eCommerce Strategy Consultant - Rick Watson - RMW Commerce Consulting

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My Observations About PoshMark Live Shows

Recently, Poshmark added a livestream shopping feature to its site ... possibly at the request of it's new Korean owners, Naver (?)

At a time where other US social media sites are shutting down livestream eCommerce, it's an odd move at an odd time.

I took a few hours to review some of the live Posh shows out there.

1 - They seem to be implemented like live auctions where this is one winner at a time. For low-priced items, isn't this incredibly inefficient?

There is a list of items the hosts go through, and each one seems to get about 5 minutes, and people type in the bids in the chat window.

Why would I try and bid up normal items like sunglasses or even used handbags? There is no price discovery needed here.

2 - 95% of them were boring pictures of someone's closet, and looked more like something should be in a few eBay auctions than a livestream event.

3 - One of them was quite entertaining with 3 hosts alternately fighting with each other, and sometimes selling.

Imagine if 3 of the most irrational members of the cast of Jersey Shore decided to auction the contents of their closet, and you have some idea how it is. I had fun watching at least for a few minutes, but had no interest in buying anything,

Ultimately, I don't think it's going to work, but I think the core message of "be entertaining" applies to livestream. Imagine you are producing a kind of sketch.

If livestream eCommerce is going to work in the US, perhaps it looks more like reality TV than eCommerce? :-)