How to Host a Live Sale for Your Online Boutique (Plus 5 Live Sale Ideas)

Online boutique owners have more competition than ever, which means standing apart from your competitors can be a challenging endeavor.

One of the most effective ways to capture and retain customers is to build a relationship with them and nurture loyalty. And if you haven’t tried hosting live sales for your online boutique yet, you’re missing out on a powerful channel to build those relationships.

So what are live sales, anyway, and how can you launch one for your own online store?

Let’s discover five live sale ideas for online boutiques and take a deep dive into an inspiring example of a successful live sale event.

What is a live sale?

A live sale is a promotional event during which you or another member of your team broadcasts a video live stream to showcase your boutique’s products.

During the live stream, audience members can purchase the products you show them — and you’ll usually encourage them to interact with you and ask questions.

Unlike traditional online sales, a live sale is interactive. They’re the closest thing you’ll get to hosting in-person promotions at a brick-and-mortar store.

As the name suggests, live sales happen in real time. Because your customers have direct access to you (or another representative of your brand), they can see your products in action and get any concerns addressed directly.

Live sales can occur on social media, but you can also host them on video platforms such as YouTube or Twitch. The platform itself doesn’t matter as much as what you’ll do during your event and how many people show up to follow along.

Why should you host a live sale?

Live sales are one of many sales promotion types you can host as an online boutique owner. So why should you host a live sale instead of other types of promotions?

Live sales are especially powerful for boutique store owners who have a small but dedicated audience — or those who want to build such an audience. Going live with your audience allows you an opportunity to connect with them, speak to customers in real time, and learn more about what they want from your online boutique.

According to forecasts, the US live stream Ecommerce market could be worth about $35 billion by 2024. So it’s nothing to sneeze at.

In short, live sales are like jet fuel to build a community around your brand. And community-building for brands can:

• Increase your brand awareness without additional ad spend
• Turn customers into brand advocates
• Generate more word-of-mouth sales
• Increase customer trust and retention
• Help you improve your customer support

Plus, the replays generated from live sales can be repurposed into additional marketing material. For instance, you can create clips of the highlights to share on all your social media platforms. Or, you can use the discussions generated during the live sale as fodder for email newsletter ideas.

Live sales also give your audience an opportunity to see your products in your hands.

If your customers have specific questions about your products or want demonstrations, you can easily adapt to live comments as they pop across your feed.

Finally, live sales are the best way to answer customer questions quickly and directly. Customers who have concerns or unanswered questions are more likely to abandon their shopping cart. But when you’re available on a live stream, you can address these concerns before they abandon their purchase.

Live online sales allow you to show up as if you were interacting with customers in a brick-and-mortar store. The difference is that your customers can join you from anywhere in the world — and there’s no limit to how many people can join.

What do you need to host a live sale for your online boutique?

If you’ve decided live sales are a strategy you want to try, make sure you consider all the key elements to make yours a success.

1. A business page on social media or a video streaming platform

Any platform that lets you host a live stream is a good place to create your live sale, including but not limited to:

• YouTube
• Instagram
• Facebook
• Twitch
• TikTok
• Amazon Live
• Etc.

You’ll need to have an existing account to go live on many of these platforms. In some cases, such as TikTok, you’ll also need a certain number of followers.

There’s no right or wrong platform to choose. However, you can use tools like OneStream to broadcast your live sale in multiple places at once.

💡 If you take this approach, make sure you have a staff member moderate the comment section on the other platforms, so you don’t miss important questions.

But social media and video streaming platforms aren’t the only options to host a live sale. For instance, you can use a webinar platform such as Zoom Webinar or EasyWebinar instead.

These platforms will give you more control over your viewers. You can even restrict access to people who’ve previously signed up if you want to make your live sale feel more exclusive or VIP.

Just keep in mind that your audience may already be on these social media platforms, which makes it easier to reach them. For instance, Instagram users will see who’s live at the moment at the beginning of their Story feed, which means all your followers who are currently online will get notified if you use Instagram to go live:

That’s why public platforms are usually the best option for live sales. But if there’s a good reason to host your live sale on a private platform instead, know it’s still an option.

Finally, consider that some platforms have built-in tools to help your audience shop. For instance, Amazon Live has the literal tagline “Shoppable Videos”.

2. An audience

The whole point of running a live sale is to do it in front of a live audience! Before you go live, you’ll need to make sure you can get the word out to as many people as possible.

You don’t necessarily need to have a huge social media presence to host your first live sale. For instance, you can use live sales to connect with other creators and expand your audience. But you can also send an email to your list to invite people to join you during the live stream.

If you’re using a public platform to host your live stream, make sure you at least have a few subscribers. By doing so, you’ll notify people who are online when you go live.

We’ll discuss how to get your audience on your live streams a bit later.

3. A camera and microphone

For live sales to work best, you or your brand representative need to show your face on camera. Your audience will get to see you and literally “put a face on the brand”. It’ll be much easier to communicate with your viewers when they can see your visual expressions.

But don’t worry about getting an expensive setup. Although you can get a higher-quality image and clear sound if you invest in better live streaming gear, it’s not necessary to get started.

All you really need is a mobile device!

If you have to choose between upgrading your audio or your video equipment first, choose the audio. Even a $50 microphone can significantly increase the quality of your audio compared to what you’ll get by using your mobile device only.

4. Products on hand

One of the advantages of hosting a live sale is the ability to demonstrate your products. So it’s important to stock up on the products you intend to promote if you don’t have them on hand already.

Not only can you showcase your products directly, but you can also answer questions more easily as they come up on the live chat using demonstrations.

If it takes a long time to receive products from your manufacturer, make sure to plan your live sale in advance. On the other hand, if you make products yourself, just make sure you keep enough stock on hand for all the live sales you want to host.

5. A simplified ordering process

As you’re speaking to your live audience, you should make it as easy as possible for them to order products from you.

Some platforms will let you create shoppable live streams. For instance, brand owners can use YouTube to add a Live Shop during a live stream. The live shop is also available for anyone who watches the replay.

But what if you’re using a platform without these shoppable features? If you can’t add links, consider implementing QR codes into your live stream. Another option would be to create shortened URLs and tell your audience how to access them.

How to host a live sale from start to finish

Now you know what elements you need to host your own live sale event. Here’s how to plan and execute a live sale for your online boutique to maximize its potential.

1. Define the logistics

Get your ducks in a row before you plan to promote a live sale. For example, what platform(s) can your audience find you on? Which time do you plan to go live (and in what time zone)? What will live viewers get out of the experience?

You’ll also need to define how your audience can purchase from you. In some cases, that’ll require you to set up your platform in advance to link your products to your live stream. In other cases, you’ll need to get creative to find ways to make the purchasing process easier for your live viewers.

Whichever platform you choose, make sure to test everything ahead of time. You’re bound to come across technical issues, and it’s always best if you can iron out those kinks before you’re in front of a live audience.

2. Pick a live sale theme

If you already have a loyal audience who loves interacting with you, it may not be as important to define a theme for your live sale. However, most live sales should have a purpose — or a theme.

Are you unveiling a brand-new product? Will live attendees have the chance to win something? Do you have a special guest in store? Find a solid reason your audience should show up to your live sale instead of doing something else with their time.

🙋 Not sure where to start? Scroll to the final section of this post for five live sale ideas to borrow from!

3. Create some promotional content to invite your audience

Once you’ve sorted out the details of your live sale, it’s time to invite your audience.

The promotional content you launch will depend on where your audience lives. For example, if you have a large TikTok audience, consider posting some videos on TikTok to let people know how they can join the event.

If you have a business page on Facebook for your boutique, you can even create an event to let customers RSVP. But you don’t have to rely on Facebook — platforms such as Eventbrite allow you to organize events and handle RSVPs without social media.

Make sure you send one or more marketing emails to your email list, too.

Finally, make sure you promote your live sale event on your website using Getsitecontrol popups. Getsitecontrol is an email marketing app that will help you add announcements to your website within minutes and then send a bulk email newsletter to those who’ve joined your email list.

Here is the template that will work: