Are Amazon’s Livestreams a Natural for TV Shopping?

Expanding the reach of Amazon Live, Amazon has launched an interactive, shoppable, and free ad-supported (FAST) channel on its Prime Video and Freevee streaming services.

Customers gain access to Amazon Live’s FAST channel by navigating to the “Live TV” tab on Prime Video, Fire TV, or the Freevee app, as well as through the Amazon Live tab on desktop and mobile.

The channel offers 24/7 programming of the “most-watched and most-loved content” from Amazon Live, a QVC-like shopping experience launched in 2019 in the U.S. on the Amazon site and app.

Content includes shoppable shows featuring reality TV stars and influencers Lala Kent (“Vanderpump Rules”), Kandi Burruss (“Real Housewives of Atlanta”), Paige DeSorbo (“Summer House”), Ashley Iaconetti and Jared Haibon (“Bachelor in Paradise”), and Madison LeCroy (“Southern Charm”). Brands including Tastemade and The Bump will also host episodes.

Viewers browse and purchase the items influencers show off by using the Amazon Shopping app on their mobile devices. When entering “Shop the Show” into the search bar, users are directed to a shopping carousel featuring the products they see on TV in real time.

Citing findings from Samba’s TV H2 2023 U.S. State of Viewership report showing that 75% of U.S. adults look at a mobile device while watching TV, Amazon said the technology “provides customers with a seamless, interactive, and convenient shopping experience.”

DeSorbo, who is launching her own original show on the Amazon Live TV channel, said in a statement, “Watching Amazon Live is like shopping with a friend who is also a personal stylist. I get to share my honest opinions, demonstrate products, and help customers discover their next great find.”

While long predicted, Amazon only recently began linking Amazon Prime content to e-commerce, marked by the launch of a virtual store selling merchandise as part of a promotion for “The Boys” spinoff series “Gen V.” Last year, QVC and sister channel HSN introduced linear offerings on Freevee, representing the only livestream shopping channels on the service at the time.

According to Amazon, more than 1 billion customers in the U.S. and India streamed Amazon Live’s shoppable videos in 2023. It had introduced the offering in India in 2022. According to Footwear News, more than 76% of direct sales from Amazon Live sponsored streams come from new-to-brand customers.

“Fashion and beauty perform really well for live streams, because creators can demo the product and bring it to life,” Julie Haleluk, global head of growth for Amazon Live Shoppable Videos, told Footwear News last year. “Ultimately, the goal is to create as frictionless of an experience at point of sale as possible for the customer. Customers are coming here every day across various shopping journeys and we see that video can add tremendous value to their shopping behavior.”

Led by Amazon, YouTube, eBay, TikTok, and HSN, livestream e-commerce revenues tripled in size in the U.S. from 2021 to 2023 to $31.7 billion, and the market is expected to reach $68 billion by 2026, according to Coresight Research. Still, livestreaming has taken off much faster in China and only represents 3% of e-commerce sales in the U.S.

Coresight cited multichannel streaming and expansion into new retail verticals among underlying trends expected to drive future growth in the livestreaming market, as well as incentives and special offers during streams and the creation of online communities via livestreaming.