Amazon Live attracts more beauty brands with its shoppable livestream format

 https://www.glossy.co/beauty/amazon-live-attracts-more-beauty-brands-with-its-shoppable-livestream-format/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=glossydis&utm_source=daily&utm_content=201006

With the closure of brick and mortar retail during the pandemic, brands have turned to creative digital channels to engage their customers. While China has already mastered the livestream shopping events on Tmall, Amazon Live has begun to expand into the realm. 

The shoppable livestream is extremely effective method to engage customers and encourage purchasing. In China, Tmall livestream events generated $61M in revenue last year. Now, with online being the only way to shop in many countries, I would expect sales from these events to increase. Many beauty brands were already using this tool on their own sites or on Tmall, but with Amazon, the customer reach could be further. Amazon also allows the customers to see different brands in one place, facilitating a more streamlined shopping experience. If the brands are able to access the Amazon Prime benefits, customers can also enjoy free two day (or less) shipping. 

However, the shoppable livestream via Amazon could damage some of the brands using the channel. I imagine Amazon controls the information on the consumers that log in and view the livestream, so brands do not have insight into who attended, unless they purchased a product. When consumers do purchase a product from Amazon, the customer service experience is more difficult for the brand - since Amazon distributed the product, the brand has no control over how it is packaged. While Amazon has an expansive, unmatched customer reach, brands cannot control how their brand DNA is conveyed to the customers when Amazon enters the customer journey, which could be detrimental to smaller brands.