Zappos Is Tapping Influencers to Host Shopping Livestreams

Top line

The Amazon-owned shoe seller will invite select social media influencers, content creators and bloggers to promote products to their followers via livestreams of themselves shopping on the site, for which they will receive a commission on any sales. The deal kicked off with a stream from model Hailey Bieber’s stylist, Maeve Reilly, in which she browsed Zappos’ site and shared her recommendations.

Between the lines

Buywith aims to set itself apart from the rest of the livestreaming space by offering a marketplace platform where approved influencers can choose when and how to host streams, saving retail brands the expense of having to professionally produce content. Each company can set their commission rate and influencers can choose whether to accept. Influencers selected to be part of the “Buywith stars” program will also earn a fixed salary.

“The idea is to scale livestream shopping for brands,” said Buywith CEO and co-founder Adi Ronen. “A brand that has 10 sessions a month maximum today could actually have hundreds of sessions a month on this marketplace and get exposure to many micro-influencers who would do those sessions on their website.”

U.S. retailers are increasingly turning to influencer-led livestreams like these as a way to personalize the product discovery process. Walmart, Nordstrom and JCPenney have also launched their own takes on the trend, which has already gained massive popularity in China.

Gartner estimates shoppers spent $60 billion through shopping livestreams last year—around $1 billion in the U.S. and the “vast majority” of the rest in China.

Bottom line

Founded in 2016, Tel Aviv-based Buywith has done much of its business in Israel and Europe until now but has set its sights on U.S. expansion. The company is hoping the Zappos deal will be the beginning of a broader push into the country as the shopping livestreaming trend continues to gain popularity.