MANILA, PHILIPPINES — Far from its humble beginnings in 2018, live commerce is poised for exponential growth in 2024 based on data from Shoppertainment Live Inc.’s (SLI) landmark State of Live Commerce Address at the Enderun Atrium last September 27.
Live commerce opportunities on the horizon
SLI Chief Broadcast Officer Lawrence Lee revealed that despite a status quo year-on-year growth in executions, livestreams experienced a 60% growth in terms of hours spent, marking a 627% increase in demand versus its pandemic peak in 2020.
Lawrence added that in 2023, they saw the rise of TikTok Shop Live Commerce in the Philippines. In its infancy, TikTok partnered with Shoppertainment Live for a pilot run where they produced over 500 videos in three months from April to July 2022. With video as one of the main drivers of commerce in the platform, this resulted in seven-figure sales and served as the foundation for anticipating the demand growth for 2023. True enough, Branded Shoppable Content experienced a massive jump of 1443% compared to 2022.
Aside from business-as-usual livestreams, Shoppertainment Live recorded a tripled demand from On-ground to Online (O2O) livestreams. Lawrence recalled that they anticipated the reopening of the market as early as 2021 and offered its services as early as 2022, adding that they upgraded these services in partnership with Mineski Global’s GG Truck.
Shifting platform trends
SLI Sales Director Bobi Babiera reported the demand for livestreams increased along with the livestream company’s Compounded Annual Growth of 89% from 2021 to 2023. Significant increases in demand spike in Q3 each year, and Babiera notes that in 2023, brands started allocating more resources in Q1 and Q2, respectively.
Bobi shared further that platform-wise, a tectonic shift has happened. Previously, Lazada led with a 55% share of execution demand, followed by Shopee (28%), Facebook (13%), Direct-To-Commerce (3%), and TikTok (1%). Bobi revealed, however, that the trend changed this 2023. TikTok took the lead with 42%, followed by Lazada (34%), Shopee (14%), Facebook (6%), and D2C (3%). According to Shoppertainment Live’s data, this is a 545.45% shift from the previous year, with the growth being attributed to the platform’s nature as a social media platform before shifting to its current business model that houses livestreams.
Into the Future of Live Commerce
Patt Soyao, Chief Strategy Officer of SLI, answered a huge question in everyone’s minds: “Given that the demand is with TikTok, does it actually convert?” Here, he revealed that according to data, the Return on Ad Spend is from twice to eight times when it comes to the platform. He further said, “The shift towards TikTok signals the rise of social commerce wherein you can get more reach and conversion. This is also accelerated due to the TikTok ‘gold rush’ stage, when the platform gives subsidies, incentives, and low-cost acquisition of followers.”
On the question of this status being sustained, Patt said with the news of TikTok Shop’s plans to invest $20B in SEA along with Indonesia tightening its belt versus TikTok Shop, there will be more focus on their second and third biggest market. With the Philippines as their third biggest market, we can expect a war of prices among the three, namely Lazada, Shopee, and TikTok Shop. Patt added that the September campaigns of Lazada and Shopee indicate this, with Lazada’s “Any 3 for 99” promo and Shopee’s “70% whole day sale from September 01 to 10.”
As things are heating up in the Philippines, Patt concluded, “We are past the stage where we question if livestream shopping converts. It’s no longer a question if it converts, it’s now a question of how big livestream shopping can be.”
Parting insights from the fireside chat
Shoppertainment Live’s Live It Up Fireside Chat brought valuable insights from guests such as Great Deals CEO, Steve Sy (Fulfilment Partner), .mad Creatives General Manager, Jace Susara (Ecommerce Marketing), Byteplus Global Partnerships Director, Jeremy Ang (Platform), and Mineski M Games CEO, Ronald Robbins (Software/Gaming), and Shoppertainment Live CEO, Hiyasmin Neri-Soyao (Live Commerce).
Key takeaways include Ronald Robins’ take on esports and gaming: “To give you a perspective in terms of the size of the market for gaming totally, it’s more than 2.5x than that of Hollywood and movie industry, bringing over $150B per year of online value will contribute more to the future of live commerce.”
At the same time, the question “Can gamers sell to their brand consumers?” was answered by Robins: “[Yes, they can.] Gamers are more loyal to brands that support their passion, but there has to be a fit in these communities before there can be conversion.”
Jace shared his thoughts on what made great strides in ecommerce marketing and advertising in the country: “During the pandemic, there was a forced digital transformation–in an instant, [brands were looking for ways to sell and get more sales. The question was where they’d move online moving forward and because of this, there has been a shift when it comes to planning and it made ecommerce boom in the PH.” He added that it’s always a challenge to strike a balance between creativity and ecommerce, but has advice on how to navigate both of them: “For every platform there are different needs and best practices. One thing I learned is that in digital advertising when we create content, there’s always a progression or buildup of what we want our community to avail. In ecommerce, there are only two things when it comes to content, ‘Ano at magkano ang product mo?’ Ecommerce content is always front and center because we need their attention and we need to move them down the funnel.”
Jeremy had a positive overview of what’s to come in the PH market: “We saw the rise of TikTok shop in the market this year and this is just the start. If we have a glimpse of China’s market, it has double-digit percentage points on retail consumption; but in this part of the world, it’s still single-digit. There’s still so much to grow, and we’re optimistic about the market [here].” He advised as well that brands should continue D2C (direct-to-consumer) efforts despite TikTok Shop’s investments because “t’s still too early [to tell what would happen].” He added that “if [companies] want to control retargeting loops [for better profit], the route to take is D2C.”
When asked about her clients’ experience when it comes to livestreaming, Hiyasmin said, “Usually it depends on the platforms [that our clients use.] Lazada is in a category that sells more based on data, usually in Electronics and FMCG. For Shopee, data states that [it sells when it comes to] FMCG, Beauty, and Fashion. D2C is for content that is different from the market. You do a lot of rewards and performance marketing to get your viewers. For socmed, the traffic is there; but there are so many layers they have to go through.” Hiyasmin also revealed her prediction for the livestream industry for the next two years. “Currently, the four leading SEA nations when it comes to livestreams are Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, and Vietnam. With Indonesia creating [potentially restrictive] legislations, there are more trickle-down opportunities for us as the third leading livestream hub in the region, moving forward.”
Lastly, Steve shared a great insight for discussion at the beginning of the fireside chat. He said, “One data is right now, China has 45% of the retail sales in the ecommerce space. In the PH, it’s only less than 3%, which means there is some continuous growth. Since August 2023, we’ve been growing consistently and there are a lot of new trends, especially on online selling. There’s a push from TikTok Shop as Patt mentioned.” Steve also closed the fireside chat by making this fearless forecast as a veteran in the ecommerce industry for 12 years: “When a brand activates a TikTok shop, it creates a ripple effect on its other platforms [and we definitely feel it as their fulfillment partner. That’s why those brands who partner with Shoppertainment will win in 2024.”
