Owned & Operated vs. Social Media: Where Should You Stream Your Live Shopping Event?

Live shopping is the next wave of ecommerce—going live and selling your products combines the convenience of online shopping with the personalization of shopping in person at a brick-and-mortar store. 

Live shopping is the fastest-growing e-commerce “trend,” but it is much more than a trend. By 2026, 20% of all e-commerce transactions will happen on live video. And the numbers don’t lie:

• The US livestream shopping market will be worth approximately $68 billion by 2026.

• Live commerce conversion rates are up to 10x higher than conventional e-commerce.

• Stage TEN has seen an average of 135% increase in sales during live commerce events.

Whether or not your brand should start using live commerce is quickly answered—yes, yes, you should. But other questions come with live shopping that are more difficult to answer. Like should you stream your event on social media or your owned and operated channels?

What is an owned and operated property?

Before determining which option is best for you, let’s return to the basics. An owned and operated (or O&O) channel is a channel that your brand owns and operates. This usually refers to your website and other digital channels not accessed through a third party. 

And while you might be thinking that your Instagram or TikTok account is your property and content, you don’t own the account and, therefore, can’t fully control what happens there. For example, social media platforms experience outages, they can block your account or shadowban you, and you have no control over these actions and the subsequent outcomes.

Whereas with your website or your OTT app, you have complete control.

You can go live directly on your e-commerce properties easily from anywhere using Stage TEN.

Why host live shopping on social media?

The main reason brands turn to their social media channels to go live is that the audience is already there. They can quickly and seamlessly tap into their audience where they know they will be—Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, etc.

And while this convenience factor might make it seem like social media is the best choice, many social media platforms are pulling back and decreasing their investment in live shopping. Instagram, for example, has announced that as of March 16, 2023, you will no longer be able to tag products in live broadcasts on the app. Meta is also phasing out live shopping on Facebook in October 2023. 

And while other social media platforms like TikTok and YouTube continue to invest in their live shopping strategies, this switch from Meta highlights the main reason social media may not be the ideal place to build your live shopping audience.

You can’t control the changes made to social media platforms—you may find yourself with the rug pulled out from under you with little to no warning at any time. 

The power of your owned and operated properties

The power of using your owned and operated properties to stream your live shopping events comes down to control—you can control every aspect of your stream when you stream to your website. 

When you stream on your O&O property, the sky’s the limit regarding what you can achieve stylistically.

With Stage TEN, you can customize every aspect of your stream—from polls and voting options to engage your audience to full-screen overlays and embedded branding; you can make your stream look professional and on brand.

Additionally, using Stage TEN, you can create a seamless experience for your audience where they can check out directly in the video player. You show them a product live, and they love it, add it to cart, and check out, all without ever leaving the stream!

Streaming directly on your e-commerce website also allows you to get more people on your website. Sure, having a large audience on social media is fantastic, but it is a means to an end—making more sales. If you are getting your audience to your site for your stream, they’re already one step closer to purchasing.

But why not both?

While we would always suggest you start with streaming your live commerce events on your owned and operated properties, we’re greedy! So why not do both?

You get the benefits of both options by streaming on your O&O properties while also streaming to your social channels. And with Stage TEN’s social multistreaming capabilities, it’s as easy as a few clicks. You can simulcast across up to 30 social channels to reach your audience where they are and direct them to your O&O site—it’s the best of both worlds!

If your brand is ready to tap into the latest innovation in e-commerce by going live and selling through conversational commerce, we’re ready to help! Stage TEN is the only platform you need to make an impact in the live commerce space.

Contact us today and let our interactive live commerce experts help you create the best live shopping channel for you—directly on your site!


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