Facebook to launch live shopping on its platform
Facebook is expanding its “Live Shopping” offering with a new promotion scheduled for Fridays this summer.
Starting Friday, May 21 and lasting every Friday through July 16, 2021, “Live Shopping Fridays” will feature shoppable live videos from beauty and fashion brands on Facebook. The social media giant introduced Live Shopping, a function designed to make it easier for consumers to directly shop from videos in real time, in August 2020. Facebook brought Live Shopping out of pilot with specialty women’s fashion brand Anne Klein in November 2020.
The Live Shopping Fridays promotion will enable consumers to discover the latest products from participating brands and ask questions about size, fit and tips in real time. Brands will be able to provide new content, answer questions and conduct streamlined checkout with the Facebook Shops feature.
Customers will be able to tune into Live Shopping streams on each brand’s Facebook page, or by visiting the Shop tab or bookmark on the Facebook mobile app. Items presented during the Live Shopping stream can be purchased by tapping on them in the stream and checking out, all without leaving Facebook.
Each Friday, three brands will go live around a common theme: “Glow Up,” “New Fashion Finds,” and “Self Care Spotlight.” Participating retailers will include Abercrombie & Fitch, Clinique, and Sephora.
“We are laser focused on staying close to our customers at Abercrombie, so having the ability to connect with them in a new and innovative way via Facebook Live Shopping is incredible,” said Carey Collins Krug, senior VP and head of marketing, Abercrombie & Fitch. “This is the technological crescendo of what our social selling programs have been building to and we are thrilled to continue to evolve and expand in partnership with Facebook.”
“Sephora is thrilled to be partnering with Facebook Live Shopping as one of their first retail partners,” said Carolyn Bojanowski, senior VP and GM, e-commerce, Sephora. “As consumer habits have quickly shifted to focus on innovative ecommerce experiences, we’re proud to be able to offer our existing and new to Sephora clients this unique opportunity to interact with beauty. Our priority at Sephora is to ensure our clients have a seamless shopping journey, and we know that we have to meet our clients where they spend their time, go to find inspiration or socialize.”
“Over the last year, we’ve heard from many retailers that Live Shopping has been a lifeline for their businesses — allowing them to connect with their customers and build community when they had to close their physical stores,” said Yulie Kwon Kim, director product management commerce, Facebook. “We know that consumers continue to discover new products and brands they love across our platforms and our product strategy is to help make that purchase experience as frictionless as possible.”