Blending entertainment with instant purchasing, live commerce offers retailers, brands, and digital platforms a new channel with enormous scope for creating value.

Brands that add product feeds to their Video action campaigns achieve over 60% more conversions at a lower cost.

Among the earliest adopters was German beauty retailer Douglas, which streams several shows a week in a range of formats, from workshops with experts to talks with influencers, and reports conversion rates of up to 40 percent.

While livestream shopping makes the transition from the TV to websites and apps on mobile devices, the basic concept remains: buyers watch as hosts discuss, demonstrate and review products in real-time.

The key, perhaps surprisingly, isn’t necessarily the shopping. Rather, it’s the entertainment, the fun, the interest, and the engagement that an interesting and passionate influencer brings to a space. And if it happens to be one you care about, and the product happens to interest you, you might just click the buy button.