14. 朗读-直播购物能永远改变在线零售吗？

14.Could live stream shopping change online retail for good?

每日电讯报

The shopping channel as formula hasbeen largely unaltered since it emerged in the heady consumerism of Eighties America,hooking in thousands of viewers desperate for everything from a new fridge to anecklace.

Legions of smiling salesmen extollingthe virtues of hoovers, ovens and hairdriers on the likes of QVC might feellike a throwback, but they have long proved immune to the sweeping changeswrought elsewhere by the internet age. Now, however, the digital world isfinally catching up. Live shopping, as it is known, allows for browsers to viewa far wider variety of wares through streaming.

As novel as it sounds, live shoppinghas long been a hit in China, where it was estimated to be worth $63bn lastyear according to Coresight Research. Kuaishou, a social media rival to TikTok,has more than 100m people tuning into live shopping streams every month.

“We are way behind in the west,” saysCathy McCabe, former Burberry and Jaeger technology chief. “It has always beencommon to buy on WeChat and Alibaba and it really underpins the impulsivity,immediacy and convenience that we know drives purchases – you can see theproduct and you get energy and a vibe which you don’t get from just browsingalone.” The sluggish response may be explained by analysts’ failure to predictthe extraordinary rise of the mobile.

China bypassed desktop computing, withmany consumers experiencing the internet for the first time on a smartphone.Toggling between a YouTube video recommending mascara and several e-commercewebsites to compare prices is a painful experience on mobile, and now thewebsites themselves are focusing entirely on buying through your phone.

Culturally, the importance of hagglingin the east sits well on social media. Hugely popular Chinese app Pinduoduooffers discounts for social buying, encouraging groups to purchase at the sametime and share their experience online.

Retailers traditionally might havesecured purchases from 20-25pc of those visiting a bricks and mortar store, butvideo consultations are converting 60pc of customers.

A small Los Angeles based start-upcalled Popshop Live has already beaten Google and Facebook to live shoppingafter launching last month. One seller claimed she can make more sales during asingle PopShop Live streaming event than in a week at the two stores she owns.

It is clear that to keep up, retailerswill need to adapt – and fast. “It is like reading a comic book versus going tothe cinema,” says Allen Adamson, a professor at New York University’s SternSchool of Business. “Once consumers get used to video, they are only going towant to shop that way.”