Many large and small e-commerce businesses are now using direct selling to increase customer engagement and revenue. While many business owners are just discovering this direct selling method, it is an effective way to maximize social media followers, increase customer engagement/retention and increase e-commerce sales. A good way would be live selling app development.
86% of retailers already sell online. We haven’t listed the reasons for this trend-they’re well known to all of us. But not every small business can be ready for online sales.
Since any store even needs an online presence now, you can sell on many online marketplaces. But just because you have a website and social media doesn’t mean you can find customers looking for your products. A brand just needs to have some new strategies that it can implement to get brand fans and social media influencers that the brand can reach out to.
The live sales are
Social media plays an important role in retail. However, in a market where most large retailers are, how do companies stand out and attract more customers if live sales are not limited to those few? Live sale is a new trend that is just emerging in the e-commerce world.
Live selling is showcasing and selling products in a live environment. In addition to products, moderators can offer information about their use, prices and other details. In addition, customer requests and desires are discussed in the audience during price discussions.
- Now that social media and major websites have implemented live streaming, it’s easier to broadcast directly from them.
- Take advantage of third-party platforms and vendors specifically designed for direct selling.
- Add a live sales feature to your personal app. This option is convenient for both you and your users.
- Finally, entrepreneurs can create an app with which customers can find direct and pre-saved videos, send messages to the brand through new forms and buy products without leaving the app.
The advantages of live selling for eCommerce
In addition to building public trust, live sales have many benefits for retailers. One might consider adopting this practice for the following reasons, among others:
- You need to make it as easy as possible for loyal consumers to buy from you. Being able to understand who’s behind the scenes is a vital element for trust the reason most people want to physically visit the actual stores. And, after all, buy from someone you really know, right? Essentially, the brand creates a community around your store. It allows the audience to share their experience with it, like a chat room.
- Set up smart comments. Commenting is an important part of any live sales event. Customers and potential customers are sure to ask questions for more information and will reach out to you for additional content.
- Powerful yet cheap advertising. Using live sales or purchases in real-time, brands showcase the transparency of their business and the quality of their products. It’s a way to promote your business that is an absolute necessity today.
- Do you want to encourage site visitors to take action, such as making a purchase? Live sales provide an accelerated conversion rate. Viewers can make a purchase without looking away from the video, pay, and get an immediate response.
- Creating greater brand awareness. Finally, by entertaining their viewers, service providers can help build brand awareness. As an on-air contributor, you are part of the brand, you are also part of the sales process. Your audience is also part of the brand. They’re going to have an experience by attending the event and helping the brand raise money at the same time.
Top live-selling apps today
Who is the leader in live sales, today? Predictably, establishments like Amazon or Instagram hog the limelight. Still, live sales are sort of a game-changer today, and so far, the market is still relatively young. The competition is really low, and your new live sales app has a decent chance of getting ranked highly by Google
Your main competitors will be:
- Amazon Live
- Facebook Live and Instagram
- Live selling apps tailored to Shopify, such as ShopShowy
- Livescale
- Brandlive
- Commentsold
- NTWRK
- Shoppable
You may notice that many direct-selling platforms are small startups run by business owners who prefer Facebook or Amazon. This is probably because it’s very easy to put a broadcast on several of these platforms. Platforms that generate massive traffic or allow users to choose their favorite social network by default balance the scales. This diversified approach helps reach people, even those who don’t prefer one platform over another. Live platforms for all purposes are apps from trusted sources that you can install or connect to wherever you feel most comfortable interacting or engaging.
How to build a live selling app: top features and tech stack
How important are live sales to any e-commerce business? It’s a good time to think about the features required for a standalone live sales app. Live sales are becoming more and more important for online stores as consumers become more comfortable making purchases and sellers stay on top of future orders.
Video streaming
The first must-have feature of a real-time sales app is usually the video conferencing feature, which helps salespeople communicate more easily with fans and consumers.
You can choose from Twilio, Agora, Jitsi, and even the famous Zoom. Unfortunately, there is no perfect option for streaming live video, and you’ll have to choose the one best for you.
Chat and commenting
Remember that we mentioned that real-time comments during a live sales application are an opportunity for the audience to ask questions and for the company to get valuable feedback? “With video (conferencing), the same routing system is usually widely used for real-time feedback.
Cloud storage
After the event, it’s time to save the live broadcasts so that users can access the content after the event. To do this, you should use cloud backup storage. To access user data, you need a database server. Google Cloud Storage is a great option.
In-app shopping
It’s convenient to buy an item with a credit or debit card while watching a particular live broadcast or video you’re subscribed to. All you need is the ability to integrate payment gateways. You can be linked to online or iPhone payments – PayPal, Shopify, or Stripe – or credit and debit cards.
Analytics
After the event, some attendees will want to measure audience and participant reactions in real-time. With analytics tools, you can get all this information and see the results in graphs. Streaming video has built-in analytics tools.
How much does it cost to make a live-selling app
Consequently, creating a live sales application with the features you need is quite difficult. You will have to pay an order of magnitude more for it than the vendor’s estimate
The process goes as follows:
- You should turn to the right team of developers and designers to meet your individual needs. It is important to note that a competent company is only half the battle.
- You will most likely discuss design elements and features with the sales and product manager. We often launch startups using a minimum viable product approach. Once you have a solid foundation, we’ll work hard to get all the features and functionality we think your users want – at as low a price as possible.
- UI/UX design. Obviously, you will need a user-friendly design.
- Creating an app is much more than choosing the platform on which it will run. You’ll want to work on Android and iOS platforms, but can you? Are you considering cross-platform development? Because it will save you a lot of time and help you save money.
- To do this, you need to find a specialist who will test your app. Even if you are developing an MVP at an early stage, you should invite a QA specialist, he will find all the possible flaws in the entire application.
If you do all the steps of creating a direct selling app from scratch, it will take between 500 and 1,000 hours. Based on experience and workplace, this allows Perpet.io to estimate the total number of hours needed to develop an MVP application if you hire a team of, say, at least 1000 people in Eastern Europe. So, for example, Ukrainian software companies with a good portfolio and a lot of experience can charge a good $30,000-50,000 for an application on all major platforms and save you a lot of time.
The bottom line
That’s it, now you know how to create a real-time sales application. However, every process is unique. Whether you’re developing a full-fledged real-time sales app or building on top of an existing e-commerce app, your development processes will be very different.
You should always discuss your options to move forward, and the experts at Perpet.io will be happy to help you. Request a professional consultation for a free consultation with us.