This is the next trillion-dollar industry

For those over 30, the idea of live shopping may conjure up corny images of QVC or HSN.But for the younger generation, it has become a new kind of social media where shoppers are spending billions of dollars and hundreds of hours.Grant Lafontaine, the CEO of Whatnot — the primary live shopping company in America that just raised $225 million at an $11.5 billion valuation — sees this ballooning from a hundred billion-dollar market to a trillion-dollar market in the next few years.“It’s very clear that live shopping in the US is going to be a huge, huge, huge market,” Lafontaine told me.

“And it’s definitely going to be one of those shifts we see in e-commerce over the next 5 to 10 years.It’s sort of been happening in Asia over the past decade or so, where upwards of $1 trillion worth of products are being sold through live video in China.”While traditional online shopping doesn’t allow you to touch or really engage with a potential purchase, live-shopping changes that.

Sellers rotate items in front of the camera, answer questions instantly on a live chat and show you exactly what you’re buying.The experience is more like shopping at brick-and-mortar store — without the hassle. For sellers, the appeal is equally clear: They get access to eager, attentive customers without having to pay for any real estate.“Live video is sort of the best way to bring in-person commerce online,” Lafontaine explained.

“It’s almost as if anyone can set up a brick-and-mortar shop anywhere without building the building, and you can go live.So there’s a lot of other fun things you can do, including hanging out at midnight when nothing else is going on.”The social, human element is key.

Buyers get to know the sellers — many of whom are creating the goods themselves — and and can also chat with other buyers on the livestream.This story is part of NYNext, an indispensable insider insight into the innovations, moonshots and political chess moves that ...