The business of live shopping
Daisy Kelly’s work was inspired by a personal problem; She had been plucking her eyelashes for years.
She hid her habit with eyelash extensions, but when beauty salons closed during Covid, Daisy decided to create a serum to help her lashes regrow.
She founded Glow For It from her mother’s kitchen table in 2020 while she was a student, and her business now generates sales of £6 million a year.
More than 40% of Daisy’s sales come from TikTok Shop UK, and increasingly from livestreams.
“I think live shopping gives people the connection and interaction we all crave… We actually made over £100,000 in a 12-hour TikTok livestream,” says Daisy, now 27.
“This categorically changed the course of my business.”
Daisy’s business is broadcast live from a studio for at least six hours a day, with different hosts interacting with shoppers, from showing off products to answering their questions.
“It’s like having 500 people in your store,” he says.
From Instagram Live to YouTube Shopping, eBay to Amazon Live, there are numerous platforms and marketplaces offering live broadcasts that connect sellers and customers. They are all different.
It seems that live shopping is becoming part of everyday consumer behavior for many.
According to new research from retail agency Savvy Marketing, 30% of customers surveyed said they had purchased something from a live shopping event.
“Major retailers need to grasp this,” says Savvy CEO Catherine Shuttleworth. “It went from nothing to something huge very quickly. If you don’t have a live sales strategy, you’re going to miss out.”
TikTok Shop says its UK sales rose more than 30% year-on-year in June and live shopping is the fastest-growing format.
He says there are now more than 6,000 live streams every day.
An event at the century-old Covent Garden market hosted 20 small businesses with stands selling live to customers all over the UK.
Around two hundred people tuned in to watch Wolverhampton halal butcher Manny Malik’s session with just a smartphone, a lighting kit and a fridge full of fresh meat.
“Last week we did a TikTok livestream for three hours and sold £8,000 worth of meat,” he says.
It would normally take him three to four days to sell this amount at his family shop, Malik Kasap.
They are now opening a second store in Stoke. He says TikTok has helped him expand.
But there are fees.
TikTok Shop UK charges up to 9p from every £1 sold on the platform as standard commission.
