Shopatainment: Video shopping as entertainment

We all shop for different reasons. We shop out of necessity and utility, of course. But for some of us, shopping also evokes joy, comfort, validation, even stress relief. And increasingly, I believe we’ll shop as a form of entertainment. While this motivation may be latent—even subconscious, for most—in the U.S., it’s an economic driver that’s well understood in China, fueling a thriving video ecommerce market. In Asia, the powerful force of video entertainment shopping has spawned a livestream ecommerce industry akin to professional movie production. It’s more than a place where anyone can be a seller from their bedroom—in fact, quite the opposite. Read more…