More and more Germans are becoming familiar with live shopping. Six out of ten consumers know what the term means, which is twice as many as three years ago. However, live shopping is still used by only a small portion of German consumers.

This is evident from a trend survey conducted by ECC Köln. According to the trade community, 8 percent of Germans have now gained experience with live shopping, also known as in-stream shopping – online shopping during product demonstrations. The shoppable videos often appear on social media but can also be seen on retailer websites; for instance, Zara Streaming started last week in various European countries.

Adoption of live shopping

In 2021, when ECC Köln conducted a similar study, only 4 percent of Germans had experience with live shopping. The adoption rate has therefore doubled, but it is still considered small.

8% of Germans have experience with live shopping.

Only 21 percent of German consumers can imagine participating in a live shopping event in the future. This share is higher among those aged 18 to 29, with 34 percent. Nevertheless, two out of three young Germans still do not expect to use it.

Popularity lags behind

Overall, the adoption of live shopping is much lower than was anticipated a few years ago when a large majority of European consumers expressed openness to the concept. In Asia, particularly China, live shopping is extremely popular, with tens of thousands of daily streams attracting hundreds of millions of viewers.

TikTok Shop

The lagging popularity of live shopping is said to have prompted TikTok to delay the introduction of TikTok Shop in continental Europe, although the company has never confirmed this. Spain is expected to debut TikTok Shop before the end of this year. It will also become available in Ireland, with other European countries to follow.