Shopify recently announced the launch of live video shopping within the company’s consumer-facing Shop app.
The Ottawa e-commerce giant selected Stage TEN as the live video commerce alpha partner for Shopify’s new “Shop Minis” program, “where best-in-class technologies can extend functionality directly into the Shop app environment,” according to a statement from the Toronto-area firm.
When a merchant goes live with Stage TEN’s Live Creator Suite, the Shop app makes it available to a worldwide community of interested shoppers who can tune-in, chat with merchants in real time and check out right on screen, directly in the Shop app.
Stage TEN’s Shop Live channels thus provide access to an instant audience network of shoppers for live stream sellers and merchants, the Canadian company says, which anticipates the live commerce market will be north of $1 trillion by 2026.
“Discovery changes everything,” believes Dave Lazar, chief executive of Stage TEN. “One of the biggest barriers to mass adoption of live commerce outside Asia has been the ability for merchants to gather an audience for their live shopping streams.”
However, “With Stage TEN’s Shop Live channels, merchants can instantly notify a massive network of qualified buyers in an app they already use,” Lazar notes. “With a tap, audiences are immersed in an interactive experience—talking with merchants and buying on screen.”
Immersion is an important aspect—an area where digital often lacks versus brick-and-mortar. Reports last year showed that, post-Pandemic, Canadians remain enticed by in-store experiences.
“Imagine having a real person thank you in real time when you buy online,” Lazar emphasizes of the live feature. “That’s conversational commerce.”
Live commerce has a big hurdle to overcome.
Despite “a large increase in online shopping throughout the pandemic,” 67% of Canadians still prefer to shop in a physical store—higher the global average of 59%, a report from Adyen and KPMG stated.
It also represents a big opportunity, as both companies are well aware.
Live commerce aims to bridge this critical gap between traditional commerce and the digital experience, although the technology stops short of allowing one to feel a material or try on a garment.
Still, it’s another way to empower merchants’ ability to reach customers while also enriching the consumer experience.
“Working with [Stage TEN] to bring live video commerce to the Shop app has been really exciting, especially seeing the reaction from our user base,” stated Atlee Clark, Director of Operations for Shop. “The Stage TEN Shop Mini gives merchants more ways to connect with their customers on a native mobile channel, and we’re looking forward to watching more merchants go live and driving live commerce sales.”
After laying off 1,000 employees in 2022 following a bad bet, Shopify has been looking for ways to streamline and innovate the business, inside and out.
“This time we grow into something more focused, more driven, and more singular in mission,” stated CEO Tobias Lütke last year. “The times demand it of us, and we will rise to the occasion once again.”
For example, they radically altered their policy on meetings this year, virtually eradicating the long-maligned practice.
A memo to employees found the company deleted 10,000 scheduled events on worker calendars in order to clear up more than 70,000 combined hours of productivity.
The company’s chief operating officer, Kaz Nejatian, urged staff to “be really critical” of items added to a calendar—and described workplace communication, such as Slack, as becoming “bloated, noisy, and distracting.”
Shopify also introduced a “flexible compensation” policy for employees. “Flex Comp” allows employees to “choose exactly how they want to allocate their total reward,” according to Shopify.
Shopify was founded in Ottawa in 2006.
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