How Kinvara Skincare Is Winning Customers with Live Shopping | Ciara Nungesser & Sam Gollings, Sprii

Meet the Experts: Live Shopping for DTC DTC live on air is powered by Brightpill by Sage. Hi guys. I'm really excited to have you both join us today. I have got Kira and Sam, Sam's from Spray and Kira from Kimbara, and we're going to be talking all around live shopping and I would love if you could both do a quick instruction of yourself, your company and a bit about what you do there. Speaker 2 Sure thing, Sam. Do you want to go first? Speaker 3 Yeah, go on then. Yeah. Hey, I'm, I'm Sam, I'm the success manager at Spree. I look after all of our customers outside of the Nordics, so it's the UK island and a few further afield as well. My role at Spree is basically supporting customers to find success of live shopping. So it's everything from technical, how to set up a live video, how to get it integrated with your store all the way through to what do I do when I go live, What's the best way to format it? What's the best way, what are the best things to say, best products to add to that kind of stuff. I get the real pleasure of working with lots of super brands from beauty brands like Kimbara and Kara Kira. Sorry, I've said your name so many times as well like craft brands and homewares. We worked with Wilko yesterday at a great live and then the likes of M&S. So it's a real plethora of businesses and I get to take what works for them and pass it on to other brands as well. So we're a real have the great ability of being able to share success stories amongst amongst our community. So yeah, that's, that's my role in a nutshell. My background is TV shopping and I feel like this is the kind of the next evolution of this of that. So it's good to be able to bring that knowledge to new people. Speaker 2 He's saying, well, thank you. My name is Kira. I work with Kinvara Skin Care. So if you don't know us, we are an Irish skin care brand based in the West of Ireland. So as I said, no, no sunshine here. So I'm with the company about six months now. I am a brand and operations executive with Kinvara. So I suppose previously I would have had a background in both recruitment and the makeup and skin care industry. So I feel like this role really kind of amalgamates the the two roles I suppose and my two previous careers. So it takes all of the aspects that I've enjoyed from both my previous careers and the one. So as I said, I'm working within kind of brand and operations. So my role essentially is quite varied. But recently I have taken over as the face of Spree within Canvara. So no pressure. We are relatively new to Spree. We conducted our first live shopping event in January of this year and we actually have one later today. And so we've run them every month since. And yeah, the platform itself is just growing and growing and I'm really excited as supposed to see where it can go from here. But it's it's been a learning curve. There's definitely been some learnings along the way, but it's been so exciting. It's so much fun. And I have to say a special thank you to Sam for having the patience of Saint put up with all of my last minute questions. Usually on the day, just that panic at about 5:00 PM probably when he's just clocking off for the evening. So thank you, Sam. But yeah, so far it's been it's been great both with the company and I suppose with the the live shopping at the moment. I'm really, really enjoying it. So yeah, that's a little bit about me. Why Kinvara Embraced Live Shopping & Doubts What, what, what challenge were you guys trying to solve initially when you first took the leap into live shopping or video? Was it something that you've discussed internally and was like this is something that we want to get get underway? Speaker 2 Definitely. I think for us especially, to be honest, being a skin care company, you know, we needed something that was kind of going to bridge the, the gap for customers, you know, between browsing and buying. And when it's skin care, you're talking about customers. I am, I am a skin care customer myself. And I like to be able to know about, you know, what the product is going to look like, how it's going to sit on the skin, how it's going to like, you know, feel on the skin. And I suppose for us, it was about making a little bit more of an engaging connection with our customers. And so to I suppose step into that foray of live shopping, it's really, I feel it has kind of bridged that gap and it's become a lot more, I suppose interactive with our customers and we can actually speak directly to them during the live and answer their comments and things like that. So I suppose for us it was it was that initial challenge that made us consider the live shopping and where that could take us. So it was about making that extra connection with our customers and I suppose familiarizing them a little bit more with our products as well so they could really get a sense of what the products can do. So that was that was the reason we thought, you know, we're going to we're going to give this a go. Speaker 1 And was there any like doubts internally before? Speaker 2 Oh, God, yeah. Well, there's always going to be doubts, I think, especially when it's something new, when you haven't tried it before. And, you know, we do pride ourselves. We're we're, we've been established about 15 years now. And we do kind of pride ourselves on, you know, moving with the times. But yeah, there's always going to be a couple of reservations around, you know, what's what, what it's going to look like, how it's going to be received, how it's going to go. I was afraid being the host of the very first one, I was like, no one's going to show up. Oh, my God, I'm just going to be talking to myself. This could be a black screen. This could be a disaster. Oh, my God. Even my own mother, she was like, I can't watch it. She was terrified it was going to go horribly wrong. I was like, thanks for your amazing faith in me. And I did have those dirts myself. I was like, what if nobody shows up? But literally, I think like, and, and I had worked with Sam on the first one and we had, you know, well, he had, he had put so much effort into the first one. So I think because we had done the pre promotion, that definitely helped. But you're always going to have doubts. And especially because we'd have such a mixed demographic of customers as well, I wasn't sure how it would be, you know, perceived by some of our customers. So we have 10 minutes, 15 minutes in. I was like, Oh my God, we should have done the same. Speaker 1 Really. Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah, yeah. It went, the first one was it was chaotic. It was so chaotic. It was the very first one. But yeah, a few minutes in I was like, this is this is so much crack. And it's exactly, I think what we have been looking for without realizing it, just to make us have that kind of interaction, interaction with our customers. It was amazing and it was so well received by them as well, so. Speaker 1 So was there just to touch on like the demographic piece then was you surprised that like the the demographic that showed up like have you seen anything Sam in terms of like the type of age ranges that typically engage more with live shopping? Speaker 3 Yeah, definitely. It's, I think we, we, because it's on Meta especially kind of Facebook is where it does skew slightly older. And I think looking at Kimbara, that you were able to, because you're on Instagram and Facebook and on your website, you were able to kind of make the most of all of them, all of them. Speaker 2 Yeah, I think we really cast a very wideness and yeah, because I wasn't sure, you know, was was it going to be, you know, one way or the other. But there was such a wide demographic of different customers joining and it was men and women as well, which was lovely to see on a skin care live shopping event. So that was that's been been really nice. And we've also gained a lot of viewers from, you know, I thought it was going to be exclusively in the West of Ireland and maybe, you know, a few the other side of the country. It's actually been across different countries that have been watching. We've had viewers from Canada, from the US, from across Europe, from the UK. So yeah, that for me was a was a big surprise to see how wide, I suppose that viewership was. Speaker 3 Just looking at your last campaign in was it March? Did we skip March? It was 45 to 54 year old females, yeah, which I don't know, I don't know how it is for your brand, but that was that was there. But then you also had sort of the the sort of lower end as well on Facebook, which was 25 to 3435. Speaker 2 Yeah, it. Speaker 3 Did come which was nice to see. I. Speaker 2 Know and like I said, there was a few, there was a few men in there watching as well, taking a few tips. So it's like good lads. Keeping it Simple: Engaging Your First Live Audience So what did they? What did the very first setup look like? Speaker 2 Oh, God. Well, we do. You know what, I think when I met with Sam first, we went in, I went in with my ideas, and I wasn't really sure what it was going to look like. But I think Sam will agree. He was like, Oh no, you know, you need to kind of simplify things a little bit more. I think we were like, let's showcase our entire range in one go. Yeah. And he very quickly told us he was like, I don't know if that's the, you know, that's, that's going to be a lot to do your very first live. And so we paid it all back and we kept like even in terms of where we were, we did it here in the office where we were very comfortable, had a very simple setup, had a very simple range of products that we were promoting as well. And we in like, it's, it's one of those things you're not really sure what to expect until you do your first one. But ever since the first one, I was like, OK, this is, This is why Sam was in charge because it just, it would not have made sense to showcase every single product within the range. Also, I would have been on for three hours and I wouldn't have a breath left in my lungs after it from all the tokens. So we paired it all back. We kept it really, really simple. And I'll be honest, like we've, we've made like slight tweaks with everyone since like every, every live event that we've since, I'm like, OK, let's try this or let's try that, or we'll change this up. Or we've had, you know, we, we had two, I had myself hosting in the first one with a guest. With the second one, it was just me. And then we've kind of mixed and matched it on 2121. But now we're already thinking of of new ideas like taking it elsewhere or taking, you know, taking it to a different location, having different type of content. But for the first few, just to get settled, especially the very first one because it was so chaotic. I'm so glad that we went for a much more simplified content, really. So yeah, it was start, start with the simplicity and then add in where you feel, add in what you feel is going to bring value to the content and to your audience as well. So which I don't start too big. Speaker 3 I remember talking about like making how to make it look, and I'm trying to make it cosy, right? Because people are at home, yeah. Speaker 2 Exactly. Speaker 3 They're watching it on their phones and and and you want to kind of match their vibe. So try keep it in in the Spree is Danish and they have a I'm not going to pronounce, try to pronounce it terribly, but they have a thing called Hoogler, which means cosy and like nice. And you, you got to try and emulate that in your life somehow and try not to make it feel too polished. I think because the person watching it wants to be able to find it relatable. So that that was one of the things I remember very, very vividly discussing. And then, yeah, don't keep it simple because like you said, you can go on. If you add new products, it it becomes challenging. But trying to answer like, why? Like, why should someone buy from the show? Why should someone watch the show? What value on this? And it's easier to do that on, you know, 5-10 products rather than 3040 fifty in an hour. Speaker 2 I think we kept it super, super simple. I think we, we did our three hero products and we had a, oh, we had a best seller's bundle out and I think we just focused on that one, that one bundle of products. And yeah, it just, it was certainly made my life a lot easier as well, rather than like talking about 30 different ones. Speaker 1 And did you, did you find you was ever like running out of things to say or like how did you kind of keep the momentum going as someone that's not done it before, like? Speaker 2 Yeah, did. Speaker 1 You give that. Speaker 2 That was also one of my initial fears before the first one, I was like, what am I going to say for an hour? Oh my God, Oh my God. I'm a talker, which I'm sure you're picked up on by now. I'm a chat chatty Kathy. I'm really testing my limits here with this one. So for the first one, like I said, we did have a guest on and I had known her previously and she was our model. So I was able to talk about her products, showcase them on the model's skin and discuss the benefits and also talk about the offer as to why there was a need to buy or purchase the products on the live that night and to really kind of drive sales. And we also had it like it was very interactive as well. I said, look, we'll open the floor up to questions. Once again. I didn't expect many questions to come through because not even my own mother would watch it. So I was like, well, if nobody's going to be watching, Oh my God, nobody's going to ask questions. But I thought I should. We'll just throw it out there. And I think 25 minutes was answering question after question after question. The interaction that we had, we had done quite a lot of pre promotion for the first one and probably still not as much as we should have done and and it definitely worked like the interaction we had with customers was just unbelievable and it gave us such a confidence. Speaker 1 Boost that like, like, oh, people actually really engaged. Speaker 2 They wanted to hear what I had to say. I was like, this is amazing. So Needless to say, the hour absolutely flew. But it was the comments as well. Like when when I was doing demos and things like that, I could only see a certain amount of comments coming through, but I got to read them back afterwards and they were just so lovely. People were so nice and so like welcoming of the idea that we were doing this live shopping and it was just such a confidence boost. I was like, let's do another one tomorrow. Speaker 1 Yeah. OK. Then did we do anything around like price or discounting like as a company, is that something that you regularly do? Did you did you get worried about driving things down too much? Speaker 2 Not necessarily. I think we would always, we try and kind of we, we pride ourselves on, you know, having kind of exclusive offers for the live events in particular and just I suppose to give customers a reason as to why to join. And for instance, if we have like a new, a promotion of a new product, we'll do an exclusive offer just for those people joining the live. And I think the last offer was really, really good. It was like you were getting a gift set down from 135 to I believe it was like 89 or you're also getting a free gift. So there were savings of like €66, which was an amazing, amazing offer. Like even I could see friends of mine were purchasing it a while I was while I was chatting. And so I think what we do is we try to centralized the content that we do on each live event around. We try to kind of base it on maybe the offers or the events that we have running that month. And so for instance, tonight we're celebrating our we have a product like a body oil product that is celebrating its very first birthday. So of course we're going all out with like a birthday party and cake and candles and balloons. And we're going to be running an offer as well on the night exclusively, exclusively for those that are joining. So I think it's given people a reason as to why to why to shop, but the reason given them a reason as to why to join. I think it's all about the educational side of things and educating people on our brand or our products because we noticed that people were so enthusiastic about our products and they wanted to know more. So it's about, I suppose, like I said, bridging that gap for customers between browsing and buying once they are better educated on the products and they trust what you're saying and they're getting an offer on top of it. I mean, should they be mad to buy it's? Speaker 3 Something that's good because like if you imagine I'm a customer and maybe I've seen Kimvara and I've, I've been, I've been tempted by your products but haven't quite made that purchase. Then to see you live and be able to ask you a question and be like, oh, how does this feel? How does this work? Speaker 2 Exactly. Speaker 3 Really help with that, with that which I think we spoke, we spoke before about with DTC. So yeah, super, super nice that you're able to answer the questions live because that's not something you get on a website, is it? I know if I'm going to buy something, I'll often text the mate and be like, what do you think of this or what do you think of that? And. Speaker 2 Exactly, Yeah. You're looking for recommendations, whereas you're getting them there. For me, I think it was, it was one of my friends, actually. She watched it and she said afterwards she was like, it was just like shopping in store, but from the comfort of your couch. And I said that hit the nail on the head for me. I said that is exactly what I want for my customers. I it's, you know, it's like being in store talking to somebody who's selling the products and be like, well, how what else would you put with that? And the whole thing is so laid back and, you know, so relaxed that why wouldn't they trust you? Because, yeah, obviously you're there to, you know, it's a, it's a live shopping event, but there's no pressure on people to buy. It's obviously a great idea for them to buy and you're giving them incentives as to why to buy, but it's not salesy either. It's not overly salesy. It's something that it's about having fun and interacting with customers. So I think that's why people really enjoy joining the lives because they're getting all that education and that interaction and they're not feeling pressurized the way some people might do in store. So I think it's a win win, to be honest. Driving Viewership: The Power of Pre-Promotion Went off in a tangent now probably didn't even answer the question that you had yesterday. A. Speaker 3 Couple of points ago we were talking about like getting started and I think you made it easy because you did it with somebody you had you had someone with you and you were putting make up on them and that kind of made the time pass nicely. But also me as a viewer, it's quite nice. I'm just like, you're at the barbershop and where Barbara's cutting someone's hair and you're listening to the conversation, you know? Oh, that's interesting. And maybe you get involved and you get taught. Speaker 2 Exactly. Yeah, I think so too. Yeah, I do. I think it's and also in the first one, like I was nervous, I was nervous doing this was like what if I fall or I don't know it's live. So I'm like Oh my God, it's something goes wrong there's no deleting it and going again. Whereas when you're chatting with somebody, it was a lot more relaxed and it was like 2 friends chatting and having the crack. And it's like, you know, when you're sitting there in your sitting room or wherever you are watching this, you feel like you're part of the conversation and you feel like it's kind of like a little, I don't know, like you said, it was really homely and cosy and you feel like you're just sort of joining in on the chats. So yeah, it kind of takes the pressure off people and makes them feel very comfortable. I think I'd. Speaker 3 Say, that's a top tip, isn't it? Definitely what if your first one to help ease the nerves? Speaker 2 Ease, ease the nerves. Exactly. Keep the conversation flowing. And yeah, you're going to bounce ideas off each other. And I mean, if there's something there that you've forgotten to say, chances are they're going to pick up on it as well. So that would be, yeah, that would be mine. And. Speaker 1 What did you do to drum up awareness, excitement, make sure that he wasn't sat there on your on your love for that first life? Was there anything there that you did to encourage people to come and watch? Speaker 2 We did, we did a lot of pre promotion and I think that was key for a really successful life. That is definitely if I was to give any advice I suppose to anybody thinking about. You know, or a comment to me, ask me what should I do for the first one, I think it's all about the work that you put in the week beforehand. Definitely. And Sam had said that as well. He was like 10 days before start pre promoting. I was like 10 days, 10 days. But it's so true. Like it's, it's so true because I'll tell you, we we did so much promotion for the first one, because it was the first one. There was so much effort gone into it behind the scenes. We ran a competition beforehand. So anybody who entered the word live on our social media channels was entered into a competition to win a raffle on the night that drummed up so much, um, enthusiasm and viewership already. So we could see who had entered. So it was already like a weight off my shoulders to see that these people were going to be reminded about the live and we're hopefully going to join in to see if they were going to win this prize. So it gives people another incentive to join. Um, we did, we put everything on our stories. We posted things on Facebook, posted stories on Instagram. We did a countdown on our website as well, which I think really, I suppose kind of drove that, that, that excitement beforehand. And we were, we were all over our socials about it. And personally, I think we probably should have done more. So now with the one that we're doing today, we have really put a lot of emphasis on pre promotion to increase that viewership on the night. And and you know, even on my own socials and you know, my colleagues have shared it as well. It's gone out via e-mail as well. So I think we've put a lot of of pre promotion like a focus on this one. For our previous one, we, I didn't have the time, I was actually travelling with work the previous week. And then we also had a bank holiday. So it left us with very little time for pre promotion and it showed, you know, there wasn't as much viewership. There was amazing engagement, but the numbers weren't as high and therefore the conversion wasn't as high. So this time I was like, no, I'm going to take advance advice now we're going to go back to basics. Speaker 3 I think I always say that 80% of the work is on the pre promotion of the live. Yes, going live is a bit nerve wracking, but you're pretty much doing something you probably do all the time, which is talk about your products, how to use your products. So it's fairly natural for most people. The pre promotion people often neglect and that's where it's kind of won or lost. But really nice to hear you saying this because it means I've done a good job because. Speaker 2 Did a great job. Did a great job. Honestly. No, it was yeah. So I was like, no, guys, we, we Sam is doing this a lot longer than we are now. We wouldn't. Speaker 3 Open a shop like you wouldn't open a pop up shop and not tell anybody that you're there, right? And this is the same kind of thing. Speaker 2 Exactly, exactly. And I give. Speaker 3 You time your store's going to be available for an hour makes people know about it. Speaker 2 Exactly, exactly. So yeah, we're, we're keeping the fingers crossed now that things will go well tonight, but we have done a heck of a lot more pre promotion this time around. And I, I said it to the said it to my colleagues as well. I was like, I think that's that's really key for driving those conversion rates as well on the night. Turning Live Streams into Shoppable Website Videos So yeah, I'll let you know how it goes now and keep you posted. Speaker 1 DTC live on air is powered by Brightpill by Sage and just to kind of steer it a little bit away from live and more into like the broader topic of, of utilizing video, yeah. How has your approach evolved from live shopping and live shows to use video more broadly across your site and in other areas where your customers are maybe not engaging in the in the live shopping part, but a way that you've got a chance to use and reuse that content elsewhere? Speaker 2 I get you. So I suppose how we've been kind of using the the shoppable video since it's kind of like what I had touched on how having those, we've added a lot of the shoppable videos to our website under each of our kind of individual products and we're focusing on doing that a lot more. We've got more products coming. So obviously once we do our next live event and our new products and our launches, we're going to add that straight to our website. So I think what happens with those videos is that it's kind of like what I mentioned, it bridges that gap I suppose between the customer browsing and buying. It's very, you know, for, for them, rather than just looking at kind of static images, we're bringing in and showcasing videos that will, I suppose, showcase our products so much better, like the texture and how to use it and the results that they can see and actually see those results in real time. So, you know, I think there's sometimes, I don't know if I can even say this, but I think a lot of customers can sometimes be skeptical about some images that are posted, whether they're AI or not. And I think that's a question that we seem to be getting from maybe a certain demographic of customers and they're questioning what they're seeing. But with the shoppable videos that we have, you know, it's it's that next level of shopping that's brought to the website for us and being able to as well showcase our products that little bit more, have that kind of education piece, you know about how to use them as well. So you know, some, a lot of our customers, well, maybe not a lot, but definitely some customers that we have come into our website like Sam mentioned, they may have been recommended by a friend, but they've never used our products before. They don't know what to do with them where they've not familiar with them so they can watch these shoppable videos. And it's just that next step of education on the products on exactly how to use them. And I think it's caught down an awful lot on hesitation on with from customers who have that maybe that initial hesitation of buying. And I think it's sort of bridges that gap between having a look at the products and being like, oh, it's a genuine new work. This is this is, this is really good stuff, basically. Yeah. It just adds that an extra extra layer I think for the customers. Speaker 3 I think it's really nice as well. You spent, we just spent through all that time we spent promoting that event, preparing for them events and then afterwards to be able to make sure that content doesn't just disappear into into the cloud. Literally you have you have it on your website now and rewatch little snippets of it and then you know, and shot the video from them clips. So I've seen you've been bringing in clips from your Instagram as well. So you kind of replicate in that kind of environment on your on your website now so that people who are engaging with your brand on your social platforms kind of feel at home. Speaker 2 Exactly, Exactly. Yeah, I think, I think that's definitely it. Like the the social media clips are great for maybe introducing people to the brand. And then the shoppable videos that we have on the website, that's where like I said, it just sort of gives customers that maybe an extra push to to kind of convert those sales without that initial maybe hesitation. Like unlike Sam said, there is a lot of work gone into these videos and it's so nice to, you know, hear people still mentioning them or talking about them. And it's not like 1 and done. You know, you get to you get to kind of customers can watch back or watch their favorite bits or, you know, we can pick and choose the parts that we love from that video that showcase our products best, like with our gift sets and things like that. That was that was amazing. That was shoppable videos did so, so well on our website because people could, rather than flicking through pictures, they could, they could see it all in one go. And yeah, we found it really beneficial. So once again, really excited to see what we can do with our new products. High Conversion Rates & Brand Awareness Success Probably if shouldn't have said that. We have new products coming out, but the cat is out of the bag now anyway, so they're really excited to see where they'll take us basically. Speaker 1 And what kind of impact and results has this had so far in terms of, you know, uplifting revenue, uplifting new customers, retaining existing? Has there been any like stand out results that you've been like? I mean, I know you like said, Oh my God, we need to do this all the time, like the the stand out for you guys. Speaker 2 Well, first of all, I think the impact has been so, so positive, especially in terms of the engagement and obviously the kind of, you know, the conversion rates. I suppose the stand, the stand out would be the engagement that we've had from people on the live shopping in general. I said we're, I feel like we're maybe seeing that customers are much more informed when they're coming to purchase or they're, you know, they're asking about products. We've actually had people comment on our lives about things that we had done on previous lives. So they're coming back again and again. And I think that for me, it really says so much about, first of all, the loyalty of the customers, but how well the videos are doing, having that educational piece and having that interaction with the customers. I feel like that for me has led to maybe probably reaching a new demographic of customers. We've had an influx of followers on our social media accounts, people who have seen these videos, they've reached a lot more customers. And I feel like it's maybe, you know, introducing a new demographic to the brand that wouldn't necessarily have seen us previously. Yeah, I think like, for instance, it's it's I think it's definitely had a wider impact on the business in terms of like brand awareness, but because it's being reused, I suppose across different social media channels. But I mean, for instance, like as an example, I was meeting a friend of mine for dinner recently and I met this girl on Shop St. and she was like, oh, Kinvera girl. And she knows me as Kinvera girl on those shoppable videos in that live shopping. And I mean, that's me. I was like I. Speaker 1 I've made it I've. Speaker 2 Made it. I've made it, yeah. So I mean, that alone will tell you the impact that that it's had and how it's reached a much kind of wider demographic of people. Speaker 3 I think one that stood out for me, Kerry, is that you for a beauty brand, you're seeing 40% conversion rate for the people in the live who added it to cart, 40% of them are like completing their orders. Yeah. Speaker 1 That's an insane number. Speaker 3 I was really impressed because we do and this is one of the reasons why I really like the work of Kira's and and the Kimbara guys was because some of the brands are not seeing that level of conversion, but because of all the stuff we've just discussed around community makers for the engagements there. Make sure you're pre promoting it. You're hitting all of these the right points. You know, why should watch the live? Why should you shop the live then? You wouldn't that's sometimes you don't people neglect and they just want to sell products. They want to sell products really cheap and and get the customer in naturally. That's not that's not always going to work. So I think you're doing really well. 40% is is super, super solid. I mean. Speaker 2 Thank you. Even the average transaction value of our lives is like not not like 1995 euro. Speaker 3 Yeah, which is really, really. Speaker 2 Solid. That's really, really good. Yeah, that for me, I was like, man, we're good. Like. Speaker 1 If you compare that to some say someone coming from like a matter ad like direct to the site and purchase like you'd probably be looking around 2 to 7% at like a high a high rate conversion And comparing that to like 40% from a live shopping video, it's like insane. Speaker 2 Is that one one of the like? I suppose that for me was like really eye opening as well. It was, first of all, the amount of people who tuned in each month to watch and second of all, the fact that the conversion was happening live right under my nose, like they were putting through sales as the show was going on. I saw one lady, she added something, she purchased it and I could see that it was area it was added to her cartoon was purchased and then she did another 120 minutes later. Oh, OK. So I mean it's it's, it's such an amazing, it's so amazing to be able to see those those things going into the basket like as you speak. So that for me was just now I will say we did learn on the very first one that you need to explain to people because it was our first life, but sure is everyone else's first life as well. You know, it's our customers first lives. They don't know how to add to the basket or you know what, what what needs to press or what words to say or what words to type. So I had to explain not just once or twice, but like consistently because you don't know if people are coming in or leaving again, that kind of thing. So that was definitely a learning for us. But I was so delighted. I mean, people joined those lives and they stayed for the entire hour. So I mean, that's, that's amazing. I thought that they'd maybe flit in and out, back out again for like, you know, after 2 to 3 minutes, but they stayed the entire time. Keeping Audiences Hooked: Beyond the First Live So it's. Speaker 3 Because you listened and you did did what we said so I. Speaker 2 Know and what did. Speaker 1 You say tell us, Sam, like what? What are the? What are the? Speaker 3 Tops, I mean the main it's it's the pre promotion. So people need to come to the live knowing what they're getting themselves in for. So that that's the first thing. Don't just go live, you know, tell people you're going to be going live and there's a good reason for them to tune in. Like we, as we said before, like give a good reason why then they're coming prepared and they're excited to shop and then see what you've got going on. But then make it interesting. So you obviously had someone with you, you were demonstrating the products, you were answering questions. It's so nice, you know, if you've got, if you ever works like a consumer show, if you've got a crowd of people around and someone asks a question, you know if you answer it that they might come in and purchase something straight away or and someone else will hear and then also purchase. So the fact that you were then able to answer questions live and do that really helped speed up that conversion and decision making time. And because you got a good audience in the live, that's why your conversion rate was so good, because you did the hard work before you did that 80% before the live and you were doing the easy part, which is not that easy, but the easy part of going live and talking about your products. So you're, you've been, you've been nailing it, which is so so you. Speaker 1 And what what should people do to maintain that level of engagement? Because obviously these people that are joining the first the first session, it's excitement, It's something new. They've not seen it with the brand before. And and to be honest, like they've probably not seen it with many brands either after because it's still like a much slower adoption rate for, you know, traditionally E com website only brands to start introducing this live shopping. Like how do we make sure that they keep coming back to the second one? How do we try and bring new people into it as well? Because I imagine that first session, the intent is probably quite high if they're looking at purchasing anyway that oh, maybe I'll wait and see how it goes on live. Like what should we do to keep that momentum going? Speaker 3 Well, Sam. Speaker 2 I'm presuming this is for you, but I'm just going to jump in really quickly because we actually spoke about this recently and I was like, how, how are we going to keep this momentum going? And I was even chatting to my colleagues about it. And for us, I suppose we have kind of had a set time of like Thursday evening, 7 to 8, usually around payday as well as well, which helps. And I just thought, you know what, like, why limit ourselves to one hour a month? I was like, why don't we just do two or three or four sprees a month? And I'm not saying like, you know, for a full hour, like do tutorial Tuesdays or like, I don't know, like lunchtime learnings or whatever the case may be. So I think it's about changing. I I'm sure Sam will come back with a bet with a with another idea or a better idea. What for me, it's about rolling with the momentum that we have and in reinviting the people that we've already had sign up to the lives, but trying to, I suppose, gain further following maybe or like gain more traction with the slightly different demographic. So appeal to those people who, you know, maybe working on a Thursday evening and can't join the life. Speaker 1 Yeah, I suppose don't keep it too strict in terms of schedule, Yeah, because people have plans or Yeah. Speaker 2 This is it, yeah. Speaker 3 So for me, absolutely like being consistent in some form is helpful so people know what to what to where you're going to be, what what's your lives. But you're absolutely right. I don't don't do the same thing every, every every single night. So, and this is typical across a lot of our customers from fashion boutiques to craft customers, they'll have different days doing different things. So if you're going to go live, you know, more than once a month and you've laid a great foundation. They're doing once a month. But let's say you want to move it to weekly. Maybe like you, you were saying one of them is like a self-care Tuesday where not selling. It's you're going live very community focused event where you use, you know, spree to multi stream it and maybe to do automation on the comment replies. But you're not selling. And what you're doing is talking to customers while you're taking your makeup off or applying, doing a night, night time routine and and answering questions live because it's going to help with your brand awareness, your your community and really buy into you. So that it's going to help your conversion rate. Next time they come to buy, they're going to think, oh, actually, yeah, I really love that live. Combined, they were really helpful on that live. No one know what. So definitely break it up. Don't always do deals, deals, deals. And then I think the other thing is really trying to align it with your campaigns. So you you said it earlier like you're going to be launching your birthday event for the is it body oil? I don't want to say yes. Speaker 2 Very impressed, Sam, you remembered. Speaker 3 Right. So you use the live as part of the campaign. So if you know you've got that coming up, like make either the the live as part of it and use some of the micro efforts to promote promote the live and get people into the live and use it as a conversion tool. We'll kick start the event with the live and then you can explain, Hey, over the next week, we've got we've got our birthday event happening. We've got all this happening tonight. We've got this happening tomorrow. Watch out for a day. We've got in the store, We've got this going on and you can use it as a like a signpost, like a market to really explain in how to how to kind of go through that campaign. Boosting Reach: Facebook Events & Paid Promotion Definitely do that. And then our lastly, if you really want to push the boat out and something we haven't really spoke about Kira, but if you want to repaid, you can create a Facebook event. And I know Facebook's maybe a bit uncool, but this has worked really well. We did it with Wilko last night. Run up a Facebook event and create a whole paid campaign around that event. And then post in that event page, you know what's going on. Hey, who's looking forward to joining us tomorrow? This is what we've got going on. What would you like to see? What questions would you like to answer? Keep going in that event page and build an event, build your paid campaign around that event so that it starts to appear to new audiences. But when they come into the event, they know what to expect. You know why, why to what, when is it, what's going to be happening? And you can see the discussion going on. That's been really, really, really successful for some of the bigger brands we've worked with. We've got, you know, good paid budgets and in Denmark where sort of Spree is founded, all of the all of the retailers do it, do it over there and and do a really good job of it. So that's probably the next step for us to delve into. Speaker 2 There you go. Now reckon in case you were asking about next steps, has it answered already? Speaker 3 That's the that's to the next level. That's a good acquisition tool there. Speaker 1 How much spend should they put behind, like driving to that? Yeah, you sort of like the campaign budget. Speaker 3 Yeah. So I mean, I have on one end of the spectrum, I'm sure they won't mind me saying it's a modest amount. I have highlight crafts who are a craft brand that go live every day, three or four hours in different, different times. Say what I said to them was because you're always live, it's hard for you to promote your events. So I said every two weeks, why don't you just create an event that's like themed or has a, it's part of a campaign you're launching a new product or something, create an event page for that and put some spend behind it. They did it without any spend and they were getting sort of 50 to 100 people joining the events. Now they're putting 50 lbs behind it and running that for sort of five to seven days. And they're seeing about two or 300 people come to their to come to their events and home to their lives now. So it's not a massive jump, but for them as a, as a kind of a smaller, smaller boutique craft business, really, really good starting point. Now on the other end of the spectrum, we have like Wilco, I think they popped 1000 lbs behind their spend and they got, it was like 3 1/2 thousand people signed up and then they had, I mean they had about 4-5 hundred people turn up last night. So we can do better in terms of making sure they come to the live. But you can really spend and attract as much as you want from sort of £50 and you can keep going. Speaker 1 Even 1000 lbs not. Speaker 2 Not. Speaker 1 Tons like like the ROI that they actually get on that if 40% of the people that are joining are converting, you know, like it's a real small amount of. Practical Tips for Launching Your First Live It is a drop in the ocean, Rebecca, I tell you. Speaker 3 Exactly. Speaker 2 You have it in the basket by 7:15. Yeah, Fingers crossed. Now I don't want to drink myself. No, it's. Speaker 1 Going to go well, don't worry. So what should the people do that are listening now, thinking I want to try this out, I want to get started but they're a bit nervous, bit scared, bit worried. Speaker 2 Sounds just like me before the first one. Honestly, I would say just do it, don't overthink it and get yourself a fantastic customer service manager who's our customer success manager who is going to help you execute a flawless live show. I, yeah, I would say look, I, I totally understand why people would have doubts and have fears because it is nerve wracking. I think it's nerve wracking trying anything new for the first time. But we've we've, I've been at this now since January and I would not look back. I think it's one of the best moves in terms of not just in terms of like conversion and revenue generation because obviously that's all great for the business. But in terms of the customer interaction, the feedback that we've gotten from customers, how happy they are to join, how pleased they are to see little things like their comments spread out, things like that. So I think it's it's all about keeping it, keeping it simple, especially if you, if it's somebody who's considering doing it for the very first time, I think don't try to over engineer it or you know, commit like huge resources into your first one. Just start small and test it from there. So you'll figure out fairly quickly whether it's going to fit for your audience or not. For us, it was, it was all about education and demonstration, which I think it's worked really, really well because we're a skin care brand and essentially education and demonstration or what customers are essentially looking for. But yeah, I think just don't try not to overthink about us or overthink it. Just get started and see what works. I'd like, it's still a learning curve very much for us at the moment. And we're still figuring out what's working and what's not working. And I think to be honest, that's going to keep going. I don't, I don't think there's, there's net. This is really bad English, but there's never nothing to learn from. There's always something to learn. My God, you can cut that. Speaker 1 I like that too, though you're right and exactly how you've said it. Speaker 2 Exactly. But yeah, there's, there's always something to to be to learn, I think from every spree that we've done. And we're like, OK, well, the next one now we're going to try this and the next one we're going to try that. But it's all about moving with the times and figuring out what that is and doing what's comfortable for you and doing what's right for your customers as well. Don't try to go too big or too much or too salesy or too pushy. Just stick with your brand and you know, your, your customers, they will, they'll see that come through as well on screen. So yeah, don't, don't overthink it, basically. Speaker 3 I've only got a couple of things that hopefully don't make you overthink, but just there's some things to consider. So one, make sure people know it's happening. Don't neglect that's really, really important. And two, think of the reason why someone should join the live. Doesn't have to be discounts, doesn't have to be that you're going to sell them something might be engagement, learn something new, etcetera. Make sure you communicate that information. And then and then lastly, try to, you're probably already doing this kind of content, right? So you might be already doing skin care routines where you're doing short form video, for instance, or you're trying on clothes and you're doing short form videos of that and saying how they fit and how to style them, right? There's just an extension of that. So in line with what you were saying here, just just do it probably already doing a shorter version of it. Now customers can say, hey, what if you try that on with the with the black jacket you just showed? How does that look? And then you can go and try it on and you can you can react and they would be the free things followed by obviously going in spree. But I don't think you necessarily need that straight away. I think just give live shopping a go. I think starting to build first, especially if you're a founder LED business with going live, talking to your audience, understanding what they want want and then reacting to it. I think that there's real value there anyway. Speaker 2 I will say it has definitely, it's definitely been very beneficial working with Sam who understands our brand and what we're about as well. Because I think if you're working with somebody who doesn't get that there's going to be a disconnect maybe somewhere. You need to have somebody on your side who understands what your business is about, what your brand is about, what your customers are like. You know, and I think that that's probably why it works well as well because Sam has done his research on our brand and what we stand for and knows that, you know, we're not going to be overly pushy or anything like that. So I think because of that, everything is run smoothly. So thank you. Speaker 1 Well, thanks so much guys. And if people want to learn a little bit more about Spree Sam, what should they do? Speaker 3 Yeah, they they can e-mail me at Sam at spree dot IO or go to our website spree dot IO and and go from there. Really. There's plenty of information, customer cases and contact forms on there. Or reach out to me on LinkedIn. Yeah, just get in touch. Speaker 1 And how can we watch your next live? Speaker 2 I'll send you a link now, Rebecca at 7:00 PM this evening, which you can find us at Kimbara Skin Care across all social media channels. So I'll still be there last Thursday of every month and hopefully a lot more dotted in between. But yeah, so excited to see, excited to see what happens. But don't worry, I'll send you the link there. You can give me exclusive discounts on the Night Reckless for you. Speaker 1 Well, thank you so much, both of you. It's been super interesting and definitely something that more brands need to take note of and go ahead and implement for themselves. So thank you so much. Speaker 2 Thanks so much for having me. Speaker 3 Bye.