In this post we are looking at a few tips to improve your live shopping. Repurposing your live shopping show into a long form video (VOD) is essential to further drive ROI and sales from your content. As we have seen on a recent blog post, one of the critical element of a good video is the hook. There is no good way to create a hook on a livestream, so you want to keep in mind your post livestream viewers in mind for the first few minutes of your livestream. Here are 10 tips that can significantly improve your viewer’s experience in a live shopping.

1. Pre-roll Content: Start with a countdown timer or a pre-recorded introduction video. This gives viewers a moment to join and signals the start of your livestream. Affordable software like Ecamm live can help you add pre-roll and had interesting overlays to improve your viewer’s experience.
2. Background Music: Play soft, ambient music while waiting for the stream to start. This fills the silence and can set the mood. Make sure you use free of right music, so your content does not get flagged as copyright infringement on social media.
3. Starting Ritual: Develop a ritual or opening statement that you use at the beginning of every livestream. This can be a greeting, a quote, or a quick overview of what the stream will cover.
4. Engage Immediately: Instead of waiting for viewers, dive straight into your content or start by recapping previously covered topics.
5. Interact with Early Birds: Greet and acknowledge the first viewers who join in. They’ll appreciate the recognition and it can create a more intimate atmosphere.
6. Use a Script: If you’re worried about stumbling over your words, prepare a script or bullet points to guide you through the first few minutes.
7. Test Technical Aspects: Another great tip to improve live shopping, before you go live, do a quick test to ensure your microphone, camera, and streaming software are all working as expected.
8. Use a Co-host: Having someone else with you can help fill the void. You can engage in a casual conversation as you wait for more viewers to join.
9. Clip Start: If you’re uploading your livestream to platforms like YouTube later, consider trimming the beginning to remove any lengthy waits. And our (unbiased) tip to improve live shopping: If you use a liveshopping platform like eStreamly, you can force the video to start at a specific time in your livestream, effectively removing the first few seconds that may not be ideal for a VOD replay.

Always approach the beginning of your livestream as if it’s valuable content for replay. That way, those watching the recording later still find it engaging.