Invite a Customer to Join Your Live Sale

Want to invite a customer to join your live sale to give a product review or participate in a live sale contest? With Multi-Source you can! Multi Multi-host multihost

With CommentSold’s multi-source live sale option, you can add an additional live feed to your broadcast. It’s the perfect opportunity to invite a shopper viewing the sale to jump on-air with your host. While live, the customer can give a product review of a featured item or participate in an on-air giveaway or contest. 

Multi-source gives you full control over the experience–from when the customer is live with your main host to how the customer’s feed appears to viewers. When you’re ready to end the customer’s spotlight, you can bump them back to a “waiting room” area or remove them from the broadcast completely.

Below, we walk through the process of inviting a customer to your live sale and how to manage their feed once you’re live.

What’s Different About Going Live With Multi-Source

• No CS Broadcast app needed. You’ll use links from your Multi-Host Live Sale Overview to launch a browser-based camera on the device(s) you’ll use to broadcast.
• Two feeds in one. Your host and customer feeds appear in the same frame, and you can control how they look. Options include fullscreen, split screen, and picture-in-picture.
• Invite after you go live. You don’t need a customer ready to go live when you do—you can add a viewer while on-air via your Multi-Source Live Sale Overview.

Go Live and Invite a Customer

Step 1: Choose Multisource Live Sale Option

1. Select Live in the side menu of your CommentSold dashboard.
2. Select Multisource Live from the options listed at the top of the page.

Step 2: Start Main Host Feed

Your first step on the Live Sale Multi-Source Overview is to start your main host’s feed. At this stage, you’re simply transmitting the audio and video feeds for the main host to the Live Sale Overview for a preview–these feeds are not live yet.

There are three ways to start the feed: by scanning a QR code, copying and sending a link, or using the device where you or a team member are managing the sale.

1. Scan QR Code. Scan the QR code using the camera on the device that the host will use to transmit the audio and visual feeds. A main host will be prompted to log in using their CommentSold credentials.
2. Copy Link. Select this option to copy the browser-based broadcast link to your device. You can then text or email it to the main host’s device. This is a great option if your main host is in a different location than the team member managing the live sale. A main host will be prompted to log in using their CommentSold credentials.
3. Go Live on This Device. If the main host plans to use the device where they’re viewing this page to broadcast their feeds, they can select this button or select the QR code to launch the browser-based broadcast window in a new tab.

If this is the first time the host is broadcasting via their device’s browser, they will need to allow camera and microphone permissions. If denied, their feed will not show on the Live Sale Overview.

Ready to add the customer before you go live? If you already have a customer identified to go live with you, then you can proceed with sending them a link so they can send their feeds to the Live Overview. Learn more about this process here.

Steps 3 & 4: Product Selection and Where to Go Live

Similar to the standard Go Live process, you can proceed with choosing the products you plan to feature during the live sale. You can choose a product selection or add products on the fly.

Once you select your products, you’ll indicate where you wish to go live (e.g., website, mobile app, Instagram, etc.). After you’ve selected your desired locations, select Go Live.

Step 5: Invite a Customer Once You’re Live

Inviting a customer to your live sale after you’re live gives you the opportunity to introduce your sale, maybe even showcase a few products, and when you’re ready for a customer spotlight—either a review, a live giveaway, etc.—you can bring them on live.

1. On your Live Sale Overview, locate the Add User icon to the right of the primary feed.
2. Hover over the icon and select Invite Guest.
3. On the Live Link Invitation pop-up, you have two options:
   • Scan the QR Code. Scan the QR code using your device’s camera and choose the option to Share the link. This will allow you to send the link to the customer via email, text, or other options available on your device.
   • Copy Live Link. Copy the live link to your desktop clipboard, then paste it in a private message or email to the customer.

The Customer’s “Go Live” Experience

Once the customer taps their link, a browser window launches on their device. There they will see the option to Join Stream.  On the broadcast camera screen, they’ll need to approve microphone and camera permissions. Then they can tap the red record button to send their feeds to your Live Sale Overview. Please note that at this time, the customer is not live. You will still need to add them to the live sale “on-air” broadcast, which we cover in the next section.   Note: Guests can select the Settings icon at the bottom of the screen to change out their video and audio sources, if available. For example, a guest could choose their Airpods or bluetooth headphones as their audio source rather than use their device’s microphone.

Add a Customer to a Live Sale Broadcast

Once a customer joins your live sale, they move into a “backstage” or “waiting room” area. You will need to manually add their broadcast stream to the live sale when ready.

1. Locate the customer’s feed to the right of the main feed and select Add to Live.
2. In the Add Guest to Live pop-up, choose how you wish the customer to appear:
   • Full screen. The solid blue option on the left will show either the main host or the customer as the primary feed. You can select the rotate icon on the right side of the pop-up to reverse which feed appears full screen.
   • Split screen. Divide the screen equally between the main host and customer. Feeds stack on top of each other and selecting the rotate icon on the right side of the pop-up changes which feed appears at the top.
   • Picture-in-picture. Have the customer’s feed appear in the bottom-right corner of the host’s feed. Select the rotate icon on the right side of the pop-up to swap the locations of the two feeds.
3. Once you choose your desired appearance, select Add to Live.

Once a customer is live, you will see a red recording icon in the top-left corner of their feed. Your main preview will also reflect the view you just chose. 

A customer’s audio will become part of the live sale broadcast even if they’re not visible (i.e., you have the view as fullscreen with the focus on the main host), and vice versa.

Manage How the Main Host and Customer Feeds Appear

Beneath the main feed, you’ll see three options that control how the host and customer feeds appear. These options are identical to those offered when you added the customer to the live. When you select an option, you’ll launch a preview window that will allow you to preview the change before pushing it live.

• Full screen. The solid blue option on the left will show either the main host or guest host as the primary feed. 
• Split screen. Divide the screen equally between the main and guest hosts. Feeds stack on top of each other.
• Picture-in-picture. Have the guest host feed appear in the bottom-right corner of the host’s feed. 

With each option, you can select the rotate icon to the right of the options to switch perspectives (i.e., feature the guest host feed as primary with the host feed as the picture-in-picture image). Once you’ve selected the new layout, select Change Layout.

What Your Customer Sees While Live

The "on-air" or live experience for your customer is designed to give them an experience similar to the one they would receive as a shopper–with a few differences.

Your customer sees:

• Live Sale Overlay. Your customer will see the current featured product in the live sale overlay. This is identical to the overlay shoppers see and lets the customer know which product is being discussed.
• Your Host. Your customer will see the host’s feed in the bottom right corner of their screen. This is the same feed shoppers see and allows the customer to see what the host is doing.

Remove a Customer from a Live Sale

You have two options when removing a customer from a live sale: send them back to the waiting room or end their broadcast feed completely.

1. Select the red X in the top-right corner of the customer’s feed.
2. On the Remove Guest Host from Live pop-up, select your desired option:
   • Send to waiting room. This option sends the customer back to the “backstage” or “waiting room” area where they can wait to be added to the live sale again. Simply select Add to Live to add them back.
   • Remove and deactivate invite link. If the customer gets unruly or if you’re simply ready to end their featured spotlight, then this option will remove them and ends their feed. A removed customer cannot use their invite link to rejoin the live sale.
3. Select Remove Guest Host.

Once you remove a customer from your live sale broadcast, their feed will refresh to show the Nice work! message pictured on the right. Customers will not be able to rejoin the live sale using the original invite link.