerce

For years, businesses across the UK and across the pond have been battling to crack the live commerce code. In Asia, particularly China, live shopping is a colossal hit, and has been for over half a decade now. Offering immersion and a fear-of-missing-out factor, it’s easy to see how live commerce has taken off.

Now, we’re seeing a real concerted push in the UK from several major platforms, and some SMBs are looking to catch the wave early. Given the increased use of live streaming in the UK beyond shopping, onlookers expect this corner of commerce to gradually pick up.

Growing Prevalence of Live Content

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Live streaming takes many forms, but one of the most advanced applications comes in the world of online entertainment. By leveraging complementary tech, Paddy Power gambling games offer real-time play at professional casino tables and new game shows through their live streams.

The user on the other side of their phone or computer needs to be able to place their bets between sessions, see the results occur, and then be notified of a win or loss. To achieve this, a specialised game control unit and optical character recognition cameras are deployed to track and report outcomes.

As a result, anyone in the world can fully immerse themselves in the likes of Quantum Roulette Live or Live Spin A Win while the croupier runs the game and interacts with the audience. Of course, it’s not just this corner of entertainment that’s riding the live streaming wave.

In September alone, and during the same week, in fact, the three best male boxers in the world all saw their title fights shown in the UK via online live streaming. Naoya Inoue’s surgical triumph over Murodjon Akhmadaliev was live-streamed on Facebook, while Saúl Álvarez lost his belts to Terrence Crawford on a Netflix live stream.

Live streaming is now a normalised way of interacting with the online environment, which is certainly an angle that sellers can leverage. It’s because of this, and the anticipated arrival of innovative options like live commerce to the mainstream, that the UK live streaming market is tipped to hit a CAGR of over 21 per cent through to 2030.

Big Names are Piling in, as are Smaller ones

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In recent months, for example, eBay users may have noticed their phones buzzing with notifications of exclusive, limited-time, and special live events in the eBay Live Hub. YouTube, which runs static and live video from its users, is actively looking to promote a commerce arm for its platform.

Still, for now, it’s the social media platforms that appear to be making the biggest push after throwing in the towel not long ago. Brands like Shark UK and Garnier have taken to mega sales events on short-form video social apps to make a splash. While Facebook isn’t running live shopping, the Meta-owned Instagram still will.

Then, there are the dedicated platforms that have risen to meet this potential demand for live commerce. As the BBC reported, Poshmark has become a money-making avenue for independent sellers. Although the larger reach remains with the potential access to millions of people on social platforms, which is what Just for Pets in the West Midlands has been tapping into.

Live shopping is very much a bubbling trend in UK commerce, but it still needs that X-factor to pull more of the mainstream in. For now, however, it can be a unique selling point that helps some businesses edge out the competition.