Livestreaming e-Commerce Is Taking Off In The US: Verb (NASDAQ: VERB) Plans To Capitalize On The Trend Through Integration Of MARKET.live With TikTok

From hair styling tools to shoes and apparel, selling products in real-time on social media is taking hold across America. Live shopping is a high-tech cousin of home shopping channels in which brands, retailers, influencers and individuals engage with their audience and sell products. 

It’s already a way of life in Asia and is growing in the U.S. thanks to companies like Verb Technology Company Inc. VERB. Verb operates MARKET.live, a livestream social shopping platform where hundreds of retailers, brands, creators and influencers monetize their customers, fans and followers across social media channels. It recently launched a technology integration and strategic relationship with TikTok, giving MARKET.live users direct access to the social media company’s 150 million U.S. users. “The integration with TikTok Shop represents a pivotal moment in the evolution of MARKET.live, marrying the dynamic capabilities of MARKET.live with TikTok's visionary Shop feature and the enormously expansive reach of the TikTok platform,” said VERB CEO Rory J. Cutaia recently.

How TikTok Is Helping Drive The Market

TikTok isn’t the only social media platform betting on live shopping, but it is emerging as a leader. As of last summer, one in five live-streaming users watch TikTok LIVE, and of that group, 62% watch it daily. Half of TikTok users purchased something after watching a TikTok Live. The social media app launched TikTok shopping this fall, sending shoppable videos and LIVE streams to For You feeds across the U.S. and making it easier to close a sale. 

Verb’s integration with TikTok comes as the market for live shopping in the U.S. is poised to take off. Forecasts expect it to reach anywhere between $32 billion and $50 billion in 2023, and that’s in the U.S. alone. By 2026, live-streaming e-commerce is estimated to account for 5% of all U.S. e-commerce sales. If the success in China is any indication, those forecasts may prove conservative. According to Insider Intelligence, live shopping is projected to account for 19% of all retail commerce sales in China this year. Sales are forecast to reach $843.93 billion in 2025, up from $562.62 billion in 2023. With nearly every Chinese e-commerce and social media player participating in live commerce, that market has displayed growth. Players in the U.S. are hoping that growth will be replicated here.  

It’s Just The Beginning 

Since Verb integrated with TikTok, MARKET.live has seen a lot of interest from TikTok creators and influencers. “We’re actually a bit stunned by the response and are excited to see how this plays out over the course of the year – especially with the holiday shopping season coming up,” said Cutaia. In the ten days after launch, 584 TikTok creators and influencers joined MARKET.live. 

With the TikTok addition, customers of MARKET.live can check out directly on the TikTtok app, which creates a far more seamless shopping experience for users who don’t want to leave the TikTok app. The integration also gives VERB access to real-time sales data for product sales across TikTok. VERB can use that data to identify trending products so that creators can quickly launch shoppable ads, and short- and long-form streaming content. 

Broad-Spectrum Integration

What Verb says attracts users to MARKET.live is the ability for its sellers to broadcast their live streams simultaneously across multiple social platforms. Beyond TikTok, MARKET.live sellers can livestream simultaneously on Meta Platforms Inc.’s META Facebook and Instagram, Alphabet Inc.’s GOOGL YouTube, and Microsoft Corporation’s MSFT LinkedIn, among many others, providing exponentially greater exposure for MARKET.live sellers’ livestream shopping shows. The company notes that viewers are currently not able to make purchases from Verb on any other of these platforms besides TikTok, and the company’s aim is to draw audiences to and spread awareness of their innovative platform.

Live shopping is growing in the U.S. and if China is any indication, is poised to become a bigger part of e-commerce sales in the coming years. The companies that strike strategic partnerships, like VERB’s integration with TikTok, stand to benefit from this new way of shopping.

Featured photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.

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