Cristel Russell Talks Live Shopping with the Los Angeles Business Journal

As platforms like YouTube and TikTok become increasingly popular, content creators have been using these platforms to experiment with e-commerce opportunities. In an article written by Destiny Torres in the Los Angeles Business Journal, Cristel Russell, Pepperdine Graziadio professor of marketing, gave her insight on how entertaining and shopping are coming together on social media.

“The intersection of entertainment and shopping is nothing new,” Russell said. “There was always branded entertainment or product placement in TV shows, and of course the shopping channels like the QVC and old-school television, so the fact that Tik Tok is also now becoming a platform for people to actually demonstrate and sell products makes perfect sense.”

According to Morning Consult, there are fewer than half of Gen Z adults and millennials being aware of live shopping events, meaning there is a lot of untapped potential for a QVC-like marketplace. 

“Just like you can be a small business and put your stuff for sale on Amazon, TikTok is this platform that has such a huge audience and there’s low cost to entry so people can just start a live shopping channel,” Russell continued.

Read the full article in the Los Angeles Business Journal.