By Mansi Jain
The fun fusion of shopping and entertainment, known as ‘Shoppertainment’, is conceptually an immersive and interactive experience. For brands and marketers, it’s an innovative approach to promote products via influencers in an elevated, explanatory way to the evolved consumers of today. For content creators or influencers, content creation puts them in a vantage point to pursue their passion as a career, connect deeply with their audience, and gain opportunities of monetisation, amongst various other benefits.
Platforms such as Roposo are presenting this cohesive experience and in my opinion, below are some of the top trends that will headline the ‘shoppertainment’ space in the coming year.
Discovery commerce will take centre stage
Discovery or social commerce will gain greater traction, where consumers can serendipitously and spontaneously discover, engage, and buy products seamlessly. These are largely entertaining, creator-driven videos that provide them with immediate reviews and recommendations. While this type of commerce is hugely popular in advanced markets like China, in India, discovery commerce is expected to scale to 25 percent of the commerce market in the next few years, with Gen-Z driving a large part of this spending. Apart from taking online and mobile commerce to the next level, it’s set to revolutionise brand engagement and audience interaction.
Gen-z will crave all that’s trending
Gen-Z spends a lot of their time on mobile devices consuming content amongst other activities. Garnering their attention is the holy grail of brands, and shoppertainment meets their desire for individuality, creativity, community, and authenticity. They seek to stay updated on pop culture and current affairs, operating with a sense of urgency and FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out). Hence, be it the latest in Bollywood, pop culture, or fashion, platforms will look at offering bite-sized, shareable curated pieces of content on all that’s trending and topical.
Influence(rs)-led shopping will see an impetus
Word of mouth has always been important since we tend to trust reviews given by friends and family, or an expert rather than paid adverts. Similarly, consumers today, especially Gen-Z, values honest opinions from influencers who possess in-depth knowledge, flair, and convey information in an appealing manner. Creators who can create or curate content that can educate consumers about a product, do a ‘show and tell’ are more likely to make the sale. LIVE commerce for instance even allows consumers to interact with influencers in real-time and get their candid recommendations, fostering trust in brand-agnostic advocates.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) will get (more) real
Technology is not new to retail and going forward, AI will play a pivotal role in shoppertainment, especially through augmented reality. Consumers can virtually try on products, particularly in fashion and beauty. AI Algorithms will become more sophisticated in understanding individual preferences, delivering highly personalised experiences and tailored product recommendations. AI powered bots as shopping assistants and fashion suggestions by Generative AI will be the norm across online retail soon. There will be more advanced features empowering the consumers to use AI with respect to content creation, especially in the video format.
‘Live’ formats will come alive
The popularity of LIVE streaming is on the rise in India, with LIVE commerce being a huge component. According to Redseer, the Indian live commerce market is expected to reach a GMV of $4 billion to 5 billion by 2025, of which the fashion segment will contribute 60 -70 percent and the rest split between beauty, personal care and others. LIVE interactions with sellers, platforms or product representatives help consumers in making informed decisions and tend to positively impact sales conversion.
Shoppertainment is the future of e-commerce and is set to reshape the retail landscape. As consumers look for holistic and engaging experiences, the convergence of shopping and entertainment not only drives loyalty and sales but also sets the stage for the next level of growth in digital shopping.
Mansi Jain is the senior vice president & general manager at Roposo, a shoppertainment platform.