The single biggest mistake brands make with live selling is treating the event as a standalone broadcast. You can’t just hit the “go live” button on Black Friday and expect a flood of sales. An effective live selling event is a campaign in three parts: the buildup, the show itself, and the follow-up.
First, many sellers fail to build an audience before the event. They get so focused on the products and the offers that they forget to send out the invitations. This leads to a live stream with low attendance, which costs you both sales and morale. As Dave Huss explained on The EcomCrew Ecommerce Podcast, actively building your Facebook audience is a prerequisite for success. You need to create a sense of occasion. A week or two before your BFCM live event, start building hype. Announce the date, time, and a hint of the exclusive deals across your emails, social channels, and SMS lists. This is a core part of BFCM planning. The small fix is to run a small ad campaign to your warmest audiences, making them feel like insiders with early access to the news.
Another common mistake is winging the presentation and the technical setup. People often confuse “authenticity” with a lack of preparation, which is a huge risk during a high-stakes period like BFCM. Glitchy video, bad audio, or a presenter who seems lost will cause viewers to drop off in seconds. Nik Sharma made the point on Limited Supply that your website needs to pass the “grandma test” for ease of use, and the same logic applies here. The entire viewing and purchasing experience must be seamless. On eCommerce Australia, Ilan Hurwitz noted how critical a smooth user experience is during peak traffic. The fix is to do a full tech rehearsal and script your key talking points. Have a dedicated person to engage with comments and another to post the product links. Make the call-to-action simple and repeat it often.
Finally, a huge missed opportunity is having no plan for after the live stream ends. The broadcast is over, you’re tired, and you’re focused on fulfilling the orders you just got. But you’re leaving money on the table. All those viewers who watched but didn’t buy are warm leads. Stephen Russ on Maximizing Ecommerce talked about the importance of converting viewers into customers, a process that doesn’t have to end when the camera turns off. The fix is to have a post-show plan ready to go. Save and share the replay of the video immediately. Then, use your pixel data to run retargeting strategies that remind viewers of the offers. An email to your list with a "last chance" message and a link to the replay can capture a significant number of sales from people who were on the fence.
Get the planning right, and your Live Streaming For Ecommerce event becomes an exciting, interactive experience that drives sales long after the broadcast ends.