The four-episode series aires live from Beautycounter’s Abbot Kinney content studio in their flagship Californian store, and kicked off on 8th September 2021. The livestreaming event is the latest initiative in a series of marketing activities between Klarna and Beautycounter since launching their partnership in August 2020.
“The initiative blends in-store and online shopping environments to give customers an entertaining and easy way to discover and shop our clean beauty products,” explained Blair Lawson, Chief Merchandising and Marketing Officer at Beautycounter.
“Liveshopping is rapidly becoming an essential part of the e-commerce experience for customers and brands,” added David Sandström, Chief Marketing Officer at Klarna.
Evolving the beauty shopping experience
The livestream series is part of Klarna’s wider push into experiential shopping through technology amid rising consumer demand. Klarna has recently acquired performance-based influencer marketing brand, Apprl, and social-focused marketing agency, Hero, to bring optimum influencer marketing and the in-store shopping experience to social shopping.
The livestream episodes are hosted by Christy Coleman, celebrity makeup artist and Chief Artistic Officer at Beautycounter. The duo’s livestreaming series follows the theme of Better Beauty and features recognizable beauty names in the industry, including Ashley Greene, Christine Kong, and Asia Jackson, along with ingredient safety expert Lindsay Dahl, SVP of Social Mission for Beautycounter. Together, they offer insights, tips, tricks and techniques for a cleaner and better beauty routine.
Improving the shopping experience
Klarna settled on livestreaming after exploring ways to bring more immersive and innovative shopping experiences to its 20 million US customers and to find a way to include its network of 250,000 international retailers.
“As livestream shopping gains rapid momentum in the US, there is a massive opportunity within the beauty industry to reach new audiences and offer a more entertaining, convenient way to shop and pay,” highlights Klarna’s Sandström.
According to Klarna’s 2021 Reopening Insights Report, 60% of customers who had tried livestream shopping say it improved their online shopping experience.
“Livestream shopping gives retailers the opportunity to connect with their customers in more authentic ways through influencers and content creators who already have a loyal following,” notes Sandström. “This facilitates the type of peer-to-peer social interaction that customers miss from the in-store shopping experience and which ecommerce has been lacking up until now,” Sandström continues.
Finding the right talent is one of the most important aspects of organizing a livestream event, Klarna has found.
“Micro-influencers or content creators with relatively smaller followings can be in high demand because they boast high engagement rates due to the personal relationships they cultivate with their followers,” shares Sandström. “This kind of authenticity and genuine connection is paramount when it comes to livestream shopping as retailers look to create valuable extensions for their brands,” Sandström details.
Maximizing livestreaming potential
Sharing how big of an opportunity Klarna envisages livestreaming will become in the US following its recent collaboration, Sandström shares: “There is a big opportunity to test and learn in this space, and with livestream shopping on the rise in the US we are excited to see what works best from a content perspective, programming format, technology platform, and more.”
“As digital natives, Gen Zers increasingly choose to shop online with a strong preference towards mobile,” notes Sandström. Also, according to Klarna’s 2021 Beauty Survey, the majority of Gen Z and millennials prefer to discover beauty items through social media. “This audience isn’t just filling up a shopping cart during a livestream event, they are joining an experience,” Sandström outlines.
As e-commerce shifts from being transactional to more emotional, retailers will need to facilitate these shopping experiences for their audiences.
“We see a lot of opportunities to collaborate on live shopping events with our partners in the future,” emphasizes Sandström.
