A livestream shopping set at Newegg’s studios in California (company photo)
Newegg is adding enhancements to its livestream shopping program in an effort to attract more creators who can earn commissions by selling tech products on eight different social media channels plus its own website and app, using the company’s upgraded production studios in California for free.
While it’s not clear if Newegg competitors in consumer electronics have launched creator-focused livestream shopping, both Visa and American Express have done so here, in addition to Alphabet’s YouTube and TikTok. Shopify also made it a prominent feature of its recently enhanced suite of merchant tools.
The Newegg livestream shopping program, launched last fall, lets creators monetize content through competitive sales commissions on products using a seven-day attribution process. This means they earn commissions on product sales for a week after an affiliate link in their content is first clicked. Creators can feature up to millions of products in their content.
Newegg, which has featured livestream shopping since 2021, invested in remodeling its media facilities last year at its headquarters in City of Industry, CA. The company added new studios, sets and livestreaming elements to enable multiple simultaneous video productions. Its facilities were built 10 years ago to tape sales and marketing content.
“The studios are now used for livestreams multiple times each weekday,” said Ricky Perez, social media marketing manager for Newegg. “That includes Gamer Lounge, a competitive reality show, and other branded video and photo content.”
Perez added the company is looking to bring on hundreds of creators initially in 2023, who are accepted based on their level of tech savvy and the size of their social media following. “They’re creating brand awareness, offering their product expertise and ideally generating sales,” he said.
Livestream shopping programming is hosted by Newegg several times during weekdays across nine channels: TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, Facebook, Whatnot and the Newegg website and app.
While of course nowhere near the phenomenon it is in China, livestream shopping is gaining some momentum here. As noted, TikTok and YouTube are investing heavily, as is Amazon, while Meta’s Facebook did a pullback last fall after a false start.
Asked about U.S. adoption, Perez said Newegg’s shoppers enjoy watching their favorite hosts on daily livestreams and getting access to limited time offers, a main draw of the format on TV as well as the web.
“Most livestream deals are only available during that stream, which makes the video worth watching and shopping,” he said. “We expect U.S. consumers to continue to adopt to livestream shopping.”