Live selling glossary / Platforms
Live selling
Also called: Live shopping, Livestream commerce, Live commerce
Definition
Live selling is selling products to viewers during a real-time video stream, where items are shown, priced and bought while the host is on camera. On platforms like Whatnot, TikTok Live, eBay Live and Fanatics Live the purchase happens inside the stream, usually by auction or a buy-it-now button.
The format grew out of TV shopping and Chinese livestream commerce and arrived in the US through collectibles: sports cards, trading card games, sneakers and vintage. It now covers beauty, apparel, home goods and food. What separates it from a product video is that the inventory moves while the stream is on: each item is sold, shipped and often never listed anywhere else.
Sellers call a single stream a show. A show has a host, a run of items, a chat, and a room of viewers who come and go. The economics are decided by how many people are in the room, how fast items clear, and what each one clears for, which is why most live selling analytics come down to viewers, sales per hour and average sale price.
The number
Median show length, peak viewers and sales per show by platform are published weekly in the Live Selling Index. See this week's figures.
Related terms
Watch these numbers move in your own room
Ghost Agentreads chat velocity, auction pacing and room turnover on your shows and your competitors' shows while they run, on Whatnot, TikTok Live, eBay Live and Fanatics Live. Seven days free.
Start your free trialPart of the live selling glossary (43 terms). Cite as: “Ghost Agent, Live Selling Glossary, https://www.ghostagent.ai/glossary/live-selling”.