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WILL LIVE COMMERCE OVERTAKE INFLUENCER MARKETING?
Kausern Hieu, Country Manager of Nuffnang Malaysia
Firstly, what is Live Commerce? In essence, Live Commerce combines live video streaming with the ability for online shoppers to interact with sellers to buy immediately. Yes, it’s those seafood auctions you see on FB Live. Before you strike it off as yet another trend, here are some staggering statistics. Live Commerce accounted for almost 9% of total estimated e-commerce sales in 2019 in China. The figure stands at about RMB 440 bil (MYR 263 bil).
If you think it is one of those quirky phenomena that only happens in China, think again. Our sister company Nuffnang Live Commerce; Malaysia’s leading tech platform in providing a dashboard to merchants to enable their live selling, is steadily growing its subscriber base. In short, more and more local merchants are jumping on the bandwagon resulting in a positive increase in Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) in this live commerce space.
Just like how influencer marketing was scoffed at as a fad a few years back in Malaysia, but today major Brands are seriously investing in this medium, I believe Live Commerce will follow the same growth pattern. As we speak, we are starting to see some recognizable Brands getting into this space.
That said, I am certain Live Commerce will not overtake Influencer Marketing but instead these two disciplines will work hand-in-hand in the marketing funnel to provide a more holistic Return on Ad Spend (ROAS); from impressions to conversions, especially to big Brands.
However, we will see Influencers moving away from focusing on platforms to skills development and continuous learning in order to thrive across platforms. A triumphant Influencer of the future will possess deep content creation skills as well as an entrepreneurial mindset. In other words, not only do they have the knowledge to create meaningful content that will influence their followers’ behaviors, but they are also equally confident to engage and sell to the camera in the commerce space.
This month’s two articles will feature local learnings taken from Nuffnang Live Commerce Playbook (request for it!) and the different Instagram video formats and their uniqueness. I hope you will find the content helpful.
Stay safe and hang in there. We’re halfway through the year!
