Ozon launched video broadcasts for sellers

Russian online retailer Ozon is launching video presentations to sell goods, writes Kommersant . This is the trend of the year in online sales, and the main competitor, Aliexpress, already has this option.

Video broadcasts for sellers in the Ozon mobile application have been launched since September 30th. At first, these will be regular blocks on weekdays from 18:00 to 20:00 Moscow time.

At the first stage, the broadcasts will offer products for fitness, kitchens and the Beauty and Health category, by the end of the year the option will become available to all sellers of the platform. During the broadcasts, Ozon users will be able to ask streamers questions and purchase goods live at a discount.

Aliexpress in Russia has had this option since spring. Aliexpress Live broadcasts in the retailer's app in August gained 5 million views, sales since the launch through this channel approached 900 million rubles. So far, this is relatively small: the turnover of online sales of Russian sellers "AliExpress Russia" in 2019 reached 35.9 billion rubles, Ozon - 80.7 billion rubles, Kommersant writes.

Ozon compares video broadcasts to traditional teleshopping on the couch and notes "strong sales among older audiences." Their audience really flows online: in 2019, the market experienced the worst sales season in five years, Kommersant wrote.

• During the pandemic, “selling” video broadcasts, including those involving celebrities and influencers, have become the main trend of online trading. This is especially pronounced in China, where live streaming has become one of the most important sales channels, and the most successful streamers receive the KOL (key-opinion-leaders) status.

• Even before the pandemic, in 2019, this market in the country was close to $10 billion. In the first quarter of this year alone, more than 4 million streaming broadcasts were conducted for the purpose of e-commerce. Tesla electric cars are routinely sold through streaming , and one of the KOLs, under the pseudonym Viya, even sold a commercial satellite launch for $5.6 million via streaming.

American dogs outright beat cats in the fight for Instagram popularity during the pandemic, states Bloomberg . According to data from the CrowdTangle social monitoring tool, posts featuring puppies at the peak of the epidemic in the last week of March increased by 38% compared to the average for a normal week, posts with photos of adult dogs grew by only 11%, and with cats - only 9%. The most popular are french bulldog and pug puppies. All of them were able to increase their owners’ earnings quite well – according to MediaRadar, pet brands increased their ad spend by 51% in the first three months of 2020. The owner of one of the most popular Instagram puppies, Corgi Willo (97,000 subscribers, $15,000 in ad revenue per month), Devon Noering even created a YouTube channel to help people who want to get into the canine Instagram business.