Definition

Video commerce is the practice of connecting a shopper, while they are browsing a business's own website, to a real salesperson on a live video call in which a purchase can be completed during that same call. It is distinct from two adjacent, more familiar categories:

  • Livestream shopping is one-to-many and scheduled: a host sells to an audience watching a broadcast, usually on a social platform rather than the seller's own site.
  • Video support is one-to-one but reactive: a customer already has a problem, and the call exists to resolve it, not to sell.

Video commerce is one-to-one and always-on: any visitor can start a call at the moment their purchase intent is highest, on the business's own domain, with a seller who can take payment before the call ends.

Why it matters for considered purchases

Video commerce earns its keep on products and services where product copy alone can't settle the buyer's actual question — fit, compatibility, configuration, whether this seller can be trusted. That's why it shows up first in industries built on advice: real estate, automotive, financial and legal services, made-to-order retail. See how live video selling works on Oktium for a walkthrough of what that looks like call to call.

What it takes to run it well

A seller has to be reachable right when a shopper's intent peaks, not on whatever fixed schedule happens to be convenient — availability on a timer defeats the point. Payment needs to happen inside the call itself; hand the shopper off to a separate checkout page afterward and most of the intent that made the call work in the first place evaporates before they get there. And for any business with more than one location or department, calls need to route to the right team without asking the shopper to figure out which one that is.

Get those three right and video commerce works. Get any one wrong and it stalls. See Oktium's pricing for how seats, branches, and the commerce add-on are packaged together.

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