Instagram Livestream Shopping Events

12th January 2022

The social media space seems to move at an ever-increasing pace. With e-commerce exploding during the pandemic, it is hardly surprising that we have seen the huge companies behind the major social media platforms moving to generate more e-commerce functionality and earn a part of the e-commerce pie.

When it comes to e-commerce tools, Instagram is arguably the most exciting social media platform with a host of recent developments to help online sellers make the most of the efforts they put into social media.

In this article, we are going to walk you through how e-commerce works on Instagram, what the new livestream shopping feature is and how you could use it to your benefit.

Ecommerce on Instagram

Instagram has always been a favourite go-to for e-commerce businesses to promote their products and drive traffic to their websites. The visually pleasing nature of the platform offers businesses a simple way to engage and excite their audience, generating the buzz they need to make more sales.

Yet it isn’t until more recently that Instagram released updates that focused exclusively on supporting the growth of e-commerce businesses. The first of these came in 2019 when the Instagram Checkout tool was launched with a small number of select businesses. This is now available to all businesses and certain creators across the site.

This update allowed businesses to sell directly through the Instagram platform and more importantly tag products in posts, helping to turn engagement into physical sales. Since then Instagram has also allowed some accounts to publish direct links to checkout via their stories function, further increasing the potential to increase sales through content on the platform.

Even more recently Instagram has released a new tool that is set to revolutionise how shopping on the platform works…

What Are Instagram Livestream Shopping Events?

In September 2021, Instagram announced the launch of Livestream Shopping. Whereas brands and creators have previously been able to tag products in posts and include links in stories, this new function now allows them to include tags in live streams.

Before businesses and creators can use this new tool, they must ensure they:

Have a shop on Facebook or Instagram
Enable checkout on Instagram
Ensure that products are in their catalogue 3 days before the live stream

Once these criteria have been ticked off, when you open your live stream on the app you will be presented with an option to select a product to add to your stream. Once live you can then pin the product you are featuring so viewers can click through to purchase it.

You can also save your live streams so your audience can watch them at a later date.

Why Use Livestream Shopping Events?

Ultimately this new shopping functionality adds considerable selling power to the Instagram platform. Unlike static posts or prerecorded stories, live videos provide a fully immersive experience for viewers, allowing hosts to create highly compelling content.

Livestream shopping also allows brands and creators to get personal with their content. For example, a brand may go live and take a direct Q&A with relation to a specific product. Doing this allows the brand to remedy any concerns the customer has about buying the product and offers them a quick way to buy once they are ready to do so.

Polished content on Instagram streams is often viewed with a slightly suspicious mind, especially given the regularity with which content is heavily edited before publishing. Using a live stream adds an element of authenticity to your content and allows you to quickly build trust with viewers.

Finally, live stream shopping helps brands to benefit from in-the-moment buying. This can be done in a similar way to shopping channels that use excitement and urgency to drive purchases. For example, you may offer a special deal on a product that only lasts as long as the live stream.