Fanatics creates livestream commerce app

Dive Brief:

As the livestream shopping market is expected to rise, Fanatics on Wednesday unveiled its livestream commerce platform, Fanatics Live. It will include limited-edition merchandise, trading card “breaks,” collectible drops and on-location streaming, among other experiences.
The company is working to bring creators, brands and sports leagues onto the platform. Fanatics Live currently has a relationships with Major League Baseball, Slam Magazine and VeeFriends, with more collaborations anticipated this year. The company will also leverage existing Fanatics businesses including Fanatics Authentic, Topps and Lids.
The app is currently available for North American customers on Apple devices, but the company plans to release the web and Android versions later this year.

Dive Insight:

While using Fanatics Live, consumers can participate in live chats and celebrate sports moments in real time. For sellers, the app has its LiveOS hub with an analytics dashboard and various livestream management tools.

“With Fanatics Live, we see a tremendous opportunity to marry content, community, and commerce, and are incredibly excited to officially launch our product,” Nick Bell, CEO of Fanatics Live, said in a statement. “By bringing together like-minded fans and collectors on our platform, coupled with an extensive network of partners across sports, entertainment and culture, Fanatics Live aims to build a trusted environment for fans with highly entertaining, quality programming where commerce is ultimately its by-product.”

In addition to releasing a livestream app, Fanatics also acquired Fexpro, a wholesaler company that licenses U.S. sports leagues for Latin American shoppers, last month.

Meanwhile, more companies are integrating livestream shopping tools onto their platforms. In April, Poshmark released its livestream shopping feature, Posh Shows, enabling sellers to showcase and ship merchandise to shoppers in the U.S. and Canada. Later that month, Qurate Retail Group introduced Sune, a video and livestream shopping platform where customers can buy items from their feed of brands and influencers.

As companies develop their own livestream shopping tools, the livestream commerce market is projected to rise. Coresight Research released a recent report predicting that the livestream e-commerce market would surpass $31 billion this year and rise to $67.8 billion by 2026, accounting for over 5% of e-commerce.