Live commerce compresses the entire sales funnel into minutes, driven by real-time interaction, creator influence, and mobile shopping. This opens up new ways for businesses to launch products, drive conversion, and build a brand presence that actually feels human. It also raises a new set of questions for ecommerce: How do you build spontaneity at scale? What does checkout look like when sales happen mid-stream? Where do creators fit in, and how do they get paid?

Below, we take a look at how live commerce works, what’s driving its growth, and how to build for it—from first stream to global scale.

What’s in this article?

• What is live commerce, and why is it growing so fast?
  
• What makes live commerce work?
  
• What are the benefits of live commerce for businesses?
  
• What are common live commerce platforms?
  
• How do you set up live selling and connect payments with Stripe?
  
• What are the live commerce trends to watch for?
  
• How Stripe Checkout can help
  

What is live commerce, and why is it growing so fast?

Live commerce blends real-time video with shopping. A host (often a creator, brand representative, or store associate) goes live with a product, responds to questions, and offers viewers a way to buy without leaving the stream. A burgeoning part of modern ecommerce, live commerce delivers an interactive, personal, and fast shopping experience.

Viewers watch, ask questions, and purchase in minutes, with live commerce condensing the typical shopping funnel (with steps such as awareness, consideration, and conversion) into a single session. This approach builds trust in a way that static product pages rarely do. Viewers see the product in action and feel a sense of urgency, often driven by time-limited deals or social proof from other buyers in the chat.

Live commerce has created a huge shift in how people buy and businesses sell. It can convert up to 10 times more effectively than standard ecommerce. In China, live commerce generated $695 billion in 2023 and is projected to surpass $1 trillion by 2026. Other markets are picking up speed as well.

Mobile-first social platforms like TikTok and Instagram have added one-click checkout into some of their livestreams.

What makes live commerce work?

Live commerce turns product demos into real-time shopping experiences. A host goes live on social, in-app, or on a brand’s website and walks viewers through products while interacting with them through chat. Customers can ask questions, see products in action, and buy instantly from the same screen.

Two main things can make a live commerce event successful:

A host with context and personality

This could be a creator, a sales rep, or the founder of the brand. They show how the product works, what it looks like up close, and why it’s worth buying. Hosts often take live questions, respond to requests (e.g.,“Can I see the inside of the bag?”), and demo specific features based on audience interest.

For creators, live commerce can be more sophisticated and effective than affiliate links. It’s a way to monetize their voice and community in a format they already know how to use. They’re curating a shopping experience rather than pushing a product. Some do branded livestreams weekly, others run exclusive drops. A business model that rewards authenticity, live commerce is becoming a standard revenue stream for top-tier creators.

A shopping layer that can handle real-time demand

The stream itself is shoppable. As the host features a product, a purchase button or link usually shows up on screen. No pop-ups, no redirects. If a viewer likes what they see, they can select their size or color, buy, and stay in the stream.

The retailer’s product catalog, inventory, and checkout flow need to stay in sync, made possible by the integration between the live platform and commerce infrastructure. When an item sells out, the stream updates. Orders come through in real time, with some brands having sold thousands of units in minutes.

What are the benefits of live commerce for businesses?

Live commerce works because it’s personal and delivers outsized results, especially when compared with traditional ecommerce flows. For many businesses, it’s already a high-performing part of the sales mix.

Here are the main benefits of live commerce:

Conversion at scale

The numbers are hard to ignore. Traditional ecommerce converts 2%-3% of traffic. Live commerce converts up to 30%, depending on the category and audience. When someone sees a demo, gets live answers to their questions, and a limited-time offer, it can drive impressive results. Case in point: Tommy Hilfiger reportedly sold 1,300 hoodies in two minutes during one stream in China.

Deeper customer engagement

Live commerce turns shopping into an experience. Viewers tend to stay longer than traditional ecommerce shoppers (10, 20, even 30 minutes), comment in real time, and feel like they’re part of something. This level of interaction can create what many brands spend years trying to build: emotional connection. People often come back for future streams, remember who the host was, and join a community of repeat buyers.

More confident purchases

Seeing a product in motion, hearing how it feels, fits, or functions, and getting spontaneous answers to specific questions can all reduce the uncertainty that leads to abandoned carts or post-purchase regret. Viewers can make better-informed decisions, which typically means fewer returns and higher satisfaction.

Bigger baskets, smarter upsells

Live sessions often surface combinations that buyers wouldn’t discover on their own. A host might demonstrate how two products work together or introduce an add-on midstream. That unlocks natural upsells that can lead to higher average order values during live events compared with their site’s normal sales.

Real-time feedback

Live chat is a goldmine of community insight. You see what people ask, what they hesitate about, and what they’re excited by. That feedback loop is immediate and unfiltered. Some brands use it to improve product copy. Others use it to decide what to feature next.

What are common live commerce platforms?

The live commerce landscape is a mix of dominant social media platforms, retail marketplaces, and purpose-built live selling tools. Each plays a distinct role depending on audience, region, and business model.

Global social platforms

TikTok Shop leads the charge. Its Chinese counterpart, Douyin, helped define live commerce, and TikTok is rolling out that model worldwide. In 2024, TikTok Shop’s sales reportedly outpaced Shein and Sephora in some categories. It now offers a full-stack selling solution with in-stream checkout, product tagging, and native fulfillment.

Instagram and YouTube have also embraced live shopping and are prioritizing creator monetization. Instagram lets creators tag products in Live, while YouTube allows merch pinning and integrations with storefronts.

Retail marketplaces

In Asia, Taobao Live (Alibaba), Kuaishou, and Pinduoduo dominate with high-frequency streams and embedded checkouts. In Southeast Asia, Shopee Live sees major volume in Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia. Amazon Live remains relatively small in the US, but offers brands access to high-intent buyers in a familiar environment.

Specialized tools

Platforms such as CommentSold, Bambuser, and NTWRK power live selling on branded sites or across multiple channels. CommentSold, for example, has helped North American retailers move over $3 billion in goods via shoppable streams.

How do you set up live selling and connect payments with Stripe?

Launching a live shopping experience is easier than it sounds. The technical lift is lighter than many teams expect, especially with Stripe powering ecommerce payments in the background.

Here’s the process of setting up live selling:

1. Pick your platform

You can go live on social (e.g., TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube), on your own site, or through a dedicated live commerce app such as CommentSold or Bambuser. Social platforms come with built-in reach while third-party tools give you more control. Some platforms (e.g., TalkShopLive) let you simulcast across channels. Start where your audience is. Many brands begin on Instagram or TikTok, then embed live shows on their own site once they’ve gotten comfortable with the format.

2. Set up the ecommerce layer

Live commerce only works well if checkout is easy. That means your product catalog is synced, inventory updates in real time, and customers can buy without leaving the stream.

If you’re using a live commerce app, a lot of this is built in. If you’re going direct, Stripe makes the payment side simple. You can use Stripe Checkout, Payment Links, or integrate via the application programming interface (API), depending on how much flexibility you need. Stripe supports global cards, digital wallets, and local methods.

Some sellers drop product-specific payment links directly in chat. Others add “buy now” overlays that trigger a Stripe-hosted checkout. Either way, Stripe handles the full payment flow (authorization, fraud protection, receipts, and settlement) without needing to build custom infrastructure.

If you’re building a marketplace platform, Stripe Connect makes it possible to route payments between multiple parties (creators, hosts, sellers) while handling onboarding, payouts, and more. CommentSold scaled its model by using Stripe to power transactions across thousands of live sellers.

3. Run a test event

Before going live, do a practice run. Test every step, from video quality to product availability to checkout. Use Stripe test mode to simulate a payment and make sure confirmation flows are working. Fixing any problems ahead of time makes the live session more shoppable.

4. Go live and watch what happens

Once you’re up and running, customers buy in real time, and payments settle cleanly and securely, even during high-traffic spikes. If you’re offering flash sales or timed drops, Stripe’s infrastructure is built to scale with you, whether that’s ten orders a minute or ten thousand.

What are the live commerce trends to watch for?

Live commerce keeps evolving fast. What started as a niche format is now a global trend in how people discover and buy.

Here’s where live commerce could be headed next:

Global growth has local flavor

China still leads live commerce, but other markets are picking up speed. Southeast Asia also has high adoption rates, with over 70% of online shoppers in Thailand having made a live sale purchase. The US and Europe are also seeing steady growth, especially on TikTok and YouTube. The content and tone that work in one region won’t necessarily work in another. Winning brands are adapting by region.

Influencers are driving sales

More creators are moving from affiliate-style promos to real sales performance. Some now host weekly livestreams for a share of revenue. These creator-sellers (also called e-selling opinion leaders or eSOLs) are driving measurable business.

AI and live selling are converging

AI-powered assistants are starting to show up in live chats, as are automated product recommendations and virtual hosts. The tools are early, but the direction is clear: AI can provide more data, better targeting, and tighter feedback loops.

How Stripe Checkout can help

Stripe Checkout is a fully customizable prebuilt payment form that makes it easy for you to accept payments on your website or application.

Checkout can help you:

• Increase conversion: Checkout’s mobile-optimized design and one-click checkout flow make it simple for customers to input and reuse their payment information.

• Reduce development time: Embed Checkout directly into your site, or direct customers to a Stripe-hosted page, with just a few lines of code.

• Improve security: Checkout handles sensitive card data, simplifying PCI compliance.

• Expand globally: Localize pricing in 100+ currencies with Adaptive Pricing, which supports 30+ languages and dynamically displays the payment methods most likely to improve conversion.

• Use advanced features: Integrate Checkout with other Stripe products, such as Billing for subscriptions, Radar for fraud prevention, and more.

• Maintain control: Fully customize the checkout experience, including saving payment methods and setting up post-purchase actions.

Learn more about how Checkout can optimize your payment flow, or get started today.