Why are businesses using more live services?
What are the benefits to live services and why should businesses use them?
You may have noticed that more and more businesses are including live streaming services or live services into their product offerings or platform operations. Live streaming is something that has, obviously, been around for a long time but businesses are only just starting to realise how effective live streaming can be for increasing their reach and for moving their product.
In the APAC region, eCommerce sellers both very big and very small, have been using live streaming to rack up sales and connect with customers for years, and companies in North America and EMEA are only just now starting to take notice. So, why are companies starting to use more live services and live streams? Keep reading to learn more – the answer may surprise you.
A global transition
As mentioned above, live stream sales and marketing has been popular in Asia for years now and large companies do it alongside individual small business owners and sellers. Selling through live streams has been so successful that the market researchers at McKinsey think that live commerce is here to stay, and will become even more popular in the future.
One of the reasons that live services are so popular is because it creates a human connection, however small, with someone. Many of us spend extended periods of time staring at screens in silence and now most of our shopping is done online as well. Whether we realise it or not, we are all fairly isolated and cut off from one another.
Live streaming recreates the human connection which we previously would have found while out shopping, combing through stores or shopping centres. It also gives the products an important element of physicality which they lack online. What this means is that you can see someone handle a product and get a sense of what it is really like.
Case study: Online casinos and live casino games
Live stream services are not purely limited to eCommerce – one other significant area of development for live services has been in the online casino and betting industry. A live casino game is essentially when a casino game – typically a table game such as poker, roulette, baccarat, or blackjack – is being managed by a dealer who is live-streamed to the player via the online casino. The players can see the dealer and it is almost like they are sitting there at the casino table.
The best online casinos, such as Casino Yard, are now offering entire libraries of live casino games for gamblers to choose from. Live games are becoming increasingly popular on online casinos because they give the gambler a sense of being on a busy casino floor with the same level of interaction with a dealer and the presence of other gamblers.
The future of streaming?
For now, it looks like live streaming options will become more popular for eCommerce and entertainment. However, in North America and EMEA, our shopping and social platforms need to upgrade their tech before we can see live stream shopping and selling on the same scale as in APAC.
