California Apparel News

The days of selling clothing on e-commerce with still photographs are considered boring to Tina and Bryan Moore, who recently launched the e-platform TalkShopLive.

The concept works this way. Entrepreneurs make pitches through live streaming video, which gives the entrepreneurs a potentially unlimited audience, according to the Los Angeles–based brother-and-sister team, who introduced the privately owned TalkShopLive in early March.

“While you are talking live, people are shopping,” Bryan Moore said, pointing out what he sees as a hole in the marketplace.

The rules for TalkShopLive are different compared to TV shopping networks, said Moore, who made a career producing social-media content for broadcast television networks and other entertainment outlets.

On his platform, entrepreneurs employing user-generated content can sell from any location as long as they can connect to the platform through the mobile app, which eliminates traveling to a television studio.

There are no minimums on the amount of goods sold. Capsule collections of only a few pieces are fine with small and large retailers given the same access to the space.

Live streaming personal videos have become increasingly popular on social media, said Syama Meagher, founder and chief retail strategist with the Scaling Retail consultancy, but it hasn’t translated into retail. Meagher said streaming video gives consumers more opportunities to experience a product.

“It’s a great way to bridge consumers with product,” the retail consultant said. “It gives them a chance to show what the product actually looks and feels like.”

This channel is very new, said J’Net Nguyen, a creative director for The Right Brain Studio consultancy and a guest lecturer at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. “People are still trying to figure it out. Platforms are opening to refine it,” Nguyen said.

She believes live streaming retail has a lot of potential. “There’s something about a face-to-face interaction, even if it is on a computer screen, that is very powerful. It feels like they are speaking to you.”

Posting streaming video of their clothes has become popular among brands and e-tailers who are increasingly using video on their websites.

Retail has sometimes been described as a form of theater, which will be in full force on TalkShopLive because entrepreneurs will be required to perform and direct their own shows.

To help do that, the platform offers a tutorial hosted by Ricki Lake, who had her own talk show from 1993 to 2004.

Moore said almost anyone can produce a show, but those who have a knack for it will be able to generate programs that will be enjoyed by crowds of people.

“We wanted to make this process as easy as possible,” Moore said. “People are going to learn their own lessons. … I think we’ll see people become social-selling stars.”

Moore predicted that clothing and accessories will become a significant part of the site, whose early users include T-shirt brands Confetti Heart and Kind People Are My Kind of People.

There was also designer Julie Mollo, who sells her bags on the site and is famous for making fruit-inspired ensembles for pop star Katy Perry.

But fashion is not the only game on TalkShopLive. There are people who sell nature photographs, beauty products and wall hangings with succulents.

Also on the platform is social-media personality Chloe Lukasiak, who does a video to sell her autobiography/self-help book, “Girl on Pointe.”

It is free to join and browse the site as well as list products. When items are sold, the platform takes a 10 percent sales processing fee, Moore said.