it's the latest trend sweeping the world of retail, a fusion of e—commerce and live video entertainment that lets you shop while you watch. so why is it so popular and will it change the way we shop forever? livestream shopping is shaking up the way we spend our money and is set to rake in billions in revenue for brands large and small this year. advances in tech, as well as the huge popularity of social media, are driving the trend. but as brands rush in to cash in, how exactly does live shopping work and why is it catching on in such a big way? i'll be discussing all of that with my guests — a livestream shopping and retail expert and author and the social media influencer and founder of beauty by carla. also on the show, the e—commerce platform that's helping millions of businesses

sell their products online. i catch up with the boss of shopify and talk about the future of online retail. wherever you'rejoining me from around the world, once again, a big hello and a warm welcome to the show. the lights are very busy... when tv home shopping channels like qvc and the home shopping network first launched in the 1980s, the idea of buying products while you watched live tv was revolutionary. a new and exciting mix of live product demonstrations and the convenience of being able to make instant purchases lured shoppers to spend their hard—earned cash without leaving their homes or their armchairs to get their hands on everything, from cheese graters to diamond jewellery. with the advent of the internet, the convenience of home shopping has moved from our tv screens to our laptops and mobiles,

with online shopping becoming a booming industry. and now those home shopping—style live demos appear to be making a comeback, not on our tvs, but on our social media apps. this time, a whole new generation of shoppers is getting on board. so what is livestream shopping? well, it's a form of e—commerce where brands can showcase their products in real time during livestream events on social media channels like tiktok, facebook, instagram and youtube. for customers, it combines the convenience of online shopping but with more interactivity. shoppers can ask questions and give feedback. with exclusive, limited offers available in real time, it's not unusual for items to sell out in seconds. livestream shopping started in china in 2016 when the chinese retail giant taobao, belonging to the alibaba group,

first linked an e—store with an online streamed broadcast. today, china dominates the livestream shopping sector with over $700 billion worth of trade and over 500 million livestream shoppers, according to latest reports. now, brands are grabbing the opportunity to sell their products in real time, selling everything from lipsticks to power tools. so what's driving that boom? well, experts say it is a mixture of shopping and entertainment, as well as the ability for customers to interact with the seller that is contributing to live shopping's new popularity. together with evermore sophisticated ai and tech, it adds up to a compelling shopping experience for consumers that shows no signs of abating. let's take a look at the numbers. the global live shopping market is projected to reach a staggering $129.6 billion in 2024, with asia leading

the way in adoption and revenue generation. it's estimated the value of livestream shopping in the united states alone will hit $68 billion by 2026 and make up more than 5% of total e—commerce sales. with the e—commerce retail market more competitive than ever, companies that use live commerce strategies say shoppers are ten times more likely to buy a product through a livestream shopping event than through standard online shopping. contrary to popular belief, it's notjust a trend for gen z. reports show the age range of 35—54 accounts for the highest percentage of livestream shoppers. one of the benefits, retailers say, is the enhanced shopping experience is more engaging and personalised, resulting in up to 50% fewer returns, according to latest research. so with livestream shopping

expected to boom over the coming years, will it change the way we shop forever? i caught up with hitha herzog, retail analyst and author. hitha herzog, thanks for joining us on talking business. it's great to be here. livestream shopping started in china in 2016 and then really took off during the pandemic. what is it about livestream shopping that is so attractive to shoppers, particularly in china? there are a couple of things that are very attractive about livestreaming shopping, and one of them is the fact that you can see the product on the person that's actually trying to sell you the product. another thing is also the fact that the product is very specific to the people that are looking to buy that product. and there's also a chat option when you are live shopping and it's streaming to you that you can communicate with that person that's selling you the product. all of those things

make it a 360 shopping experience that consumers are really adhering to. so just how seamless is it? is it a case of having your card ready and you just buy right there and then? or is it more complicated than that? it really depends on that live streamer and the social media platform that you are using. so if you're using a social media platform that enables the ability to click on a qr code and immediately get taken to an app that you can complete the purchase in within three seconds, that's certainly more seamless than if you are on a social media platform where you have to take out your credit card, pay for the purchase, put in all that information and then have it sent to you. way more seamless if you're driving to the mall, driving to the store, looking at the top, putting it back, making the and driving back

to your home. why did livestream shopping really gain traction first in china? it really happened during global lockdowns and specifically during the pandemic. everyone was at home. everyone wanted to go shopping. and number two, the chinese consumer are light years ahead of the western consumer when it comes to shopping. retailers really know how to target their consumer and they give the consumer a multidimensional way of shopping. the chinese consumer was shopping and spending their money. having those three aspects really started a firestorm and zeroed in on how this chinese consumer was shopping and spending their money. and what sort of age

group does livestream shopping really appeal to? the age group was initially quite younger than what we are seeing now. so when a lot of the younger age group, i would say gen z, was logging on, they were seeing their favourite influencers selling product. this was one way they were able to get on board. now we are seeing older generations adopt to this because the technology is actually getting more simple and more user—friendly. the user experience is getting easier. but we are also seeing the gen alpha get on board, by way of having their parents go ahead and give them the money to spend as they are seeing this live streaming shopping happen. that suggests then that live shopping is here to stay and is only really going to get bigger. live shopping is definitely here to stay. and if you want to make a parallel, live shopping now

is kind of like what online shopping was in 2000, 2001. we're just seeing the beginnings of it. and as we've seen, as online shoppers, that technology just got more advanced for online shopping. this is just the next iteration of that. and we are seeing all different types of age groups adopt and use it. does this mean that brands have to sell in the live shopping space in order to be successful? or could theyjust do a bit of brand building in a live shopping event? it's not a do—or—die situation. of course, if you're a brand that really targets a demographic that tends to go into the mall or store more, live shopping would probably not be a great investment for that specific brand. with that said, technology is getting more advanced. so if a brand had some sort of strategy that incorporated this, whether it's on the marketing side or it's

maybe delving into this just a little bit as an example, this isjust one iteration of how people shop. and this is just going to be incorporated into an online experience. brands can't ignore it. whether they want to go into it headfirst really depends on the demographic that they're trying to target. so do you think we're going to lose more bricks and mortar actual stores because of the boom in live shopping? brick and mortar stores will always be there, mostly because people still like to go into the stores. however, the way we shop in brick and mortar stores will change. instead of maybe going into a store and buying a coat and a dress, you'll go into a store to look at a coat and dress and maybe have dinner while you are listening to your favourite band, see the coat and dress and then go ahead and either buy that coat and dress from a sale

that you were seeing on a livestreaming broadcast or you see it on a discount on their website. brick and mortar stores will always be here. that's been going on for thousands of years. that model of shopping will never change. but what we do in those stores will change. and that has to do with the technology that's coming up. surely though this is a case of a cheaper way of selling things. that must have an effect and shaking up the competition. it's actually, what were not taking into consideration is looking at it from a western perspective. we have crazy broadband at 5g everywhere. broadband doesn't exist in villages in india. we have to take a global perspective on that. if you incorporate that didn't live streaming isn't going to take over until 20 or 30 years from now. unless the technology

gets really advanced in the next ten years, where broadband is literally everywhere in every corner of the globe, it's not going to take away brick—and—mortar. hitha herzog, retail analyst and author, thank you very much. thanks so much for having me. today's consumers are bombarded by hundreds of ads every day. live shopping offers a new way for brands to attract shoppers and much of that is dependent on the hosts, the social influencers who front each live shopping experience. i caught up with carla stevenne, a livestream influencer and founder of beauty by carla. carla stevenne, creator of la steve beauty, welcome. carla, tell me about yourjourney into livestream shopping. so myjourney into livestream shopping was very interesting. it was at a point in my youtube journey where i was ready

to make a transition. amazon live had reached out to me and i was like, sign me up. i already had been shopping on amazon for so long, so i was like, this is perfect, amazon live. and it was around the time of 2020, covid was happening, so everyone was indoors. so it was really my hobby that turned into something so much bigger than really i could have even imagined. so what is it you do when you're representing a brand or a product? how does it work? so what i do when i'm representing a brand or product is i share the product and i show my genuine perspective about the product. when i do livestreaming, i really want to make sure that i'm sharing something relevant and considering who is on the other side, the viewer. i don'tjust sell the product

because i want them to buy it, i want them to buy it because they actually need the product in their life. and they're able to ask you questions, during this this livestream session? they can ask questions live. and that's what i love, because when you're shopping live, it's more personable. so as soon as they ask that question, they feel connected to you, as if it's a facetime, even though it's just a chat. and that's really why i love the livestream, because you can feel the energy of the viewer even through the chat, if you can connect with them really on that level, and that's how you can sell the best on livestreaming. i guess you must do a lot of research on the products. i do. but honestly, i share products that i absolutely love and also products that i know are useful for many other people, too, and what's most relevant for them in their lives that are going to help them live their best life in every single way.

i can't explain it. i've sold so many products on live. i mainly focus on beauty. but when it comes to beauty, everyone in their routine, for the most part, probably has something they're looking for that's new in their beauty routine, or they need a tip that they always are in the mirror, when they look in the mirror, they're always having a hard time doing that one thing. so when you're on live and you start doing that one thing that they have a hard time with, you get a chat from them and that's when you get that connection with your viewer. and it'sjust so much deeper than you watch the video and then you leave a comment later because you're not getting that real—time engagement and interaction. you obviously enjoy what you do. but is it lucrative? yes, it is lucrative. it is lucrative. along my livestreaming journey, i have made over six figures in a single year

through the livestreaming. that's a lot of money. carla, thank you very much. all right, have a wonderful day, everyone. it's one of the best—known platform for entrepreneurs to sell products on live without live stream shopping isjust one part of the company's business. as tech and ai rapidly evolve, what other advances can we expect to see in the world of online shopping? to find out more, i spoke to the boss of shopify. harley finkelstein, the president of shopify, welcome. you started your first business aged 17, selling t—shirts. as an entrepreneur, how much of what you learned back then is still valuable now? quite a bit of it. i think one thing that most people don't appreciate about entrepreneurship is that although for many people it is a career, a way for them to support themselves or make money, it's actually a really great way just to solve problems.

i think one of the things that is happening is there's a bit of this entrepreneurship renaissance, where more than ever before people are looking at the things that they care about and they love and they're trying to find away to make a career out of those things. and i think it's easier today than ever before. but the same skill set that i had when i was 17, trying to sell t—shirts to colleges and universities, that's the same type of approach i take today when it comes to problem—solving for our company. so it's a mentality more than anything else. when you started out, you didn't have the technology that entrepreneurs have available to them today. so does that make it much easier for them, or does tech bring its own complications? soa so a couple things you need to understand. retail, if you go back 150 years or so, we as consumers, we as human beings, we bought bread from the baker and we bought shoes from the cobbler. and sort of this direct to consumer way of buying product

was sort of steady state. and then the big shopping malls and the big retailers happened, and there was now an intermediary between the consumer and the brand and the retailer. and for a long time, that's kind of how consumers were shopping. and then something remarkable happened in the sort of late 1990s, early 2000s, which is that the internet began to make distribution less of a problem. it sort of democratised distribution. what that meant was that you can come up with an idea, build a product, a t—shirt, an accessory, an electronic, and you can immediately, in a matter of an hour, with a company like shopify, sell to a global audience. that was not possible before the entry of digitalisation, of commerce and e—commerce, and now that's accessible. so shopify was launched 18 years ago, in 2006, and it was selling snowboards originally. now, of course, it's grown into one of the world's leading e—commerce platforms, making it quite easy for brands to sell online or in person. what is the secret

behind that growth? ultimately, we make it really easy for anyone with an idea to actually go ahead and build a beautiful business selling that product. and we do it online. we also do it offline. if you have a great audience on a social media platform, whether it's instagram or it's facebook or it's snap or it's tiktok, we make it really easy for you to access that consumer base and sell directly to them as well, and we try to take all the complexity out of it. we think that anyone that has an idea in the shower in the morning should be able to, for $39, go and build that business into something that is unbelievable. you said recently the focus for 2024 remains on driving innovation in this ever—evolving commerce landscape. so how has e—commerce changed for businesses in the last few years, and how do you stay ahead in this fast—evolving world? we want to be the future—proofed retail operating system for the most interesting, ambitious

brands on the planet. what that means is we have to not only help you with what you need today to be successful, we have to anticipate where commerce and retail is going. and our belief is retail and commerce is going everywhere. so rather than simply looking at retail as being online versus offline, we actually believe the future of retail is retail everywhere — meaning wherever consumers want to transact and check out and view your products, you have to make that available to them. shopping and online sales are expected to top eight trillion by the end of this year, but it remains the case 80% of new e—commerce businesses are really struggling to survive, according this to research by linkedin. so how can the smaller online stores compete? i think the advantage that small businesses have over large companies is that they can actually create a much more authentic and direct relationship with the consumer. so something very simple —

if you're selling something as a small business on the internet, or offline, a great thing to do is a week after they receive their package, they receive their product, call them and ask them, how'd you like it? what can we have done better? when you're a big company, you can't really do that in an authentic, intimate way, but as a small business, you actually have that advantage. the second thing that small businesses also are able to do today, that was impossible, you know, 10—20 years ago, is the person behind the business, the founder, the entrepreneur, they themselves can actually put themselves out there and invite others, the general public, to follow along in theirjourney. they can talk about the idea, and start a new company to sell skateboards. his or her and thinking, here's my first design, his my prototype, i'm good go to a business tomorrow. i love you all to check it out. by leaving these breadcrumbs and leaving to follow along in your journey they feel a part of your business. that part of intimacy retail is something that social media provides that makes things easier for small businesses to gain attention.

you said the future of retailers everywhere. certainly ai is changing so many facets of our everyday life. how is it changing the world of online retail and shopify specifically? we believe that shopify is uniquely positioned to leverage the power of ai. obviously we can use it internally so when someone calls our support team and it's something like configuring a domain name or something basic ai is much better to do that. that creates a tonne of internal optimisation. the second way we do it is to think about all the task entrepreneur has to do on a daily basis. there are some things as an entrepreneur you may be really good at. but they may be other things that are not

necessarily your experience in. having ai embedded across all of shopify�*s functionality it means you can focus on what you do best which is the most important, growing your business with them over time we think this is in area globally where small businesses are going to disproportionately benefit from al because they don't have big teams. something else that has become part of our lives is livestream shopping. it's a huge trend. and it's experiencing a massive boom. now shopify has been instrumental with live shopping platforms. do you think this is the way that retail is going? i think live shopping in a similar way to things like social media commerce where you see an ad for something on a social media platform and right from the ad you're able to purchase the in real time. these are different channels. the better way to think about it is, if you are channel

agnostic about whether it's live shopping or augmented reality, or social media, if you as an entrepreneur and brand and retailer have a deep understanding of who your consumer is that you understand how they buy, where they spend their time. you need to look at every service area online and off—line, digital and physical as a place where a transaction could potentially happen. it doesn't mean that you as an entrepreneur should be selling everywhere. it means if you actually understand the taste, the preferences and the way that your concern was referred by, that's how you should shelter them. shopify is turning all of us into vendors. do you see a time where everyone has some sort of side hustle selling something? i don't think everyone needs to commercialise their hobby. but i do believe people have thought about entrepreneurship, but they've not taken the leap

into doing so. either they believe it's too expensive or too complicated. what i've seen is that sometimes the most unlikely people become some of the greatest entrepreneurs. the best part about starting a business right now in 2024 is the cost of failure is the lowest it's ever been. and the opportunity to succeed and sell across consumers is the highest it's ever been. harley finkelstein, the president of shopify, thank you very much. thank you so much. well, that's it for this week. i hope you enjoyed the show. don't forget, you can keep up with the latest on our global economy on the bbc website or the smartphone app. you can also follow me on x. thanks for watching, i hope to see you soon. bye— bye. hello there. we had a very wet start to the day on saturday, with low pressure in charge, extensive, and pretty heavy outbreaks of rain. the afternoon got a bit better

— sunny spells came through — but we also had quite widespread showers, like this shower cloud working across the horizon in the scottish borders. now the wettest place in the whole of the uk was rothamsted, in hertfordshire, near luton. and here, we had 37mm of rain — that compares with the monthly average of 52. so, in other words, we had, well, nearly three—quarters of a month's worth of rain in just the space of 24 hours. now, showers have continued to affect eastern areas of scotland, northeast england into the first part of the night. but over the next few hours, many of the showers will tend to fade away — but i think we'll see another clump working into wales and southwest england as we head into the first part of sunday. now, sunday is overall the better of the two days of the weekend, many of us will start off with some sunshine first thing in the morning — but we'll have those showers from the word go across wales and western england, and through the day, those showers push eastwards. it is always across england and wales that the heaviest downpours are likely to be, with some hail and thunder

mixed in, and, to a degree, northern ireland seeing heavy downpours, too. in scotland, there will still be showers, but they perhaps won't be quite as heavy as the ones we've seen over the last 24 hours. now monday's forecast, it's another pretty unsettled day — again, starting off on a promising note, many areas will start the day dry and sunny. but showers will develop across northern areas of the uk, and it looks like we'll see another area of rain start to work into the southwest, so that could affect southwest england and parts of southern wales, as well. the area of rain is associated with this next area of low pressure, which pushes its way northwards across the country very slowly through tuesday and wednesday. so, tuesday looks like probably the wettest day of the week ahead. extensive and heavy outbreaks of rain in england and wales, some wet weather for northern ireland. eventually, the rain reaches northwards into scotland. and again, as the rain eases off it willjust be followed by heavy showers and thunderstorms. top temperatures — high teens to low 20s, which much of the temperatures have been over recent days.

that is below average for this time of the year. and beyond that, it does stay pretty unsettled, might see something a little bit less soggy as we head towards the following weekend. bye for now.

live from washington, this is bbc news. a fifth democratic member of congress calls onjoe biden to withdraw from the us presidential race. keir starmer says he will have to make tough decisions,

"and make them early", in his first full day as uk prime minister. the gaza health ministry says an israeli strike on a school has killed at least 16 people. and iran's first reformist president in two decades acknowledges there's a "difficult path ahead". i'm helena humphrey. glad you could join me. us presidentjoe biden is under increasing pressure to end his 2024 re—election campaign. on saturday, a fifth democrat in the us house of representatives issued a statement, calling for mr biden to step aside. congresswoman angie craig of minnesota said she admires president biden, and takes pride in the legislation passed in his first term. however, she then went on to say, "i respectfully call "on president biden to step aside as the democratic "nominee...and allow for a new generation of leaders "to step forward". ms craig cited last week's cnn

debate, where president biden appeared lethargic up against donald trump.