Bringing the personal shopper online

A customer standing in a furniture shop can ask someone to demonstrate how a sofa bed opens. Online, the same customer may have to infer the process from pictures and a short description.

A private video conversation can fill that gap. The advisor shows the mechanism, pauses where the shopper has a question and explains the space it needs. The customer gets help with the decision while shopping from home.

That is a practical role for the online personal shopper: focused advice when seeing and discussing the product would help.

Keep the formats distinct

McKinsey's 2021 live-commerce article explored shopping built around live video. It forecast that live-commerce-initiated sales could account for 10% to 20% of ecommerce by 2026. That was a projection, not a confirmed result for 2026.

The article primarily concerns shoppable livestreams, where a host addresses an audience. A private conversation with an advisor serves a different purpose and has different staffing costs. The forecast does not establish the likely return from adding private calls to your store.

For that decision, start with the help your customers actually request.

Give the advisor something useful to show

Choose products that benefit from a demonstration. Prepare the details customers regularly ask about, and ensure the advisor can show them clearly during a call.

For the sofa bed, that might mean showing the opening motion and checking the floor space required. A demonstration should answer the practical question that brought the customer into the conversation.

If the advisor cannot show the physical product, useful supporting material may still help. Explain what can be covered so the shopper knows what to expect.

Let shoppers choose the level of help

Keep the invitation visible without making it a condition of buying. Customers who already know what they want should be able to complete the order themselves.

Publish honest availability. When a call is offered, make joining it straightforward and explain any steps the customer needs to take.

During the conversation, confirm recommendations before adding products to the cart. Give the shopper time to review the selection and decide whether to proceed. Choosing between text and video for a given question is covered in live chat vs video.

Start where the conversation has a purpose

Pilot the service in a category where questions regularly need individual attention. Include preparation and waiting time when calculating the staffing cost, alongside time spent on calls.

Review whether customers got useful answers and whether the resulting orders justify continued coverage. Some categories will support this level of service more readily than others.

Our guide to one-to-one live shopping explains the BeamCart experience. Use it to plan a service around a clear customer need, with enough support for the advisor to answer well.