Home shopping channels focus on short-form content to boost sales

[Courtesy of GS SHOP]

Home shopping channels in South Korea are going beyond TVs and turning to various formats such as YouTube to lure young consumers.

According to industry sources on Tuesday, GS SHOP, a local operator of a cable television shopping channel and an online shopping mall platform, plans to unveil a service called Short Picks on Wednesday, which showcases home shopping broadcasts and live commerce videos as short-form content.

Short Picks, lasting around one minute, are condensed versions of product sales presentations broadcasted on GS SHOP’s TV home shopping, data home shopping, and live commerce channels.

About 1,000 selected contents, focusing on popular product categories like fashion, beauty, and food, will be featured on the home tab of its app.

As short-form content gains popularity on platforms like YouTube Shorts, TikTok, and Instagram Reels, GS SHOP has redesigned its app to align with this trend.

When GS SHOP tested randomly selected members before the official launch of the Short Picks service, the company found that customers who viewed Short Picks spent up to nine times more time using the app than the average usage time of all members.

In particular, for product demonstration videos, viewers spent twice as much time compared to the average viewing time.

“Short Picks will provide more exposure opportunities for products, which can be an incentive for partner companies,” said a GS SHOP official.

Some companies are venturing directly into platforms like YouTube and other SNS.

Hyundai Home Shopping Network Corp. launched its own deal commerce YouTube channel Front Ad Production Studio last week, which features an entertainment program concept negotiating prices for specific products.

Once the discount rate is determined on the show, sales are conducted on Hyundai Home Shopping’s official online mall Hmall and mobile live commerce Shopping Live, aiming to expand synergy and attract new customers across Hyundai Home Shopping’s mobile platforms.

“We will strengthen our one source multi-channel strategy that creates synergy by linking various sales channels centered on differentiated entertainment content,” said a Hyundai Home Shopping. “We plan to diversify our customer base with the YouTube channel and our unique content competitiveness.”