Dive Brief:

• Since The Fresh Market started adding shoppable videos to its e-commerce channels late last year, the grocer has significantly boosted engagement among shoppers, according to a press release on Wednesday.
• As part of its multi-phase work on live commerce and shoppable content, The Fresh Market will host its first livestream event from a remodeled company store next month, said Jason Holland, chief business officer with Firework, the software company that has partnered with the grocer on the integration.
• Through live commerce and shoppable content, The Fresh Market is trying to approximate the personalized, treasure-hunt specialty shopping experience that it has fostered inside its physical stores, Kevin Miller, the grocer’s chief marketing officer, said in a statement. 

Dive Insight:

The Fresh Market has tried to build a gourmet in-store experience over the years centered on unique specialty products and a gourmet ambiance. Now it wants to translate that experience online.

Holland said The Fresh Market approached Firework with a detailed rundown of its target customers and tasked the live content firm with helping them implement shoppable video content that would appeal to these shoppers. Late last year, The Fresh Market began running short videos on its website and social channels that link shoppers to brand pages and product groupings like women-owned brands within its e-commerce platform.

The Fresh Market has also sent out regular emails to shoppers with short, shoppable videos. Altogether, the effort produced five times the amount of video engagement among shoppers and aggregated nearly 13 million video engagements for the retailer.

The Fresh Market's livestream next month from a newly remodeled store will showcase the location’s updated features to shoppers, Holland said.

Livestreaming and shoppable content are catching on with grocers as a way to boost online engagement and discovery as well as generate supplier dollars and gather consumer data. Videos can show consumers how to cook with cuts of meat or make a casserole while simultaneously selling those products to people who are watching. Firework works with CPG companies like Kraft Heinz that are making their own shoppable videos that they then pay to place on retailers’ sites, Holland said. 

Albertsons is also working with Firework to roll out livestreaming across digital channels, while H-E-B and Walmart have taken the lead on offering livestreaming content to shoppers. Last year, H-E-B held a 12-hour grilling livestream.

Holland said grocers can use shoppable videos to not just promote shopping but also help shoppers get to know store workers and learn more about company services. Store butchers could hold meat-cutting classes that link to online buying pages for cutlery and fresh meat, while corporate chefs could host cooking sessions that sell all the ingredients they’re using for delivery or pickup.  

Retailers have dabbled in livestreaming in recent years after seeing the technology take off in China and with companies like Amazon, said Holland. But they’ve often limited streams to a single digital channel. He said it’s important that retailers broadcast shoppable videos across their digital properties, including web, social and email.

“The thesis is that all of this starts with your website, and then we’ve built a simulcast technology that allows all of the short video and livestream to then power out into an omnichannel environment,” Holland said.

Firework, which launched in 2017, offers a library of video content that grocers can load to their digital channels. It also helps train retailers’ editorial teams to develop their own shoppable videos and livestreams. Looking ahead, Holland said Firework is working on making payment faster and more seamless for livestream shoppers.