Bloomingdale’s makes livestream debut with holiday series

Bloomingdale's is making its first foray in livestream commerce. 

From Nov. 15 through the end of the year, two Bloomingdale’s Outlet stores —   in Woodland Hills, Calif. and Paramus, N.J. — will host a six-week, 10-episode holiday livestream shopping series in partnership with global livestream shopping app ShopShops. The events will focus on gift-giving and styling during the holiday season, offering real-time shoppable content and virtual fashion and shopping advice from ShopShops host-sellers.

ShopShops' livestream shopping solution focuses on direct, immersive customer interaction with hosts. The hosts answer questions via real-time chat, model and style potential purchases, and offer first-hand reviews.

ShopShops will host a total of 10 livestream sales events from the two stores. Each event will livestream for a minimum of two hours on Tuesday and Thursday evenings and will feature 30-60 shoppable SKUs per event, across varied categories and brands, including Gucci, Ferragamo, Balenciaga, Free People and Marc Fisher.

Events Lineup:

• Tuesday 11/15, 7-9pm EST @ Paramus, N.J.
• Thursday 11/17, 4-6pm EST @ Woodland Hills, Calif.
• Tuesday 11/22, 7-9pm EST @ Paramus, N.J.
• Tuesday 11/29, 7-9pm EST @ Paramus, N.J.
• Thursday 12/1, 4-6pm EST @ Woodland Hills, Calif.
• Tuesday 12/6, 7-9pm EST @ Paramus, N.J.
• Thursday 12/8, 4-6pm EST @ Woodland Hills, Calif.
• Tuesday 12/13, 7-9pm EST @ Paramus, N.J.
• Thursday 12/15, 4-6pm EST @ Woodland Hills, Calif.
• Tuesday 12/20, 4-6pm EST @ Woodland Hills, Calif.

"Livestream shopping technology has the ability to essentially transport the user anywhere in the world —  giving them access to unique shopping experiences and on-demand style inspiration and advice they may otherwise never have the opportunity to enjoy." said ShopShops CEO Liyia Wu. "Through this partnership with Bloomingdale's Outlet, we are able to strategically leverage that type of social shopping as a medium for a major retailer to meet and engage with existing and new customers where, when and how they want to shop – unlocking a new level of growth during the busiest shopping season of the year."

Simon engages in holiday livestream partnership with Alibaba
Bloomingdales is not the first retailer to connect its outlet stores to holiday shoppers via livestream. Premium mall owner Simon and the Shop Premium Outlets (SPO) e-commerce platform it runs jointly with Rue Gilt Groupe recently participated in Chinese retail giant Alibaba Group’s “Singles Day” global shopping festival, via a series of livestream events.

Shoppers in China were able to virtually shop SPO’s online inventory. They were also able to purchase directly from participating stores located within Simon’s Woodbury Common Premium Outlets.

To further celebrate the Singles Day event, Simon set up a pop-up studio in its Woodbury Common Premium Outlets property to host another series of livestream events. Chinese consumers could access the livestreams through Taobao Live, Alibaba Group’s livestream commerce channel.

During each event, they were able to virtually browse and purchase SPO's inventory from participating brands and have the items shipped directly to them. Brands that have store locations at Woodbury Common Premium Outlets also had the opportunity to participate in the joint program.