Live Shopping

Live shopping combines real-time video broadcasting with direct purchasing - letting brands and sellers showcase products to viewers who can buy instantly, without leaving the stream. Think of it as a modernized home shopping channel built for social platforms.

Formats vary widely:

• Single-host product demos - one presenter walks through features, answers questions, and drives urgency with limited-time offers
• Influencer-led drops - a creator partners with a brand to reveal and sell products to their audience during a live event
• Brand Q&A sessions - interactive streams where potential buyers ask product questions before committing to a purchase
• Multi-product showcases - scheduled broadcasts covering an entire catalog, often tied to seasonal campaigns

Live video streaming setups typically include stream production, overlays, product card integration, and real-time comment moderation. It's a full-funnel strategy, not just a broadcast.

Live shopping is the broad term for any real-time commerce broadcast - it covers branded websites, dedicated platforms, and third-party apps. Social commerce narrows that down to transactions that happen directly within a social media platform, without redirecting buyers to an external site.

Live social shopping sits at the intersection of both. It's a live broadcast that happens on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube, where viewers can add to cart and check out without ever leaving the app.

The practical difference for businesses is conversion friction. Live social shopping reduces drop-off because the purchase flow is already built into the platform your audience is using.

The main live shopping platforms in 2025 fall into three groups:

Social-native platforms - these have checkout built directly into the feeג:

• TikTok Shop
• Instagram Live Shopping
• YouTube Shopping
• Facebook Live Shopping

Standalone live commerce apps - platforms built exclusively for shoppable livestreams:

• NTWRK
• Whatnot
• Flip

Self-hosted solutions - embed live shopping directly into your own store:

• Bambuser
• Livescale
• Firework

Each platform suits a different audience and product type. TikTok Shop works especially well for fast-moving consumer goods and trend-driven products. Self-hosted solutions give brands full control over branding, data, and margins. Choosing the right setup depends on your existing audience, product category, and how much production support you have in place.

Costs vary depending on the scope of what you need - from a basic stream setup to a fully produced brand event.

Based on Fiverr marketplace data:

• Live video streaming services typically range from $50 to $325 per project, with hourly engagements averaging $20 to $45/hour
• Social commerce setup and integration averages around $88 to $138 per engagement, depending on the platform and complexity
• Social commerce maintenance (ongoing management, posting schedules, analytics reporting) averages around $70 per engagement
• Social media video production for live shopping promos runs approximately $70 per project

For more complex builds - custom overlays, branded graphics, TikTok Shop integration, and influencer coordination - expect to budget in the $250-$600+ range. Fiverr Pro experts handling end-to-end campaign strategy and production will price based on deliverables and timeline.

A live shopping specialist manages the technical, creative, and strategic layers that turn a livestream into a sales channel. Their work typically includes:

1. Pre-stream setup - configuring the platform, integrating product catalogs, setting up overlays and lower-thirds graphics, and testing stream quality
2. Script and run-of-show planning - structuring the broadcast so products are revealed at the right moment and viewer attention is maximized
3. Live moderation - managing comments, pinning product links, fielding questions, and triggering purchase prompts in real time
4. Post-stream analysis - reviewing viewer drop-off, conversion rates, peak engagement windows, and average order values to improve future broadcasts

Some specialists focus on one layer - production or strategy - while others manage the full pipeline. For businesses new to live commerce, working with a video marketing expert who has live commerce experience is a strong starting point.

The tech stack for live shopping spans streaming software, commerce integrations, and analytics:

Streaming tools:

• OBS Studio - free, open-source broadcast software used widely for professional streams
• Streamlabs - OBS-based tool with built-in alerts, overlays, and chat management
• StreamYard - browser-based studio, popular for multi-guest and branded broadcasts
• Restream - multistream to several platforms simultaneously from one dashboard
• Ecamm Live - Mac-native production tool for polished, interview-style streams

Commerce integrations:

• Bambuser - enterprise live shopping platform with product overlay and checkout
• Firework - short-form and live video commerce for branded websites
• Livescale - Shopify-native live shopping with real-time product syncing

AI tools - AI-powered product tagging, automated highlight clipping, real-time sentiment analysis on comments, and predictive product sequencing are increasingly common in professional setups

Analytics - platform-native dashboards (TikTok Analytics, Meta Insights) combined with attribution tools like Triple Whale and Northbeam

Specialists who understand AI-assisted production - auto-captioning, dynamic product card triggers, and post-stream content repurposing - deliver significantly more value per broadcast than those running manual setups only.

Budget is shaped by three variables: production quality, platform complexity, and how frequently you plan to broadcast.

A few useful benchmarks:

• One-time setup (platform configuration, stream test, basic overlay design) - typically $100 to $300
• Single broadcast production (scripting, hosting support, post-stream editing) - typically $200 to $600
• Monthly retainer (regular broadcasts, content repurposing, analytics reporting) - typically $500 to $1,500+ depending on frequency and volume

For brands just testing the format, a single produced event with a professional moderator is a low-risk way to measure audience response before committing to recurring production costs. Explore social commerce services on Fiverr to compare packages at different budget levels.

Most packages cover the core broadcast. What's often sold separately:

Common add-ons:

• Custom animated overlays and branded lower-thirds graphics
• Influencer sourcing and coordination
• Short-form video edits from the stream replay (Reels, TikTok clips, YouTube Shorts)
• Paid social amplification of the replay
• A/B testing different product sequencing across multiple broadcasts

Usually not included by default:

• Influencer fees or platform ad spend
• Product photography or pre-stream content creation
• Deep analytics reporting beyond platform-native data
• Translation or multilingual moderation for international streams

If your strategy involves influencer-led live events, it's worth engaging an influencer marketing specialist separately from your production team - the skill sets are distinct.