Livestream shopping booms on 9.9 — Shopee

Interactive livestream selling had a significant breakthrough for small online businesses during the the Sept. 9 sale period, according to e-commerce platform Shopee. 

When compared to a normal day, Shopee Live saw an increase in first-time buyers of 41 times, as users made the most of the platform’s exclusive 9.9 promos and shoppertainment opportunities, Shopee said in an e-mailed statement on Wednesday. 

“This 9.9, we are glad to bring users even more value through Shopee Live, by helping brands and sellers reach out to and deliver the best deals to shoppers effectively,” Vincent Lee, head of Shopee Philippines, said.

Shoppertainment is a fast-growing e-commerce opportunity that seeks to entertain and educate consumers to drive sales. 

It is projected to expand to a market value of over $1 trillion by 2025, according to the Boston Consulting Group. 

Viewers had spent more than 2.7 million hours on the platform’s live-selling platform, with a six-times uptick in new viewers compared to an average day, according to Shopee. 

“Sellers also achieved increased sales with an 8 times uplift of items sold within the first two hours of September 9, compared to an average day,” Shopee said. 

It also said that Chemiscents, its top local merchant selling personalized perfume and hand sanitizer bottles, sold over 29,000 items via livestream on Sept. 9 alone. 

Brands were able to gain up to P11 million in a single stream on September 9, Shopee said. 

Shoppers claimed over 400,000 deal vouchers during the sale period, the platform added. — Miguel Hanz L. Antivola