Amazon Explained: What Is Amazon Live?

3 years ago in Amazon Explained, Ecommerce, Innovation, Marketplaces, Retail, Video amazon live, live commerce, live shopping 0 132

The sheer breadth and scale of Amazon means there’s an ever-growing number of ways for brands to reach consumers, whatever their product and at whatever stage of the consumer journey. Brands, for their part, are increasingly looking to Amazon for ways to innovate and stand out in a marketplace that’s as competitive as it is potentially lucrative.

Step forward Amazon Live, a live-streamed shopping experience that allows brands to reach consumers in a highly engaging, immersive way that blends old-school TV shopping with influencer- and talent-led content. In the latest in Podean’s Amazon Explained series, we give you the rundown on the e-commerce giant’s big live-marketing play and explain how brands, shoppers and talent all stand to benefit.

So, what is Amazon Live?

Think of the infomercials you see on QVC, the home shopping platform or network, and the impact it has on the brand as well as the shoppers. Now, imagine using the same or a similar concept to showcase your products or brand content on Amazon.com. This is where Amazon Live comes in. Amazon is the largest digital retailer in the world, and brands are competing to make sales and increase their customer base using various tools. Amazon Live is one of them – a live streaming feature or tool for both Amazon sellers and influencers wanting to promote products as well as drive sales through live video.

Many brands are increasingly focusing on the extent to which video – and particularly live video – can impact positively upon their business. To that end, Amazon Live, launched in 2019, offers an unrivaled proposition: live content (retained for non-live) that showcases products being used and discussed in detail – and commented on by viewers in real-time – embedded in a world-leading ecommerce platform.

Getting started on Amazon Live

In order to use Amazon Live, brands need to be Professional Amazon Sellers using Seller Central with an Amazon storefront, or Vendors with an approved Amazon Store.

Here’s how to get moving:

Start by downloading the Amazon Live Creator app (you’ll need a device running iOS)
You can be live directly from the Amazon Live Creator app or you can use broadcast software such as Ecamm or Restream to connect to some external microphone or camera. You may even use a video encoder to allow you to go live.

Once you are ready to go live, you’re asked to select products to showcase in your carousel during the stream. You need to ensure that the product you’re picking is part of Amazon’s Brand Registry. Be sure to add any special pricing or promotions in advance. Also, ensure you name the stream. You can go live immediately or you can do that later.

Best Practice:

Encourage your audience to interact and follow your channel and create a regular streaming cadence. Amazon rewards brands that stream regularly with better placements and additional promotion.
Refer to the carousel while you are live and highlight key features and selling points about your products.
Keep your audience engaged by responding to questions and reactions in real-time.
Use custom promotions in your Amazon streams. The deals and special offer pricing reflect in the product carousel below the video for viewers.
Promote your streams via external channels including social media and email. You can also use dynamic banner ads (DSP) to drive Amazon Live viewership especially as you are building your following and ranking on Amazon Live.
Ask your audience to follow you on Amazon. Building your followers helps grow viewership. Your followers are eligible to be notified in the Amazon mobile shopping app whenever you go live.

Now, how are brands and influencers benefiting

Live streaming is growing fast, and the global pandemic has only accelerated that growth – Amazon’s gamer-centric live-streaming platform, Twitch, is central to that, with more than 3 billion hours of content watched on the platform in the second quarter of this year. Additionally, and certainly not unrelated, influencer marketing is playing a central role in helping brands, too. About 90% of marketers say the ROI obtained from influencer marketing can be compared to or is even better than the traditional marketing channels.

Amazon’s own influencer program offers both brands and content creators the chance to benefit from its vast audience of shoppers. Live streamers, in particular, can benefit from the influencer program if they have an established audience; pairing live streaming with the Influencer Program helps increase brand awareness while increasing leads and sales.

From an influencer’s perspective, the benefits Amazon Live offers are significant, and there are many incentives offered. Amazon Live will reward influencers if they stream more live videos and earn more. As an influencer, you can begin as a Rising Star, allowing you to earn an A-list status. In the case of the latter, there’s even the possibility for your streams and products to appear on the homepage of Amazon.com.

Another thing to note here is that only content creators who have been accepted into the influencer program are able to access the broadcast – that means there’s a sense of exclusivity and discernment with Amazon Live that other channels don’t offer. And while the relationship between influencer and followers is less integral than Instagram or Facebook, for example, Amazon has placed some focus on this area – an influencer’s followers are notified when an influencer is live streaming, and streams appear on every influencer’s Amazon storefront.

Amazon Live – driving change

Given Amazon’s central place in the ecommerce world, when it puts its weight behind a venture brands have little choice but to take notice – in some categories more than others. Beauty in particular is an area of potential growth, with a growing number of brands streaming content on Amazon Live and joining events and initiatives. With a well-developed influencer network and significant growth in the category, it’s clearly an area to watch, and one other brands and categories will have a close eye on.