List of Livestream Shopping apps

Most livestream selling in the US is happening on the social media platforms themselves, with Facebook and Instagram being the dominant ones. And there are dozens of apps and startups in the US that are getting in on the live shopping action as well.

These apps generally fall into 3 categories:

1. Mobile app marketplaces

2. Tools for live shopping on brand's website

3. Tools for live shopping on social media

1) Mobile app marketplaces

These marketplaces are the closest thing to what's happening in China and Taobao Live (80% of ecommerce livestreaming in China happens through Alibaba’s Taobao Live).

But the American take on this is different. In China, less than 10% of livestream customers make repeat purchases. Whereas many of the livestream marketplaces below focus on the $6B collectibles market, where most customers are repeat purchasers. Fees on these marketplaces range from 7% to 20%.

• Whatnot - Live auctions and unboxing of Pokemon cards, Funko Pops, and sports cards. Whatnot was founded in 2019, and charges an 8% transaction fee plus CC processing fees (2.9% + $0.30) and free shipping for the seller.
  
• Popshop - Specializing in comics and collectibles, the company was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in LA. Popshop charges 9% transaction fees (including credit card fees) to the merchant.
  
• ShopShops - an iphone app that brings sales consultants into B&M boutique stores in the US to go live to shoppers in China. Company was founded in 2016, and charges 15-25% in transaction and processing fees per this article
  
• Ntwrk - a mobile-first video shopping platform. Only their selected brand and celebrity influencers can sell.
  
• ShopThing - allows its network of shoppers to walk into stores and create a shoppable product with the click of a button
  
• Like to Know it - influencers and creators showcasing products from brands like Loreal, Wayfair, Target, and Nordstrom
  

2) Tools for live shopping on brand's website

These tools are designed to go live on the merchant's website or mobile app.

• ShopLitLive - Founded in 2020, enables livestream shopping on a brand's website. Also supports the hiring of influencers to be the liveshopping host
  
• LiveScale - Founded in 2016, boasts clients like L'Oreal, Lancome, and Vans
  
• Bambuser - Founded in 2007, fully white-labelled one-to-many livestream broadcasting tool that lives on a brand's website
  
• Firework - Founded in 2017, allows merchants to create and host native, shoppable video content including interactive livestreams and shoppable video. Boasts 600 DTC customers including Unilever and The Fresh Market
  
• Buywith - Founded in 2018, allows " brands, retailers, influencers & experts to host live shopping events"
  
• TalkShopLive - Founded in 2018, merchants are able to stream or record live shows about their products. And the shoppable videos can then be embedded on a brand’s website and distributed through their social media channels
  
• CommentSold - Founded in Mar 2017, over 7,000 merchants are live-selling $1.65B in annual GMV through a custom mobile app and FB Live. CommentSold could also be listed in the category below since it allows merchants to go live on Facebook.

3) Tools for live shopping on social media

Unlike the list above, the apps below focus exclusively on liveselling on Facebook or Instagram as opposed to the brand's own website. The list below are apps on Shopify, but there are apps that work on other checkout systems (we will add more in the future)

• SoldLive - Founded in 2020, SoldLive is the #1 app for Shopify merchants to do live sales on Facebook and Instagram
  
• Cartr from Switcher Studio - Launched in May 2022, Cartr is an offering from Switcher Studio which was founded in 2014 and "helps businesses make better video more often so they can connect meaningfully with their customers and communities."
  
• Elisa.io - Launched in Apr 2022 out of Denmark