Warm up

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What industry do you work in and what is your role?
What are your responses in your role / position?
Can you describe to the function of your workplace / company?
How many departments, how many offices. National or International?
What are the minimum requirements for employment ie Education or Experience?
How many opportunities are there to ‘move up the ladder’?
What is the process for changing job roles ie Interview? Test?

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General discussion about your workweek:

Current projects? Deadlines? Opportunities?
Anything of interest happening?

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Script

1. When Beautycounter opened its Santa Monica store in December, it also debuted a live-streaming studio where customers from around the world can virtually peruse the store online and shop. “Through our new store with live-stream shopping capabilities, we’ll be able to grow and engage with our community without limitation,” says Gregg Renfrew, founder and chief executive officer of Beautycounter.

2. At Clinique, Game of Thrones’ star and global brand ambassador Emilia Clarke hosted the brand’s first celebrity live-streaming event, “Get Ready with Emilia Clarke” last summer. As Clarke talked about the Clinique products she uses to get ready, the products popped up on screen, allowing viewers to click and buy. She appeared again in December with a Clinique consultant to chat about which beauty products to switch up for the holidays.

Clinique shoppers can catch Emilia Clarke, global brand ambassador, on the beauty brand’s live-streaming videos. (Photo by Samir Hussein/WireImage)

3. Missed the sessions? Clinique records the videos, called “Skin School” so shoppers can watch on-demand. Enter the world of live-streaming, where entertainment meets e-commerce and consumers shop real-time while watching live videos. It’s already a major market in China, and analysts forecast that live-streaming is about to transform retail in the U.S.

4. “Consumers are keen to engage directly with the brand and ask questions with an immediate response, which is missed from not being able to shop as frequently in-store,” says Heather Ibberson, retail analyst at Edited, a retail market intelligence company. “A mix of expert opinion from the brand’s education team and an affiliated influencer is essential for live-stream success.”

5. According to Coresight Research, the live-streaming market in the U.S. is expected to reach $25 billion by 2023. In China, live-streaming is estimated close to $129 billion in 2020, according to iiMedia Research Group. Live-streaming appears to be a sure-fire way to boost engagement. “There are multiple factors that make the shoppable live-stream successful,” says Erin Schmidt, beauty industry analyst at Coresight Research, a global advisory research firm specializing in retail and technology. Case in point: Clinique’s aforementioned Skin School, which the analyst describes as “engaging and seamless.”

6. “As they talk about their favorite gift set or demonstrate how to apply a contoured cheek, Clinique’s products appear in the video for consumers to click and purchase,” Schmidt says. It seems this entertainment-meets-shopping formula yields financial benefits; Estée Lauder EL -3.4% reported in November that its brand sales, which include Clinique as well as La Mer and Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, increased 60% over its first quarter partially due to consumer engagement on live-streaming, Schmidt says.

7. Bobbi Brown’s “Skin Sessions” feature experts breaking down products, such as weightless foundation, and how to use them. During one video, viewers asked the host questions like “What moisturizer did you use?” or “What eye cream do you recommend” and got an answer immediately in the chat. “The future of digital is through live-selling, live-streaming and leveraging store associates’ beauty expertise and their relationships with customers to become the next generation of influencers,” Schmidt says.

8. There’s another potential perk from live-streaming—reduced returns, as “consumers have a better sense of the product specifics, the ‘store associate’-type explanations from the influencers, and the ability to ask questions live,” notes Katie Thomas, lead analyst at Kearney Consumer Institute.

What Platforms Host Live-Streaming

9. Beauty is a significant vertical in the influencer landscape, notes cultural strategist Sarah Unger, co-founder of Cultique, a cultural insights firm, and shifts in platforms where influencers congregate are often led by beauty content creators. “Twitch and other live-streaming/game-oriented platforms are expanding into lifestyle and entertainment, with beauty leading the charge,” Unger says.

10. Beauty brands are not waiting for social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok to improve their live-streaming capabilities, says Ibberson, noting that Swedish video platform Bambuser allows brands to host their own live-streaming events. As more social media platforms offer live-streaming on their apps, the analyst predicts live-streaming will take off. “Currently, [live-streaming] is available on Instagram for business accounts that have checkout capabilities,” Ibberson says.

Who’s Shopping Live-Stream

11. The majority of live-streaming viewers comprise Gen Z and millennials, says Schmidt, noting that more than 41% of TikTok users are below 24, while 77% of 15 to 25-year-olds in the U.S. use YouTube. “These young consumers are under substantial influence by the creator’s recommendation and prefer to purchase through live-streaming programs,” Schmidt says.

12. Live-stream shoppers may also include a sophisticated and mature audience, with beauty brands like Bobbi Brown and La Mer participating in the virtual space. “This customer wants to get a personalized experience and be able to directly ask questions about their skincare concerns to a brand expert,” Ibberson says. “This is also how they discover the brand’s product assortment and are introduced to new product launches.”