A live selling schedule helps you plan consistent live sales, choose the right sale types and channels, and build a reliable audience. You can use your live-sale history to test different days, times, and durations and identify what drives the best viewership, engagement, and sales.
Use the table of contents below to navigate to specific sections of this article:
- How a Live Selling Schedule Benefits Your Shop
- Determine the Types of Sales You Want to Host
- Create a Live Selling Schedule
- FAQs
How a Live Selling Schedule Benefits Your Shop
- Live selling is the most powerful way to connect with your customers in an authentic, natural way.
- More established shops can see hundreds of dollars per minute in sales, while smaller shops may see $5-10 a minute as they build out a consistent live sale schedule and audience.
- Plan to host one or more sales on a specific sales channel (e.g., your mobile app, Facebook page, webstore, etc.) to drive traffic to that location. It’s great if you’re trying to increase mobile app downloads or Facebook page subscriptions.
Step 1: Determine the Types of Sales You Want to Host
Before you create a live selling schedule, it might help to know what type of sales you want to host. While shoppers thoroughly enjoy a standard live sale, your shop might benefit from trying out a few different sale types.
Let's go over some of these different live sale types:
- Sneak Peek. Tease an upcoming live sale by showing off a few items shoppers can expect to see available for purchase. These can be never-before-seen items that you'll be unboxing live, restocks shoppers have been eagerly awaiting, or even an exclusive promo code shoppers can grab for the future live sale. Some shops even go live from market to tease new items they'll be bringing to their shop and to get shopper input.
- "Power Hour" or Discounted Live. Offer an enticing live sale-only discount that shoppers can use on any items purchased during the live sale. It's a great way to create a sense of urgency and increase sales viewership. No one wants to miss out on a killer deal.
- Shop a Collection/Brand. Feature a specific brand or collection in your live sale. For example, Judy Blue Denim Sale, Accessories Extravaganza, A Candle for Every Room!
- Style a Look. Shops see a lot of success hosting lives built around a particular look or project. For example, Date Night Looks, Style a Kimono 5 Ways, Star Quilt Projects for Beginners, etc.
- New Collections. Launching a new collection? Feature items that are part of that collection. For example, Your Fall Essentials, Beachy Guest Room Looks, Must-Have Holiday Fabrics.
- Gift Ideas. Holidays happen year-round. You can host a live sale that features curated gift ideas depending on the holiday. For example, Gifts for Moms, Stocking Stuffers Everyone Will Love, and Gifts for Your Valentine.
- Mystery Loyalty. Shoppers receive a certain amount of loyalty credit (aka store credit) but won't know how much until they check out. Learn how to offer live sale bonus loyalty credit here.
- Shoppers' Choice. Build a live sale around shopper requests. You can do this live and at the moment with a dynamic sale, or you can run a poll on your social accounts asking shoppers what they want to see in your upcoming "Shoppers Choice" live sale.
Step 2: Create a Live Selling Schedule
Live selling schedules can vary by shop, the size of their team, the type of products offered, and/or the number of social followers or customers.
For example, a well-established shop with a large team, diverse product offering, and a large customer base might go live multiple times a week with a different kind of sale each time. Smaller shops with a smaller team might only have the bandwidth to go live once a week.
The key to growing—and keeping—a viewership is establishing a schedule that shoppers can rely on. If shoppers know that a shop goes live Monday and Wednesday evenings, then they're more likely to tune in.
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What times work for you?
- We recommend you start with days and times you or your "on-air" team will be available to host a live sale.
- Knowing you're able to consistently commit to this time sets your shop up for immediate success.
- If you have multiple days and times you could host, consider polling your followers on Facebook and/or Instagram to see which times they'd be more likely to attend.
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Who are you trying to reach?
- Understanding the "day-in-the-life" of your target audience can help you pinpoint ideal live selling times.
- For example, if you sell baby, infant, and children's clothing your target audience might be stay-at-home moms with school and/or non-school-aged children. These women run to play dates, school events, and sports games during the day, then during the evenings are likely taking care of their children. Early afternoons may be the best time to go live as younger children are down for naps and/or children are at school.
You can test out different days and times during the week, then view live sale history to determine which live sales (which days and which times) are better attended, have larger engagement, and have better overall sales.
Once you determine which days you plan to go live, promote the sale across social media. You can also send app notifications before you go live.
- This will depend on the size of your team.
- Larger or more established shops might employ multiple "on-air" staff, with each individual taking one or two lives each week or month.
- Smaller shops or shops just starting might be more limited in their staff and ability to host multiple lives a week or month.
At a minimum, shops should aim to go live once a week.
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Remember:
- You are trying to grow a base of loyal and engaged shoppers.
- You can easily do this through consistent engagement where your shoppers get to know and interact with you and/or your "on-air" staff.
- You'll build rapport, trust, and a sense of community that will keep shoppers tuning in.
Shops can consider adding another live sale to their schedule when they're ready to push for a new weekly or monthly sales goal. Going live at a different day and/or time can bring in a different demographic or allow for shorter live sales, like a lunchtime sale for 30 minutes.
With CommentSold, you can stream your live sale simultaneously on several platforms: your Facebook page, mobile app, and webstore.
This multichannel approach gives shops a wider reach, especially if the shop is first starting with live selling. As a shop grows, the shop's team can choose to go live on specific platforms. For example, if a shop is launching its branded mobile app, the team might choose to stream a live sale exclusively on the mobile app to drive shoppers to download and use the app.
We recommend you start at 1 hour (or more!).
If that makes you nervous, don't worry. Have a plan to help you fill the time:
- Give yourself a few minutes to say hello as shoppers jump on. Answer questions they have, but ask them questions too. Shoutouts are a great way to make shoppers (especially new shoppers or VIPS) feel welcome.
- Know roughly how long you want to spend talking about each item. This will help you pace yourself and not rush through or spend too long on each item. Give yourself a little extra time to answer any questions that come in.
- Shops typically cover about 20 items in an hour-long live sale.
Take advantage of your Live History page to view detailed viewership data. This can help you determine when shoppers start to drop out of the live sale. You can make adjustments to the length of your live sales accordingly.
FAQs
What is a live selling schedule?
A live selling schedule is a plan for when and how often you host live sales. A consistent schedule helps shoppers know when to expect your next live and can help you build a loyal audience.
How often should I host a live sale?
At a minimum, aim to host a live sale once a week.
Your ideal frequency depends on your team size, available staff, products, and audience. Larger shops may host multiple lives each week, while smaller shops may start with one live per week.
What types of live sales can I host?
You can build your schedule around different live-sale formats, including:
- Sneak Peek: Preview upcoming products, restocks, or exclusive promotions.
- Power Hour or Discounted Live: Offer a live-sale-only discount to create urgency.
- Shop a Collection or Brand: Feature products from a specific brand or collection.
- Style a Look: Build a live around a particular style, project, or use case.
- New Collections: Showcase products from a new collection or seasonal launch.
- Gift Ideas: Feature products around holidays or gifting occasions.
- Mystery Loyalty: Give shoppers an unknown amount of loyalty or store credit that they discover at checkout.
- Shoppers' Choice: Build a live around products requested or selected by your shoppers.
How do I choose the best time for a live sale?
Start with days and times when you and your live-selling team are consistently available.
If you have several possible times, ask your followers which times work best for them. You can also consider your target audience's daily routines when choosing a time.
How can I determine which live-sale times work best?
Test different days and times, then review your Live History data to compare:
- Viewership
- Engagement
- Sales
- Viewer drop-off
Use this information to adjust your schedule based on actual shopper behavior.
Should I promote my live-sale schedule?
Yes. Once you establish your schedule, promote upcoming lives across your social media channels.
You can also send app notifications before a live sale to remind shoppers to tune in.
Where can I stream a live sale?
CommentSold supports streaming live sales across multiple channels, including:
- Your mobile app
- Your webstore
Streaming across multiple channels can help you reach shoppers in different places. As your audience grows, you can also choose to focus specific live sales on a particular channel.
How long should a live sale be?
Start with about one hour or longer and adjust the length based on your audience and performance data.
During an hour-long live, you can:
- Spend a few minutes welcoming shoppers.
- Answer shopper questions and interact with the audience.
- Plan how much time to spend on each product.
- Leave time for questions and conversation.
A typical one-hour live sale may feature around 20 products.
How can I keep a live sale engaging?
Interact with shoppers throughout the live instead of focusing only on products.
You can:
- Welcome shoppers as they join.
- Give shoutouts to new or VIP shoppers.
- Ask shoppers questions.
- Answer questions about products.
- Give yourself enough time to demonstrate or discuss each item.
How can Live History help me improve my schedule?
Live History provides viewership and sales data that can help you determine which live-sale days, times, and durations perform best.
You can use the data to identify when shoppers are most engaged and when viewers begin leaving the live, then adjust your schedule accordingly.
Should smaller shops follow the same live-sale schedule as larger shops?
Not necessarily. Your schedule should match the capacity of your team.
Larger or established shops may be able to host multiple lives each week, while smaller or newer shops may benefit from starting with one consistent live each week.
Can I add another live sale when my sales goals change?
Yes. Consider adding another live when you want to work toward a new weekly or monthly sales goal.
You can also experiment with a different day, time, or shorter format, such as a 30-minute lunchtime live, to reach a different audience.
Why is consistency important for live selling?
A consistent schedule helps shoppers know when to expect your live sales. Regular interaction can help you build familiarity, trust, and a sense of community, which can encourage shoppers to return for future lives.