Livestream shopping debuts in the U.S. market via Amazon, TikTok, and YouTube.

China's livestream shopping boom began three years ago when Alibaba launched its livestream app Taobao Live in 2016. The app caught on after the pandemic in 2020 grounded shoppers. Chinese Singles’ Day shopping festival in 2020 marked a 400% increase over the previous year when Taobao livestreams generated $7.5 billion in sales during the first 30 minutes. By 2022, the livestreaming market in China is expected to grow to $423 billion. The U.S. livestream shopping market is booming as TikTok, Amazon, Walmart, Shopify, and YouTube get in the game.

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“You're seeing really, really high conversion rates with some of these experiences in China, much higher than a regular website might have. People are excited about what's going on there. Shopify, which launched live-shopping capabilities with YouTube in July, is seeing a 40% decrease in returns because people know what they're getting,” Daniel Debow, vice president of product, said the return rate might be much lower.

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TikTok's sister app Douyin, as well as Pinduoduo, which offers rock-bottom prices, are some of the livestreaming apps that are rapidly growing in China. Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) have made huge fortunes as livestreamers in China and there are even entire boot camps for those who want to become livestream shoppers.

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In fact, U.S. consumers have been slower to adopt livestream shopping than Chinese consumers. A Coresight Research survey found that 74% of Chinese consumers had purchased products through shoppable livestreams by 2022, compared to 78% here.

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Amazon Live

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A flurry of U.S. companies has been investing in live shopping ventures in recent years, beginning with Amazon's debut of livestream shopping in 2016. Alibaba's Taobao Live remains the world's biggest live shopping platform with a 35% market share.

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Amazon Live allows influencers to pitch products live from the comfort of their homes. The chat window allows the host to answer live questions, and all product links are embedded to make buying as easy as possible.

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When a creator signs up for the Amazon Influencer Program, they're given a storefront where anyone can follow them and get notifications every time their work goes live. Morris used to work in private practice as an attorney, earning about $110,000 annually before she embarked on her content creator career.

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In general, Amazon Live creators earn the most through commissions from click-throughs on their livestreams, but some categories can be as high as 20%. Additionally, Amazon pays top creators extra for dedicated, sponsored livestreams, and some creators get paid a flat fee for going live regularly.

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Her TikTok account boasts more than 635,000 followers. Amazon Live doesn't disclose follower counts, but Young Morris currently sells fashion, beauty, and skincare products.

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In September, Amazon launched Amazon Live in India as part of its live-shopping investments.

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TikTok, YouTube, and Meta

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ByteDance-owned TikTok and Walmart partnered in 2020 to provide users with an hourlong livestream where they could purchase Walmart fashion items featured on creators' TikTok feeds. Walmart's TikTok following grew by 25% in 2021 after the duo reported the first livestream netted seven times as many views as they anticipated.

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Shoppers in the U.S. can't make a purchase through TikTok because they have to leave the app to do so. A new feature called TikTok Shop was tested in the U.S. last fall, allowing users to purchase directly from TikTok. For now, it's only available to creators and merchants in the U.S., but it's already available in the UK and Southeast Asia. There are concerns that TikTok could pass on user data to China, which is why the app has been banned in several states.

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Cassey Ho, the founder of @Blogilates and @PopFlex, promoted her products live on YouTube in November for her second-highest sales hour of the year. 

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Ntwrk, a site for sneakers and collectibles, and Supergreat and Trendio, a site for beauty products, are among the startups developing new live shopping platforms in the U.S. In 2022, Walmart hosted 150 live shopping events, including events with celebrities such as Dolly Parton, Oprah Winfrey, and Tim Tebow.

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As for Meta, it has shifted its focus away from shopping. The company stopped live shopping on Facebook in October and removed the Shop tab in Instagram's navigation bar this week. 

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Some of China's biggest live-shopping legends face massive fines or unannounced absences as the government increases its supervision over private industries, including livestream shopping.

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