Livestream shopping is considered the future of e-commerce.
In 2019, the livestreaming e-commerce market already recorded $60 billion in global sales. Only $1 billion came from the U.S. with China accounting for a major slice of the pie. According to the Cyberspace Administration of China, almost one in three Chinese users bought products via live broadcasts with links to a product landing page.
The U.S. is now playing catch-up with China as its livestream e-commerce market is estimated to reach $11 billion by the end of 2021 and $25 billion by 2023, according to Coresight Research, a global advisory and research firm.
What is Livestream e-Commerce?
In theory, livestream e-commerce is similar to home shopping networks like HSN or QVC. A host showcases products that viewers can buy during the broadcast. But, with a modern twist.
For starters, it’s much more interactive. The audience can engage through comments, likes or polls. Anyone can ask the host a question or make requests such as advising them to position the products differently for a better view.
It’s also more convenient. Customers can get access to the broadcasts via phone or tablet — making them highly accessible from any location. This convenience also allows sellers to tap into a younger audience base as this is where they spend a lot of their free time. With this exposure, hosts can effectively and appropriately present their products or services to their target customers at any time.
In a way, livestream shopping is revamping a 40-year-old business model and making it far more lucrative for distributors.
One company that is well-positioned to benefit from the expected growth of livestream shopping in the U.S. is Verb Technology (NASDAQ: VERB), an emerging market leader in interactive video-based sales and marketing applications.
About verbLIVE
Verb’s application, verbLIVE, offers a solution for livestream e-commerce and interactive video-based sales and marketing. With verbLIVE, a direct seller can host a live meeting, use interactive buttons to sell products and enroll live meeting participants without ever leaving the app.
A customer can click icons on a video to buy or get more product information, while a seller can track viewer engagement and sales conversion rates.
verbLIVE is a powerful tool that allows viewers to make purchases instantly during the virtual livestream selling event.
With verbLIVE comes another feature — Team Attribution. This innovation helps distributors receive credit for sales and enrollments made by invited customers during the live event. It also provides access to real-time notifications detailing the actions of each viewer, as well as reported analytics after the event.
verbLIVE is fully integrated with Salesforce and available on the Salesforce AppExchange marketplace.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpvFxCdvSjk
Other Verb Offerings
Apart from verbLIVE, Verb offers 4 additional applications that use the company’s proprietary interactive video technology.
- verbCRM: This comprehensive mobile sales tool uses clickable videos to engage, inform and close clients, customers and prospects, and is offered as a white-labeled application to large, global sales-based enterprises.
- verbTEAMS: This self-onboarding version of verbCRM offers built-in verbLIVE and Salesforce synchronization for small businesses and solo entrepreneurs. It makes it easy to deliver the right content to the right people at the right time. The tool will round up all the data about customer and prospect engagement activity and display it in an at-a-glance analytics dashboard, so sellers know exactly how effective each asset is and how to effectively follow up to close more sales.
- verbLEARN: This gamified video-based learning management system educates both customers and distributors on products and opportunities. This application addresses various business objectives such as retention, brand loyalty and product knowledge.
- verbMAIL: Through a partnership with Microsoft, Verb has integrated its interactive video technology into Microsoft Outlook, allowing the one billion Outlook users the ability to create fun, compelling clickable videos in Outlook. The verbMAIL button is accessed right in the Outlook toolbar and includes comprehensive engagement analytics reports that will make any chief marketing officer happy. It is expected to be released this month.
News and Developments
In January 2021, Verb Technology was ranked No. 1 among sales platforms for direct sales enterprises by Social Selling News. It was also named the winner of the Salesforce AppExchange Demo Jam contest for Salesforce productivity apps in November 2020.
To accelerate the adoption of interactive content management and livestream selling tools, the company also recently partnered with Marketing 360, a leading marketing technology provider for small and medium businesses (SMBs). As many small business owners do not have all the resources and skills necessary for marketing and building an online presence, this partnership provides a comprehensive suite of sales and marketing tools to both Verb’s and Marketing 360’s customers that are effective and proven to accelerate growth.
Furthering its own growth initiatives, Verb Technology recently acquired SoloFire, a leading software provider for medical and life sciences sales — gaining immediate entry into a lucrative new and fast-growing market. By combining VERB’s interactive video technology with SoloFire’s platform, medical salespeople are now better able to drive sales in a remote selling environment.
Verb Technology continued to gain traction throughout the pandemic as downloads of its applications exceeded 2 million as of May 11, 2021.
Financials
As of June 24, 2021, Verb had a market cap of nearly $86 million. In March 2021, the company closed a registered direct offering for straight common shares — with no warrants — for gross proceeds of $15 million to further enhance the balance sheet.
In March 2021, Verb reported a record annual growth for 2020 with a full-year SaaS recurring revenue up 82% and the total digital revenue up 53% compared to 2019.
For Q1 2021, unaudited projected results indicate more than 30% SaaS recurring revenue growth over Q1 2020 and more than 10% over Q4 2020.
The company’s sales tools are expected to continue to grow with the acceleration in global changes in consumer behavior, social media, video consumption and online shopping trends.
To learn more about Verb Technology, you can visit its website here.
Verb Technology is a partner of Benzinga. The information in this article does not represent the investment advice of Benzinga or its writers.
© 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
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