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2020/10/20 Co ona i : The Ne F on ie of Shopping Will Be Li e eamed - Bloombe g

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After The Crisis

Li e eam h ing e hing c n me need igh n : en e ainmen and a en e f c mm ni . S e , e a e ada .

By Mary Duenwald 2020 5 3 5:00 [PDT]

The Ne F ie f Sh i g Wi Be Li es ea ed

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Time to go live. Ph g a he : ik 1234/iS ck h

As the corona ir s pandemic contin es, Bloomberg Opinion ill be r nning a series of feat res by o r col mnists that consider the long-term conseq ences of the crisis. This col mn is part of a package en isioning a ne cons mer economy. For more, see a Q&A on ho cons mers respond to crises, Andrea Felsted on the f t re landscape of retail and Tara Lachapelle on ing the broken b siness model of streaming.

Years before Co id-19 reared its hideo s head and ga e the orld an rgent reason to shop from home, retail in encers ere li estreaming inside of bo tiq es, o ering prod ct close ps and e en trying on clothes, shoes and je elry for an online a dience. In 2017, li estreaming marketplace ShopShops sold a ie er a second-hand Birkin bag for $14,500 no ret rns accepted.

Li estream shopping has been ildly pop lar in China, that is. People there are sed to atching other people li estream almost e erything they do: cook, play or j st sit and eat dinner. Smartphone ie ing o ers a form of entertainment and h man connection.

No , people e ery here else on Earth nd themsel es anting those same t o things. As e all gro more acc stomed to atching, orking, talking and b ying online, li estream shopping may pro e to be the best ay to reach cons mers in a post-Co id-19 orld.

2020/10/20 Co ona i : The Ne F on ie of Shopping Will Be Li e eamed - Bloombe g

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Ne i Ma Te J H E e ia I I

Big Tech See G e e Tai Ab Si e f B i che

G g e Sh d Lea F Mic f T gh A i Le

G g e I Ge i g he A i T ea e I De e e

It s a f t re many retailers might not ha e time to consider at the moment, preocc pied as they are ith staying a oat in the face of a br tally abr pt economic stoppage. U.S. retail sales fell 8.7% in March. B t it s something that any s r i ors sho ld be thinking serio sly abo t for the long term. Is it nally the moment to embrace li estreaming in retail? What abo t irt al and a gmented reality and other ne technologies?

Reasons to say yes ha e ne er been stronger: For many goods and ser ices, online shopping is no the only kind of shopping that e ists, and that co ld last ell into ne t year or ntil a corona ir s accine is idely a ailable. Cons mers are being p shed beyond their comfortable analog habits and to ard ideo comm nications. J st look at the speed at hich millions ha e adopted Zoom, Bl eJeans and other platforms to ork ith colleag es and talk ith friends.

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This profo nd shock has also ta ght retailers ho essential it is to be prepared for ne pected crises.

Those retailers that ere not entirely prepared to take their entire stock o erings online are in a state of shock and deep regret, says Do g Stephens, the fo nder and CEO of cons ltancy Retail Prophet, ho foresees retailers in esting in digital technolo y m ch more rapidly. Brands and retailers are interested in not nding themsel es in this le el of lnerability e er again.

It seems certain that e-commerce ill e pand faster than it o ld ha e absent the pandemic. O er the past decade, it s gro n steadily from abo t 4% to more than 11% of all retail sales in the U.S. O er the coming decade, thanks to lessons learned from Co id-19 abo t the importance of ha ing an internet b siness, online p rchases are e pected to acco nt for most retail sales.

So far, e-commerce has fa ored the simplest p rchases and those easiest to ship: electronics, clothes, ho sehold tools and more recently groceries. Harder things to sell online are real estate and cars and hard-to-ship items s ch as l mber and other b ilding materials. B t considering there as a day hen no one e pected people to b y clothing or shoes nless they co ld try them on in a store, it s a good bet that barriers to all kinds of other prod cts ill soon come do n.

One ay to accelerate this is ith ne technologies, s ch as irt al and a gmented-reality soft are that let shoppers digitally try on clothes or see ho a ne sofa o ld look in their li ing room. S ch technolo y has been in se for a hile, especially in China, here Alibaba ses irt al reality to allo shoppers to bro se merchandise in stores half a orld a ay. Amazon and Walmart ha e been follo ing in the Chinese company s footsteps.

Today s crisis makes li estreaming look e en more ad antageo s than irt al reality, beca se it o ers a sense of comm nity as ell as entertainment t o things e re yearning for right no and t o essential aspects of shopping. People b y things not j st beca se they need or

ant them, b t beca se it s f n to h nt aro nd for them often ith friends and family and talk ith store clerks ho can e plain the merchandise in detail. (Talented sales associates ha e made Nordstrom s pop lar for more than a cent ry.) Li estreaming can pro ide something like the same e perience hen e can t (or are too rel ctant to) go to a store in person.

It s no s rprise then that since Co id-19 s assa lt on China, Alibaba s Taobao Li e li estreaming platform has s rged the n mber of merchants sing it for the rst time gre by 719% from Jan ary to Febr ary. Cons mers are shopping for real estate and cars on the platform. Shanghai Fashion

Week in late March as f lly li estreamed on it: Vie ers co ld pre-order the clothes the models ere earing on the cat alk, as ell as b y pieces from the designers e isting collections. E en farmers ha e been sing the channel to sell mangoes and other crops. The company as hoping to bring h ndreds of tho sands more retailers into li estreaming; no that seems ine itable.

Li estreaming ill take hold o tside China to the e tent that retailers belie e it can keep their b sinesses going in a time hen people ant to a oid cro ds. Some may nd other ays and technologies to do that. For e ample, George Watson, a marketing professor at Portland State Uni ersity, s ggests that stores co ld set p appointments for shopping in order to limit the n mber of people ho inhabit a space at one time. This co ld be paired ith no-checko t systems like Amazon Go and e panded se of digital allets s ch as Apple Pay to f rther ass re social distancing.

2020/10/20 Co ona i : The Ne F on ie of Shopping Will Be Li e eamed - Bloombe g

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Te f Se ice D N Sell M I f (Calif ia) T ade a k P i ac P lic 2020 Bl be g L.P. All Righ Re e ed

Ca ee Made i NYC Ad e i e Ad Ch ice C ac U Hel

S ch technologies ha e so far been adopted only slo ly in co ntries like the U.S. B t that as in a orld here their main irt e as con enience. No that high-tech retail also o ers safety, its appeal is m ch greater. Pl s, a ne set of c stomers are no sed to technolo y-assisted bro sing and b ying. Soon more entreprene rs ill create li estream shopping platforms for stores of all kinds. Some of the bigger stores and chains may create systems of their o n, too. Then, retailers can start crafting li estream e periences too entertaining to resist.

This column does not necessarily re ect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

To contact the author of this story: Mary Duenwald at [email protected]

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Nicole Torres at [email protected]

Mary Duenwald writes editorials on energy, health care and science for Bloomberg Opinion. She was deputy editor of the New York Times op-ed page and a senior editor at Harper’s Bazaar, eal Simple, the Sciences and Vogue.

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