MLB All-Star Game is first big test of Fanatics livestream shopping

Fanatics’ first livestream shopping event will feature collectors opening baseball trading card packs on the field during this week’s Major League Baseball All-Star Game events in Seattle.

The sports platform’s new business division, which is called Fanatics Live, is centered around live shopping experiences during which users will be able to buy trading cards and other collectibles on the Fanatics Live app while watching streams of hosts and other collector sellers.

Earlier this year, Fanatics hired Nick Bell, who previously led teams responsible for Google Search experience and was Snap’s global head of content and partnerships, to serve as the CEO of Fanatics Live.

Fanatics will be opening its new platform for a beta test coinciding with MLB’s All-Star Game to a small group of consumers, Bell said, and the company is working with several trading card “breakers” to host live streams direct from T-Mobile Park in Seattle.

While this first effort will focus on “breaking” — the social trading card buying system where participants pre-purchase coinciding spots in unopened packs or boxes of cards which a seller then opens live — Bell said this is just a sampling of what Fanatics plans to do in the live shopping space once the platform fully launches later this month.

“Our intention is to have Fanatics Live be the leader in the live commerce space,” Bell said. “We know live commerce in the U.S. is still really nascent, but there is a big opportunity for growth that we expect to occur over the next few months and years; we hope to be driving all of that.”

Livestream shopping, which got its start in China and across Asia, has grown into a $512 billion market, according to Coresight Research. That growing popularity has pushed e-commerce platforms like Amazon, eBay, and Poshmark into the space, as well as tech platforms like Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, and TikTok.

But the trend, with a seller broadcasting a live video showing and explaining products they’re selling to viewers who are also able to ask questions — effectively a new-age version of QVC or the Home Shopping Network — has been slow to gain traction in the U.S. Earlier this year, Meta shut down support for live shopping on Instagram, instead pivoting to other forms of selling on the platform.

Bell acknowledged the challenges for livestream shopping in the U.S. but said he sees them as an opportunity. He cited data showing that 74% of Chinese consumers have bought a product while watching a livestream, while 78% of U.S. consumers said they have never watched a livestream shopping experience. However, among those U.S. consumers that have, a vast majority purchased at least one item.

Fanatics is betting that not only will its new live shopping platform appeal to the niche but fervent group of trading card fans and other sports fans, but a wider audience of consumers who have yet to be exposed to these sorts of streams. Fanatics is working with a variety of leagues, brands, creators,…