Sharm Tank Vol. 21

Author

Nik Sharma
April 12, 2024

Happy Friday!

This week we attended The Whalies, an annual conference and awards gala hosted by our friends over at Triple Whale.

We saw so many great friends and next-level panels that really hyped us up as we wrapped up Q1.

My favorite panel was “Creators 🤝 Growth Marketers: The Secret to Scaling Creator-Led Brands” - a self-explanatory panel lead by Jess Cervellon from Open Late Collective and Cleo Hage from CrunchLabs.

It’s always so cool (and inspirational) to see what others are doing in our space. Check out the full live stream here.

Now that I’m amped up, let’s get into the main event.

The Main Course

Last night I was scrolling through my for your page on TikTok and stumbled across a live stream of a mid-aged woman selling personalized bags of gummy candy via a livestream.

She had Hall & Oates blaring from two surround sound speakers while she spoke to the camera about her favorite candies and even some childhood memories associated with each.

Then suddenly, a blaring siren went off, signaling the arrival of a flash sale. “Free extras on all orders in the next 10 minutes,” she exclaimed.

I don’t know how else to describe it, but the vibe was immaculate. The creator’s energy was exuding and the live was filled with hundreds of others hyping her up. It felt like I just made a new friend and they were hooking me up. 

Live shopping isn’t by any means a novel concept. Think back to the days of QVC where your grandparents would sit around sniping deals. It may feel a little tame by today’s standards, but the notion remains the same.

With the proliferation of cable and the internet in the early 2000s, these live shopping events became far and few between.

Nearly three in five US adults (57%) are either uninterested in or unaware of livestream shopping, according to “The Insider Intelligence Ecommerce Survey” conducted in December by Bizrate Insights. Just one in five (21%) have purchased an item from a livestream, and less than half of those shoppers (9%) use live commerce regularly.

But live stream shopping remains a huge part of social shopping culture in countries like China, where it is predicted that more than 320 million people will make at least one purchase from a livestream this year. 

Thanks to the likes of Whatnot (a platform dedicated to live stream social shopping), this slowly crept back into the West. Whatnot launched as a social marketplace built around community-focused products like collectibles, clothing, and more. Creators showcase various products and viewers bid in real-time while in a live chat. 

Towards the end of 2021, TikTok launched a series of events that positioned the company as a competitor in the e-commerce space. These events hosted by TikTok fall under a flourishing digital experience called “live” or “social” shopping events.

Fast forward 3 years, and TikTok’s live shopping functionality is a cornerstone of the platform’s revenue generation. 

For this process, sellers start live streams and demonstrate their products or services. After going live, they can pin specific items to make them appear on screen for buyers. Also, they can schedule a live stream to get more time for preparation and promotion.

Let’s dig a little deeper and figure out why these lives have gained so much traction.

Unlike traditional live stream shopping, TikTok Live Shopping emphasizes entertainment above all else. 

Creators take an extravagant approach to sales, often playing mini-games, using different lighting cues, changing the music—it almost feels like a game show.

One of my favorite examples is a small vintage lighter shop based in Pittsburg called Curated Flame, run by an absolute homie named Mo.

Curated Flame caught attention on TikTok with their "Gum ball" machine, which dispenses items worth equal or more than what customers pay. With options at $1, $10, and $20, customers could win anything in the store, ensuring value for their money.

This idea evolved into their “Stuff-a-Bag” where customers could pick out different size bags and stuff them to the brim with assorted goodies from a massive box that Mo restocks each week.

However, the real magic is in how TikTok users can actively engage with Curated Flame. Every day, Mo joins TikTok live and takes live orders for Gum balls. When users place an online order for a Stuff-a-Bag, Mo records a detailed video outlining what he picked and why he picked each item (online orders can specify what type of items they want, but everything is random).

This is just one instance of how live shopping is leveraged on the platform, and every creator is bring their own unique spin.

There’s an entire separate subset of TikTok dedicated to NPC (non-player characters in a video game) lives. These lives see the creator repeating phrases and actions based on donations as if they were a robot. This trend blew up over the last year, building off the idea of pay-to-engage entertainment on the platform.

Not to mention, in the last few months, many studios are hiring Chinese experts to teach American influencers how to effectively sell online. TikTok has even mentioned their plans to open a live studio in Los Angeles to support live shopping streams.

In essence, the phenomenon of live shopping on TikTok signifies more than a mere transactional activity; it's a cultural shift towards a more immersive and interactive form of e-commerce. The platform's ability to blend storytelling with sales, turning shopping into a shared social experience, marks a new chapter in the digital marketplace narrative.

What We’re Reading this Week

Campaign of the Week

So, I didn’t know this, but apparently people in Chicago hate ketchup?

I guess when an entire city hates your product, you have to take extreme measures, and that’s exactly what Heinz does.

Every couple of years the condiment king unveils a campaign poking fun at the city’s disdain for ketchup,

This year, to combat ketchup hate, Heinz put up small billboards that dispense the condiment outside famous local restaurants that refuse to serve ketchup.

Passersby will be able to smack a ketchup bottle attached to the boards, and packets of Heinz ketchup will fall out.

Chicagoans can also nominate restaurants that don’t serve Heinz ketchup to get one of the boards on SmackForHeinz.com.

Vendor of the Week

You know them, you love them, that’s right ladies and gentlemen, today we’re talking about Klaviyo.

I like to think of Klaviyo as the first girlfriend/boyfriend of any marketer. Before even learning what a tech stack is, you’ll know what Klaviyo is.

For the uninitiated, Klaviyo is synonymous with retention marketing, offering automation for email marketing, SMS, and CDP.

Almost every single business can benefit from leveraging Klaviyo. Whether you want to further segment your audience or create multi-level flows and automations, Klaviyo has got your back.

Especially in a day and age where acquisition costs continue to rise, a healthy retention program is a no-brainer!

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