When AnyLive, the AI-powered platform which supports live commerce online through virtual hosts, enabled mineral water brand Evian to run round-the-clock live streams using AI avatars along with human hosts, it increased the brand’s live shopping sales by more than three times. Except that this happened in Thailand since the tech company which operates AnyLive, is big in Asian markets such as Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia and Philippines.
Aditya Aima, co-MD, India and MENA region at AnyMind Group, said India was behind other Asian markets in live commerce, that is, selling products via live videos. “In India, platforms have not driven that behavioural change or made it easier for consumers to shop through a live link,” Aima said.
Though it is banned in India, Chinese app TikTok has made live selling big on its platform in major markets like the US, the UK, France and countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand etc. It merges live entertainment feeds with built-in e-commerce so that consumers do not exit the livestream to shop and pay. Brands partner TikTok content creators to host their live streams. Kalyan Kumar, co-founder of influencer marketing-led tech platform KlugKlug, said, India is nowhere near China in live commerce where it is almost 20% of total e-commerce. “In India, we’re in low single digits. We need to stop copy-pasting the China playbook and build our own.”
