We Tried Out Amazon Live. Here's How it Influenced Sales

Livestreaming isn’t a new concept. Facebook, Instagram, and even international marketplaces like Taobao have used livestreaming to drive sales and traffic for years now. Amazon Live is a relatively new platform designed to help Amazon Sellers drive traffic and brand awareness to their products. But does Amazon’s livestreaming service actually drive sales? How big of a difference does it make?

Pattern’s creative team tried out Amazon Live with our brand partner Owlet. Here we’ll share some of the results and why or why not your brand may consider utilizing Amazon livestreaming as a tool to increase sales and product discovery.

Screenshot from Amazon.com/Live

First thing’s first: What is Amazon Live and how does it work?

Amazon Live is an interactive streaming feed where brands can show live video to introduce their brand and demonstrate how their product works. Sellers can highlight product listings and create customer banners with product promotions on a carousel below the live video. Customers can then interact with the live video, leave questions in the comments sections, or chat with hosts.

To create a livestream on Amazon, you have to be a U.S. Professional Seller registered in Amazon Brand Registry or a or U.S. Vendor. All livestreams are created through the Amazon Live Creator mobile app, so you’ll need an iOS device to set things up.

Screenshot from https://apps.apple.com/us/app/amazon-live-creator/id1265170914

Livestreams can then be recorded either in advance and scheduled to go up at a later date, or they can go up in real time. Amazon recommends using a video encoder and external camera rather than your mobile phone to ensure quality video, though brands can use either.

Amazon Live events are discoverable on the Amazon.com/Live page, product detail pages, Amazon Stores, and the Amazon mobile app under “Amazon Live.”

Screenshots from https://www.amazon.com/b/?node=19118335011

Results from Owlet’s Amazon Live event

We used Amazon Live to kick off a sale with our brand partner Owlet in September. Pattern’s creative team set up a studio at our Lehi HQ complete with a baby crib, two hosts, and Owlet products ready to display.

This short video sample shows some of our setup for Owlet's live event:

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Here are some of the key outcomes we measured after the Live event and sale:

• Owlet sales (green represents actual sales in the graph at right), page views, and sessions all spiked.
• Owlet increased sales by approximately 9-16% throughout the whole week of the Live event and sale.
• We estimate Owlet’s Best Seller Ranking for their sock monitor improved by 70%, and improved by 69% for their camera during that week.
• However, the improved rankings of both individual products seemed to cannibalize some of the BSR for the sock/camera combo, dropping BSR for the bundle by some 12%.

Overall, the event was a success. However, it is important to note that the increase in sales was most likely due to a combination of traffic from the Amazon Live event and ongoing sale Owlet offered.

“We are very excited about Amazon Live,” said Jared Mason, Director of Brand Management and Owlet’s Brand Manager. “It was a great opportunity for Owlet to reach out directly to their customers on the Amazon platform and really connect with them. We were able to tell Owlet's story and why they were founded, as well as to show the products.”

Should I use Amazon livestreaming?

Even though Amazon Live had some unintended results for Owlet’s bundle products, we found Amazon Live to be an effective tool for kicking off a major sale and increasing awareness overall. If you’re considering using Amazon Live in the future, here are some pros and cons you might consider weighing before diving in.

‍Pro: It’s free. Amazon rarely gives sellers tools to promote their products without making them pay for it, so taking advantage of livestreaming could be beneficial if you have the creative resources already in place to make the most of it.

‍Con: Consumers may not engage well with low-quality videos. Although the service is free, if you don’t already have a creative team with the resources to make it happen (and represent your brand well), blurry videos and confusing dialogue may inadvertently turn customers off your product instead. Having a partner like Pattern who offers full creative resources (at no added cost) can help mitigate some of those resource issues and make additional Amazon offerings like livestreaming worth a try.

Pro: Livestreaming on Amazon is a small part of a growing market. Mastering it early could prove extremely beneficial if the streaming service continues to grow. For example, some livestream influencers on Taobao in China have followings well into the millions. These, in turn, draw millions of revenue in sales for the platform.

‍Con: Influencer marketing can be expensive, and Amazon Live doesn’t quite lend itself to influencer marketing just yet. Plus, Amazon Live is still a fledgling service—it doesn’t even have its own place on Amazon’s website navigation yet. Time will tell if Amazon will change the way livestreaming works to incorporate more lucrative marketing tactics or stay the same.

Pattern’s Amazon experts keep our partners up to date on the latest in eCommerce news and trends. Our team helps our partners gauge whether influencer marketing on Amazon Live should be part of their Amazon strategy.