Live shopping may have started in China, but now it’s picking up steam around the world. According to some studies, around half of companies in the US and Europe report incorporating live shopping into their strategies in 2021 or earlier, and livestream platform Bambuser says livestream-shopping viewership is growing by ~38% every quarter in 2022.

Brands are using live shopping to increase sales and customer engagement year round, but with the holiday season looming, experts say it’s good timing for those who haven’t yet tested the livestream waters to jump in.

Here’s how experts say brands can get started and get the most out of their video content:

Keep it simple: Dutta Satadip, chief customer officer at CX automation platform ActiveCampaign, said getting started with live shopping is a relatively light lift, even for smaller brands.

“Today, the cost of producing a good product demo—which is basically what livestream is—it’s relatively low,” Satadip, who helped launch live-streaming options at Pinterest, told Retail Brew. And it’s a great opportunity for small and medium-sized businesses to bring traffic directly onto their site, he added.

Start early, start basic: Yaniv Navot, CMO of marketing-software provider Dynamic Yield, said even brands with small budgets can use livestreams to stand out in a crowded holiday-shopping landscape.

Work what you’ve got: Liz Rizcovan, chief revenue officer at text messaging platform Hustle (which recently launched a video component), said brands should use video shopping to rope in their existing audience for the holiday season.

Reuse and recycle: Joel Leonoff, co-founder and CEO of live-shopping platform Revo Video, said he advises companies to use the video from their livestreams beyond the event itself, but that doesn’t mean they have to redo their strategy for the season.

Keep reading here.—MA

There’s no easy fix for global warming, but there is for the torn crotch of those jeans you probably shouldn’t have worn to kickboxing class. And it’s dawning on consumers that if more online stores offered repair services for such mishaps, they could hang on to jeans longer and spare the planet the impact of manufacturing and shipping another pair.

• 42% of shoppers have thrown away clothing they would have liked to keep because they could not get them repaired.
• 60% strongly or somewhat believe that stores should offer repair services so they don’t have to throw them away.

The data comes from a new survey by Nosto, a commerce experience platform, and Censuswide, that focuses on consumer sentiment around sustainability. The online survey was conducted in June with 2,019 consumers in the US (1,002 respondents) and the UK (1,017), both samples nationally representative based on age, gender, and region.

Fashion backward: Many respondents were underwhelmed at the fashion industry’s response to the climate crisis.

• 57% strongly or somewhat agreed that the fashion industry should become more sustainable.
• 54% strongly or somewhat agreed that they “don’t completely trust” the claims that some fashion brands make about their environmental stewardship.

The price is might: Consumers say it’s hard to give the environment top billing in the current economic climate. Asked if the increasing cost of living made them more concerned about price than sustainability when clothes shopping…

• 61% strongly or somewhat agreed.
• That price sensitivity increased with age, with just over half (52%) of respondents aged 16 to 24 strongly or somewhat agreeing that price trumps sustainability, and 64% of consumers 55 and older agreeing.

Here 2-day, gone tomorrow: Still, even as they’re pinching pennies, consumers care about sustainability, and want brands to be on board, too.

Keep reading here.—AAN

“Tyson Foods has appointed John R. Tyson to be its new CFO, and yes, he’s part of the famed chicken company’s family. Tyson, 32, is the great-grandson of the founder of Tyson Foods, and as one might expect, corporate governance experts expressed concerns about potential conflicts of interest when the news was announced,” writes CFO Brew’s Kim Lyons:

The Wall Street Journal cited one analyst who pointed to the new CFO’s age and “minimal financial experience” as concerning.

But Amanda “Jo” Erven, a CPA and author of Becoming the Everyday Ethicist, told CFO Brew that it’s worth considering the appointment from another angle: corporate family succession planning.

She added that some companies have had the same CEOs and CFOs for 20 to 30 years while neglecting to prepare the next generation of leadership.

Read the full story here on CFO Brew.—KL

Today’s top retail reads.

High price to pay: A confidential document reveals Amazon’s attrition rate is staggering and costs the company $8 billion annually across its global consumer field operations team. (Engadget)

New horizons: Some beauty brands are now targeting cancer survivors with products aimed at solving the skin damage that can come with chemotherapy and radiation. But it’s not as simple as that. (Business of Fashion)

Not over yet: In the run-up to the holidays, retailers are facing overstocked warehouses as inventory and fulfillment delays exacerbate. (Modern Retail)

The SKU: A Retail Brew Summit is coming to NYC one week from today!

While the SKU is a short, one-day event, it certainly won't come up short on value. The event's jam-packed agenda will pull you away from work for one day and send you back with a broader professional network and strategies you can immediately implement.

We'll also have break-out rooms between presentations where you'll get to interact directly with presenters in a panel-style discussion about topics such as marketing your retail brand, how to shift operational needs, and more.

Not to mention, there will also be plenty of opportunities to connect with fellow retail professionals before and during the event. Tickets are on last call so get 'em before they run out!

What happened in the world of retail this week in…1851 and beyond? Retail Brew takes you way, way, way back.

• On October 16, 1945, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization was founded.
• On October 18, 1851, Moby-Dick was published for the first time. Today, a first-edition copy can cost tens of thousands of dollars.
• On October 21, 1990, Tom Carvel, inventor of the soft-serve ice-cream machine and founder of ice-cream franchise Carvel, died at age 84.
• On October 23, 2001, Apple introduced the first-generation iPod.

Catch up on the Retail Brew stories you may have missed.

• Carhartt partners with robotics firm to automate fulfillment services
• Sandro debuts its secondhand program in the US
• Wayfair, Rite Aid ink deal for Google Cloud technology