Entertainment and education help connect with customers and grow sales.

Looking for a way to make your product or service stand out? It may be time to tap into the power of shoppertainment.

What’s shoppertainment?

Shoppertainment is a blanket term for marketing techniques that drive interaction, usually by entertaining or educating. It includes activities like livestreaming, games and quizzes. While shoppertainment is mostly done online, you can also provide options in-person at stores, trade shows and special events.

Using online shoppertainment

Much shoppertainment takes place online and that makes sense since people spend more time than ever streaming content. A typical way to engage viewers is with interactive product tutorials. Some companies take shoppertainment up a notch by making personalized product recommendations.

Many fashion and cosmetics companies gain attention—and sales—with apps that allow customers to virtually try out new styles and colors. Similarly, some paint and décor suppliers allow virtual tryouts using a customer’s uploaded photo and showing what a color or furnishing would look like in the buyer’s home.

Shoppertainment isn’t just for fashionistas and seekers of fresh home styles. Best Buy has a virtual store that lets associates livestream demonstrations of new product. Customers can converse with team members from any of the retailer’s departments via chat, video or voice options.

Platforms like YouTube are also part of the shift to shoppertainment with in-video links to purchase products. Let’s say your favorite channel features an advisor for start-up businesses and they have a mastermind group; one clickable link means a nearly seamless transition to the signup page.

Who uses shoppertainment?

Low-cost tech tools and built-in platform features put shoppertainment in reach of just about every business. Large global brands, influencers, and local business are all getting in on the action.

How to leverage shoppertainment

Shoppertainment is a great way to introduce your product and create community—even for small businesses. To start, focus on just one thing first. For example, livestreaming requires little budget and you can get going with a smartphone or laptop equipped with a camera and reliable wi-fi. You could give customers a behind-the-scenes look into your process, host a Q&A session or do a product demo.

To ensure your content is engaging, look for ways to educate or entertain. What works best will look different for each business. Tactics to consider include games, trivia, challenges involving your product and offering samples in exchange for candid reviews.

A product doesn’t have to be new to be worthy of shoppertainment, it just needs to be presented in a new way.

 

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