Irene Skrynova, Chief Customer Office at Unlimit, discusses the impact of livestream commerce on how brands engage with customers, reflecting on a broader shift towards more fun and interactive shopping experiences.
By the turn of the millennium, televised home shopping had taken over America. In 2003, QVC alone was valued at USD 14 billion, with yearly sales hitting USD 4.4 billion. Then the Internet took over, and brands and consumers entered a new digital-first reality, which increasingly placed less emphasis on offline shopping. Now, it seems we’re at the frontier of a shift back towards shopping channels, and livestream commerce has the potential to revolutionise how brands engage with consumers.
Live ecommerce first emerged as a cultural phenomenon in Asia, particularly in China, where platforms like Taobao Live fused entertainment with retail to create highly engaging, community-driven shopping events. Its success was fuelled by widespread smartphone adoption, super-app ecosystems, and consumers’ appetite for interactive digital experiences. The expansion into Europe and the US came later and more gradually, slowed by differences in digital infrastructure, consumer behaviour, and regulatory environments. However, the rise of TikTok and Instagram Live, along with the pandemic-driven boom in online shopping, created the right conditions for livestream commerce to thrive in Western markets, transforming it into a mainstream retail strategy.
If TikTok’s 170 million American users each spent just four dollars a month on a livestreamed product, then the revenue of this one sales channel (USD 8.16 billion) would make it a Fortune 500 company – ahead of Etsy, Hasbro, Mattel, Ralph Lauren, and Foot Locker.
The revival of shopping channels can be attributed to two main factors: their evolution to suit a modern audience and a broader societal shift toward more interactive shopping experiences.
Teleshopping for a modern audience
The switch from TV channels to TikTok live feeds has opened up significant new opportunities for brands of all sizes to engage with consumers. Where previously brands had to rely on the select few TV channels with large audiences to serve as their distribution channel, social media platforms have democratised access. Independent brands can now manage their own livestreams, connect with new customers in exciting ways, and rapidly grow their business, all while fostering a competitive environment that drives innovation across the customer experience.
Accessibility hasn’t just been improved for brands either. Viewers can now simply send messages directly into the livestream’s chat and then begin interacting with the hosts, enabling any questions or requests to be easily answered. These real-time interactions are a valuable way for new brands to build the trust and familiarity that is crucial to their long-term growth.
Beyond simple interactions, this evolution towards livestreams is also enabling brands to explore games, giveaways, and competitions that encourage users to actively share the streams widely amongst their peers. This new focus on building an engaged community of users through fun content, alongside the innate ability for any brand to go viral on social media, is serving as a major catalyst for speeding up the growth of brand awareness.
Interactive experiences
The rising popularity of livestream commerce as a new distribution channel reflects a broader shift towards more fun, interactive shopping experiences.
Brands are no longer simply stores, but avenues for entertainment. Whether it’s Oatly launching a short-comedic series on TikTok, or Bratz reinserting themselves back in consumers’ minds with alternative posts, consumers don’t want to be sold to – they want to be entertained.
Crucially, this entertainment needs to be authentic – it’s hard to get more authentic than a real-time, unfiltered interaction with a brand’s ambassador on a livestream. These hosts are vital to humanising faceless global brands with fun personalities and building the emotional investment that keeps users coming back for more. For smaller brands, great content with a fun twist can hold the key to cutting through the noise, no matter whether they’re selling coffee, computers, or concealer.
Finally, while content should focus on entertaining, not selling, it’s still vitally important that consumers can easily buy the product. This means no external links taking you out of the app to stores hosted off-app – or complex payment experiences that require multiple intermediaries.
When users are engaged, the process simply has to be view – click – buy.
Livestream commerce is no longer just an experiment. It is quickly becoming a mainstream sales channel that has the potential to rival established retailers. For brands, this presents a clear opportunity.
As consumer expectations move towards interactive, on-demand shopping, frictionless payment experiences will be just as important as the livestream itself. The question is less about whether livestream ecommerce will reshape brand engagement, and more about how quickly businesses can streamline the path from viewing to buying.
This editorial piece was first published in The Paypers' Global Ecommerce Report 2026, which provides a complete overview of key trends and strategies to help businesses worldwide succeed. Download your free copy today to explore in-depth insights on global ecommerce trends, the latest innovations in payment solutions, and strategies to stay ahead in a competitive market.
About the author
Irene Skrynova is Chief Customer Officer at Unlimit, a global fintech founded in 2009. Unlimit offers payments, BaaS, multi-currency accounts, and fiat on/off-ramps for crypto, DeFi, and GameFi. Its mission is to eliminate financial borders, enabling businesses to operate locally and internationally across Europe, the UK, LATAM, APAC, India, and Africa.
About Unlimit
Founded in 2009, Unlimit is a global fintech company that offers a large portfolio of financial services, including payment processing, Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS), multi-currency business accounts and an on- and off-ramp fiat solution for crypto, DeFi, and GameFi. The company’s mission is to deliver solutions that eliminate financial borders, enabling businesses to operate both locally and internationally with ease across Europe, the UK, LATAM, APAC, India, and Africa.
