Interactive live video streaming provider Bambuser and AMF Fastigheter, one of Sweden’s largest real estate companies, have combined forces to bring live video shopping into physical stores to link in-store salespeople and experts to customers at home for an interactive and personal experience.

This interactive concept should make physical stores more experience-based using technology to strengthen retail both online and offline and open opportunities for Bambuser to expand into physical stores and omnichannel players.

This partnership follows a pilot initiative with shopping centre Mood Stockholm, which launched a live broadcast fashion and lifestyle series that offered both shopping and inspiration by lifting brands and profiles operating in the shopping mall.

Research shows that an omnichannel retail offering creates a halo effect for retailers with physical stores increasing online sales up to 110%, which drops off if physical stores are closed. However, in the shadow of the pandemic, ecommerce has created new demands and challenges for physical premises. Now, to differentiate themselves from ecommerce, retailers need to conceptualise their stores differently to create an experience for the consumer using digital advancements.

The value that many retailers deliver is the specialist experience they provide in-store. With the pandemic came the opportunity to realise this digitally. By using this technology, a salesperson in a store can reach customers all over the country, providing a specialised and tailored experience digitally and increasing digital foot traffic.

“Retail is undergoing the biggest transformation in modern history,” said Maryam Ghahremani, CEO at Bambuser. “This is partly due to digitalisation, a change in customer behaviour and new target groups that are growing in a new digital landscape. The physical store is very important, but its traditional role as only a sales channel is already over.”

She said live video shopping was a textbook example of how online and offline could live in symbiosis and a perfect way to connect the various channels seamlessly.

“It can contribute to increased reach by making staff available to a digital audience, and it can just as easily work to increase the attractiveness of a physical location,” she said.

Annelie Gullström, head of new business and innovation at AMF Fastigheter, added: “It feels great to be able to present our partnership with Bambuser. At AMF Fastigheter, we have a history of exploring new aspects of the physical customer experience, while Bambuser is at the forefront of the digital customer meeting. Together, we hope to blur the boundaries between digital and physical commerce and explore tomorrow’s encounters between customers, brands and shopping. Something we got a taste of this summer when we launched Summer Mood TV.”

Bambuser is a software company specialising in interactive live video streaming. The company’s primary product, live video shopping, is cloud-based software that is used by customers such as global ecommerce and retail businesses to host live shopping experiences on web sites, mobile apps and social media. Bambuser was founded in 2007 and has its headquarters in Stockholm.

AMF Fastigheter is one of Sweden’s largest property investment and development companies, focusing mainly on urban commercial office and retail premises. A subsidiary of the insurance company AMF, it owns several shopping centres including Gallerian, Mood Stockholm, Fältöversten, Västermalmsgallerian and Ringen Centrum with a property portfolio totalling a market value of approximately SEK73bn.

• Bambuser says it has signed a pilot agreement to power live video shopping for an unnamed iconic British luxury fashion label. The agreement gives the customer the right to use live video shopping at a fixed cost of £35,000 for the next three months.