U.S. livestream shopping a target of TikTok, Amazon Live and YouTube

At her home in Miami, Myriam Sandler spends a few hours each week on a simple routine that’s allowed her husband Mark to quit his job as an investment banker. The couple fills a laundry basket with the toys and gadgets that have improved life at home with their three young daughters. In their bedroom, Mark adjusts a ring light while Myriam sets everything within reach on a small desk in the corner.

Moments later, she taps her phone twice, looks into the camera, and goes live — not on the Home Shopping Network or QVC, but on Amazon.com.

“I’ll introduce myself. I’m Myriam Sandler and I’m the face behind @mothercould,” Sandler said into the camera on Feb. 5 before starting her pitches. “So the first product I’m going to talk about is actually one of my favorite cleaning products. It’s a spin brush. It’s already 84% claimed, so it’s a lightning deal.”

Sandler’s @mothercould brand has 1.2 million followers on Instagram and 730,000 on TikTok, where her videos have racked up 11.7 billion views. Before going live on Amazon to sell her favorite products, she lets her followers on other platforms know.

“I don’t profit off any other platform that you can go live on,” Sandler said. “Everyone coming to Amazon Live is essentially coming to buy something. They’re there for that.”

Livestream shopping took China by storm over the past three years. Chinese retail giant Alibaba launched its livestream app Taobao Live in 2016. When the pandemic grounded shoppers in 2020, it took off. One example came during the first 30 minutes of China’s annual Singles’ Day shopping festival in 2020, where Taobao livestreams generated $7.5 billion in transactions — a 400% jump from the year before. That same year, the livestream shopping market in China was valued at $171 billion, and is estimated to grow to $423 billion by 2022. In the U.S., TikTok,  Amazon, Walmart, Shopify and YouTube are all getting in on the game.

“People are excited by what you’re seeing from China, where you see really, really high conversion rates on some of these experiences, much higher than maybe a regular website would have. You’re seeing potentially up to 40% in some cases. You might see much lower return rates because people know what they got.” said Daniel Debow, vice president of product at Shopify, which launched live-shopping capabilities with YouTube in July.

There’s a rapidly growing ecosystem of livestreaming apps in China, such as TikTok’s sister app Douyin, and Pinduoduo, known for rock bottom prices. Livestreamers in China — known as Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) — have made massive fortunes and there are entire boot camps devoted to the career craze of becoming a livestream shopping host.

“KOLs there have millions and millions and millions of fans, so even if 10% show up, that’s still a million. That’s not the…