Instagram is a fantastic platform for connecting with your audience in real time, and live sales are a great way to boost your business. In this guide, we share our insights and tricks from over four years doing well over 150 live sales. And we show you how to use Claimbase to organize and run your live sales on Instagram.
1. Why Choose Instagram for Live Sales?
Instagram offers a highly visual and interactive platform that allows you to engage directly with your followers. Live sales on Instagram can help increase brand visibility, build long term customer relationships, and drive sales.
Average order value from Instagram Live Sales can be multiple times higher than that from your typical online store.
This is due to multiple phenomena during live sales:
Social proof: Your customer is not alone shopping the products on your website, but there could be anywhere from tens to thousands of other customers watching too, giving your viewers the social proof, that it is worth buying from you.
Live interaction: Some products like crystals and minerals are difficult and involve lots of effort to showcase properly on a website. Every piece is unique and your customers want to see it from every angle and know, what makes it special. Showcasing the product in this level of detail is only possible in a live selling format.
2. Preparing for Your Live Sale with Claimbase
The right preparation for your live sale makes up at least 50% of your live sale's success!
Here are the steps you need to take:
Start announcing your live sale at least a couple of days, or even better weeks prior. Post about it every day, using different media formats: Instagram feed posts, stories, etc. If you have an email list, you could even use that to spread the word. Use the countdown feature in your Instagram stories, for your audience to be reminded, when the Live Sale starts.
Post a table scan and price ranges: We as humans don't like surprises. This also applies to live sales on Instagram. Your customers want to know, which products you have to offer and if they will be within their budget. The more time your viewers have before the sale, to decide which items they want, the more certain they are in the live sale to get those pieces.
Prepare your products: Using Claimbase, upload all products you want to offer to your Shopify store before the sale. To minimize this effort, upload your products at the same time when you price them. So, when you price your products, have your Shopify open, and put in necessary product info, like title, price, stock level and claim-ID to your Shopify right away. Once all products are in Shopify, sync those products to Claimbase with one click. On the settings page of Claimbase, check the status of your products and make sure, that there are no errors like missing claim-IDs or duplicate claim-IDs.
3. Going Live on Instagram
Now that you're prepared, it's time to go live! Here's how:
Set Up Your Live Stream: Open the Instagram app, swipe right to access the camera, and select "Live."
Add a catchy title that describes what you're selling.
Write and attach a policies comment, that describes your rules and how viewers can claim items. With Claimbase, your viewers claim items by commenting "claim 23b" for the product with claim-ID "23b", for other products accordingly. You can also decide, if you want to allow swaps and put-backs of items during the sale. Tip: Swaps and putbacks, if happening too often, can hold up the live sale, which is why many shops don't allow them at all or limit them to one action per viewer per live sale.
Start Your Live Sale: Once you're live, introduce yourself and your brand. Let your audience decide on which product categor or side of the table they want to start, using the question-functionality in your Instagram live video (the question mark symbol in the bottom right corner of the live sale screen). You could write the comments "right" and "left", so that your viewers can upvote their favored side. Then, work yourself from one side to the other. This is good practice, since some of your viewers cannot be in the sale for the entire time. By working yourself from one side to the other, they can estimate how long you'll need to the product they want to see, and can plan, when they'll need to be back.
Show your products one by one, highlighting what makes them special and their prices. For any given product, show it from all sides for a couple of seconds, tell your audience its size and weight. Only then, reveal its price and claim-ID. This way, viewers have enough time to make up their minds if they like the item, before trying to be the first to claim.
Track claims during your sale with Claimbase: Prepare a second device next to you with your Claimbase claims list open. This list updates in real-time with all incoming claims, successful ones and unsuccessful ones. Successful claims receive an automated DM with a checkout link to the product. Still, announce in the live sale, who got the item (claim status "Invoiced") and who came in later (claim status "Not successful"). This way, your customers get assured, that their claims are seen.
These are two of the aspects where Claimbase shines during your live sale: You as the live sale host see many more claims with Claimbase, and you always have a clear list of all claims happening during the sale, no matter how turbulent it gets.
Put claimed items aside: Claimbase gives you the option to decide, if you want to create a box for every customer claiming, or if you want to put all claimed items in one big box. In any case, Claimbase makes fulfilling orders easier, since all purchased items are listed as individual line items in your customer's order in your Shopify admin, compared to just one line item called "listing for XYZ" when uploading all claimed items to your website in one listing.
4. Engaging with Your Audience during the Live Sale
Interaction is key during a live sale. Here are some tips:
Answer Questions: Encourage viewers to ask questions about the products and answer them promptly.
Create a Sense of Urgency: Highlight limited stock or time-sensitive offers to encourage claims.
5. After the Live Sale
After your live sale, follow up with your audience:
Thank Your Viewers: Show appreciation to everyone who joined your live sale in a post-live sale story.
Tell your viewers the checkout expiry time, to make sure, that all claims are paid.
Process Orders Promptly: All paid claims that happened through Claimbase are displayed in your Shopify orders, exactly as the orders originating from your online store.
Gather Feedback: On Instagram, ask your customers for feedback on their experience to improve future live sales.
And most importantly: Post the live sale recording to your Instagram page or record a short reel, showcasing the left over items from the sale including their claim-IDs.
Thanks to Claimbase, this way, your customers can continue to claim and check out items fully automatically even after the sale!
By following these steps, you'll be well on your way to running successful live sales on Instagram with the help of Claimbase. Good luck, and happy selling!
Sehr schön zusammengefasst! Ein paar Tipps kann ich direkt mit übernehmen!