The case for and against live shopping in the U.S.

Still, some companies are seeing signs of life. Live shopping platform Whatnot, for example, says it surpassed $2 billion in livestream sales for the first time from January through September 2024. 

Put together, the data shows live shopping is gaining in the U.S. 

Brands and agencies are still in the early stages of testing out live shopping features, but some believe it has the potential to irreparably alter how consumers shop. For brands, the question becomes whether it’s worth trying to build out the necessary operations to execute a successful live shopping business. 

Here’s a breakdown of the pros and cons facing brands as they get into live selling.

For: The business opportunity is high 

Although most brands and agencies who spoke to Modern Retail for this story said it can take time to win sales through live selling, some brands report experiencing success right out of the gate. Hudson Leogrande, the founder of Comfrt, which sells weighted hoodies on TikTok Shop, said the brand raked in more than $150,000 in sales during its first livestream. 

In recent months, TikTok has made live shopping a core focus of its growth strategy by encouraging brands and sellers to longer livestreams more frequently. Previously, TikTok sellers promoted their products on the platform through short, pre-recorded videos.

“I don’t think it’ll ever get to the point where it’s as big as Douyin,” said Jake Bjorseth, the founder of marketing firm Trndsttrsor, citing TikTok’s Chinese counterpart, which earned more than $200 billion last year selling items during lives, per The Information. “It also doesn’t need to as a percentage of all e-commerce transactions because the total revenue here can still be significant.”

Early adoption is key, according to Ana Barrett, director of social commerce at marketing agency LiveCraft.

“If you can get in now, while it’s so new and hot and everyone’s figuring it out, that’s how people’s accounts are growing the fastest,” Barrett said. 

Against: TikTok’s future is uncertain in the U.S. 

TikTok has been making a deeper push into live shopping despite the fact that the platform is staring down a nationwide ban. TikTok Shop has become by far the most popular platform for livestream commerce in the U.S., and if it goes away, sellers and brands will lose a vital channel for growing their live shopping sales.

In April, President Joe Biden signed a bipartisan law that requires TikTok’s Chinese parent ByteDance to sell its stake in the popular social media app by Jan. 19 to an American buyer or face a national ban. TikTok has pursued legal action to prevent the law from going into effect. In December, a federal appeals court issued a ruling, ultimately upholding the divest-or-ban law. The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments on the divest-or-ban law targeting TikTok on Jan. 10.

What happens next is unclear. President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to rescue TikTok from a potential U.S. ban, but according to law professor Eric Goldman of the University of Santa Clara, his options are limited. In all likelihood, TikTok’s hopes rest with the Supreme Court. 

“We know that Congress has ordered its ban, so the only hope TikTok has is to comply with the law and divest or to get the ban overturned,” said Goldman. “We won’t really get our answer until we hear from the Supreme Court.”

For: Direct engagement with consumers

For Sarah Potempa, a celebrity hairstylist who goes live on TikTok multiple times a week to promote her hair care brand, Beachwaver, one key benefit of live shopping is the ability to build relationships directly with her customers. 

“We have so many people in the livestream, and so many people who comment on social media who have become truly, honestly like part of a family,” Potempa said. “We know so much about them that we celebrate the wins, and we cry with them on their losses, like they really are very actively involved in the community.”

Beachwaver recently partnered with Target to sell its viral curling iron product in 1,900 brick-and-mortar stores. Potempa hopes to bridge the gap between live shopping and in-store purchases by leveraging their brand’s strong community engagement. 

“I was recently doing a live on TikTok, and someone asked, ‘Do you have this in a travel size?’ and I said, ‘We do, it’s at Target,’ and she was like, ‘I’m literally going to Target tonight,’” Potempa told Modern Retail. Beachwaver credits its devoted fan base for selling more than 1.1 million units in just one year on TikTok Shop, making it one of the platform’s top-performing brands. 

In recent months, TikTok has urged retailers and sellers to hold extended livestreams, at least two hours long, several times a week as a way to engage with shoppers. Some brands have invested in creating their own studios for these broadcasts or have hired hosts to lead the sessions and production teams to assist. 

Social-commerce company SuperOrdinary, which has worked with brands in China to grow their live commerce operations, is setting up 15 studios at an 11,500-square-foot space in Los Angeles as it looks to replicate its strategy in the U.S. SuperOrdinary creates 200 livestreams per month worldwide, Julian Reis, the company’s CEO and founder, told Modern Retail in an interview. SuperOrdinary works with at least 50 brands, including Kellogg’s, Ouai and Vans.

In addition to the costs associated with studio real estate and production equipment, which can cost around $10,000, one agency executive previously told Modern Retail, it can be expensive to pay production teams to ensure lives run smoothly. 

“The human labor cost in the U.S. is much higher than in Asia. and our actual input cost of producing a live stream is much higher,” Reis said. “Those two factors together, it’s obviously a little bit more challenging.”

For: Product education

It’s precisely live shopping’s degree of customer engagement that helps brands like Beachwaver educate consumers about their products. 

“We are from a professional hairdresser background, and we’ve always been about giving you the tools and the tips and the tricks to make you feel more confident,” Potempa said. 

Comfrt’s Leogrande agreed. 

“Lives will be the future because it is the most engaging way to have a conversation with the customer and explain to them every question they have and every reason why they should go make that purchase,” Leogrande said. 

He compared it to a virtual fitting room, where customers can see how an article of clothing hangs on a real person in real-time, who can answer a customer’s questions related to size, fit and color options. “If you can give somebody enough information where they feel confident to go make a purchase, they will go do that,” Leogrande said. “The best way right now that we’ve seen from a conversion aspect is through lives.”

Against: It’s a commitment 

One of the key challenges of live shopping is the level of dedication and resources it demands from brands and sellers. 

As LiveCraft’s Barrett put it, “Live streaming is a marathon, not a sprint. You can’t expect to see hundreds of thousands of dollars on the first live or second or even third. You really, really have to commit to it.”

This commitment extends beyond just showing up occasionally to stream. The most successful brands on live shopping platforms have developed comprehensive strategies that require consistent effort. 

“The brands that are doing it really well are the ones that commit to daily streams for multiple hours, flash deals, giveaways, gifts with purchase, whatever it is, they have their strategies to a T.” Barrett said. “Those are the brands doing a million plus dollars in GMV every week.”

Super Ordinary’s Reis agreed. “One of the key differences I see [between] here and Asia is that a lot of brands are only live streaming periodically,” he said. “There is a learning curve, and it does take time before you start generating consistent numbers for your sales. But my advice is you just have to keep at it.”