The statistic: Shoppers spent over $75 million on live shopping platform Whatnot during Black Friday, the company told EMARKETER. That’s three times last year’s total, underscoring the medium’s swift ascendance and pointing to rising consumer comfort with the format.
Behind the numbers: While livestream shopping remains nascent outside China, major players like Whatnot, TikTok Shop, and eBay are fueling its expansion.
- Whatnot reported a fourfold increase in first-time buyers compared with last year’s Black Friday event; on average, shoppers bought 40 items per second.
- Three-quarters of consumers who engaged with TikTok Shop made a purchase from a livestream in the past year, according to a GlobalData survey conducted for the social platform. That’s notable since nearly half of all TikTok users—48.9%, or 53.2 million people—are also TikTok Shop buyers, according to our latest forecast.
- EBay’s live shopping initiative is gaining traction in the US and UK, supported by streams featuring celebrities like the Backstreet Boys and NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo, as well as the format’s popularity among buyers and sellers in the collectibles space. EBay Live has had consistent QoQ growth across every major KPI the company tracks, CEO Jamie Iannone said, including viewers, watchtime, items sold, and GMV.
Our take: Livestream commerce’s ability to blur the lines between shopping and entertainment is helping to drive adoption across generations.
- We expect US livestream ecommerce sales to rise by nearly 50% this year to $14.64 billion, while the number of buyers will jump by 21.5%.
- Platforms, retailers, and brands that lean into the entertainment and educational aspects of live shopping will be best equipped to capture—and keep—shoppers’ attention.