Post-pandemic, China’s economy, including its retail sector, faces a pivotal moment. On one hand, all travel restrictions have been removed. But on the other, consumption has been dragged down by a deflated property sector and high youth unemployment, among other difficulties. For brands and retailers, the conundrum has created nearly unprecedented challenges to growth.

As Latin America’s digital revolution marches on, advertisers and retailers must keep pace with how and where consumers are spending their time—and money—if they wish to maintain a competitive edge in today’s rapidly evolving business environment.

As a potential TikTok ban looms, brands are considering what a world without TikTok Shop would look like. I probably won’t look all that different, but there are a few places where TikTok’s absence will be felt more than others.

US livestreaming commerce sales could reach $50 billion in 2023 and potentially account for more than 5% of total ecommerce in the country by 2026, per Coresight Research as cited by CNBC. With help from platforms like TikTok Shop, TalkShopLive, and Firework, brands should start experimenting with livestream commerce as adoption grows, especially among younger consumers.

Retailers invest in shoppable TV ads after seeing early results: Walmart, Amazon, and Home Depot are banking on the format’s interactivity and ability to grab viewers’ attention to drive holiday sales.

Best Buy, TikTok take diverging approaches to live commerce: But getting viewers to tune in remains a serious challenge, regardless of whether retailers focus on education or entertainment.

YouTube keeps rolling out shopping tools: The latest update enables creators to make the shopping button appear at relevant points in their videos.

Retailers hold firm on live shopping despite sluggish US adoption: TikTok Shop made the format a cornerstone of its ecommerce strategy, while Macy’s and Poshmark see early progress.

Social commerce and livestream shopping are playing a larger role on TikTok as the platform builds out its ecommerce business, though influencers still have a lot of sway in purchase decisions, especially among Gen Z. To be successful on TikTok, marketers need to lean into discovery and put content at the heart of their strategy.

TikTok is using creator payouts to boost Shop adoption: The platform is offering some influencers cash incentives for reaching sales or livestream goals.

On today's episode, we discuss the implications of the Federal Trade Commission thinking Amazon tricked customers into signing up for automatically renewing Prime subscriptions, whether it makes sense for companies to force livestream shopping on Americans, if speciality stores really work, the impact of Facebook and Instagram restricting news access in Canada, whether reduced inflation can save the day, what a real work-life balance looks like, and more. Tune in to the discussion with our vice president of content Suzy Davidkhanian, vice president of Briefings Stephanie Taglianetti, and analyst Evelyn Mitchell-Wolf.

TikTok doggedly pursues ecommerce expansion: The platform inked several deals to help grow its merchant base, but it faces significant obstacles in its path to growth.

In the US, just 18% of adults say they’ve used livestream and video ecommerce, according to an October 2022 Insider Intelligence survey with Bizrate Insights. Brands shouldn’t shy away from livestream shopping in the US, but they need to be intentional about how they implement it.

While social commerce is on the rise in the US, livestream commerce has yet to take off. In addition, advances in technology (like ChatGPT) may help jumpstart voice commerce adoption. Here’s what marketers need to know to take advantage of the increase in physical and digital shopping channels.

On today's episode, we're at Shoptalk 2023 discussing why influencers might be the key to unlocking livestream shopping, what folks on the floor are saying about generative AI in retail, and how one company plans to redefine the fulfillment experience. In our new "From the Shop Floor" segment, we bring you the best bits from the most interesting retail events. Join our analyst Sara Lebow as she hosts vice president of content Suzy Davidkhanian and chief content officer Zia Daniell Wigder, live from this year's Shoptalk event.

TikTok sister app Douyin is a livestream behemoth in China, where nearly 40% of internet users also engage in livestream shopping, according to our forecast. But in the US, the format hasn’t caught on in the same way.

On today's episode, in our "Retail Me This, Retail Me That" segment, we discuss why livestream shopping hasn't caught on in the US and the UK the same way it has in China, what TikTok is doing to make the US’s launch more successful than the UK's, and what shoppers are looking for from a livestream. Then for "Pop-Up Rankings," we rank the top four brands that have done livestream shopping well. Join our analyst Sara Lebow as she hosts analysts Sky Canaves and Carina Perkins.

“We’re showing 20.5% growth for retail media ad spending this year, and 22.9% actually accelerating into next year,” said senior forecaster Ethan Cramer-Flood at our recent “Attention! Seizing the Retail Media Opportunity” summit. That stat assumes inflation will cool some in the second half of this year, which our forecasters currently predict it will.

Latin America sees livestream ecommerce explode: We unpack the opportunity in the region as outlined in our recent deep dive.

Insider Intelligence spoke with Megan Brophy, Vice President of Marketing and Brand Strategy at Abercrombie & Fitch, about the brand’s work on TikTok and the prevalence of livestream shopping in the US market.