Live streaming is the trend... Home shopping to increase volume next year

Lotte Establishes Dedicated Content Team
Targeting MZ Generation with Influencers
CJ O Shopping Expands Broadcasts Targeting 3040
Hyundai Strengthens Content Competitiveness

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Hye-sun] Home shopping companies are rolling up their sleeves to strengthen their live commerce business in the new year. The reason for reinforcing the live commerce business, which is considered a competitor to existing home shopping channels, is its rapid growth rate. They are actively investing in commerce conducted through real-time broadcasts on smartphones and other devices.

On the 30th, a review of the major business plans of home shopping companies for 2021 confirmed that they have established separate organizations for the live commerce business and increased investments to strengthen related operations. Notably, they are investing in live commerce, which was once viewed as a competitor, and instead of using their own platforms, they are utilizing existing platforms such as Naver and Kakao.

Lotte Establishes Dedicated Live Commerce Team

Lotte Home Shopping recently separated its content team from the mobile service division and elevated it to a content division. The content division consists of about 30 personnel, including mobile live broadcast specialized PDs and merchandise planners (MDs). They also established a task force team (TFT) dedicated to mobile live content and service strategy. Lotte Home Shopping operates 'Molive,' a mobile live broadcast-only channel launched in April last year. The cumulative number of viewers for 'Molive' is 200,000. Next year, they plan to expand collaborations with famous influencers and create content targeting the MZ generation (a compound term for Millennials born between 1980 and 1995 and Generation Z born between 1995 and 2000), the main users of live commerce.

CJ ENM O Shopping Division is focusing on growing 'Shock Live,' targeting women in their 30s and 40s. 'Shock Live' was the first live commerce introduced in the home shopping industry by CJ O Shopping in December 2017. Through the child and infant specialized content 'Kids Now,' launched this year, they aim to secure loyal customers with differentiated content and products. They have selected millennial parents of infants and children in their 30s and 40s as their core customers. They are also nurturing new services such as 'Pick the Cell' (influencer commerce). They plan to expand live commerce-exclusive products and are considering exclusive private brand (PB) products sold only during broadcasts.

Targeting the MZ Generation Neglected by Home Shopping

Hyundai Home Shopping is expanding media commerce by utilizing media content such as YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook. First, they will enhance their live commerce capabilities. Hyundai Home Shopping plans to more than double the number of broadcasts of its live commerce 'Shopping Live' from 1,100 this year to next year and increase live commerce-related staff by over 20%. They are discovering segmented content and products tailored to customer targets, such as 'Hyunmyeong Show (Smart Luxury Show),' 'Star Show (Stylish Sisters' Show),' and 'Usa Show (Our Child Wanted This Show).' Through collaboration with the startup 'Different Millions,' which they invested in this year, they aim to strengthen Hyundai H Mall's own media commerce channel competitiveness and attract young customers interested in beauty. They are also considering developing beauty products targeting the MZ generation and establishing online distribution channels.

They will actively collaborate with Naver and Kakao for the time being. This is because portal site live channels are still necessary to increase fixed viewers. Naver Shopping Live, launched in July, surpassed 45 million cumulative viewers in about four months. Compared to CJ O Shopping, which was the first in the home shopping industry to enter the live commerce market and has surpassed 5 million cumulative viewers over three years, this is a significant gap.

Increase the Proportion of Digital Sales

Home shopping companies are rushing to strengthen live commerce to increase the proportion of digital sales. Since the beginning of this year, CJ O Shopping's digital sales (mobile + online) have surpassed TV sales. As of the third quarter, cumulative digital sales reached 1.423 trillion KRW, accounting for 49.4% of total sales, while TV accounted for 47.4%. Digital sales accounted for 54% of the total by the third quarter. Home shopping companies have chosen 'live commerce' as a way to grow the mobile market. According to data from Ebest Investment & Securities, the domestic live commerce market size is about 3 trillion KRW this year and is expected to grow to 8 trillion KRW by 2023. Considering that the home shopping market size recorded over 20 trillion KRW last year, the live commerce market is growing at a rapid pace.

An industry insider said, "Live commerce was once seen as a channel threatening the home shopping market, but now it is considered a growth engine," adding, "We are focusing on developing attractive live content that does not fall behind future competitors like Naver and Kakao."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.