Southeast Asian online fashion and lifestyle retailer Zalora is leaning into livestreaming to drive sales through a new in-app platform called Z-Live.Recently launched in conjunction with Zalora’s Big Fashion Sale, the platform allows consumers to shop while viewing content and enables two-way communication between shoppers and the brand.This interactive shopping model is part of a broader strategic plan at Zalora to bring together content, social and commerce to create engaging experiences. Zalora Group CEO, Gunjan Soni, said it’s about going beyond the commercial transaction.  “Live streaming adds a strong emotional connection to online shopping, which can bridge the gap between online and offline shopping with real people and experts showing the products, answering queries and viewers interacting with the host,” she said.Z-Live will feature five programmes, between 30-60 minutes in length, developed by Zalora and its most sought-after brands across different segments. Each show will have a celebrity host, special guests and will feature exclusive offers and giveaways.In the Friends in Fashion show, style experts discuss hot topics and trends and play interactive games; the Style Challenge invites guests to assemble looks for different occasions; Beauty Files delves into skincare and makeup; while Just For Kicks targets sneakerheads and streetwear enthusiasts. There’s also a show dedicated specifically to deals and sales.While discussing the new platform at a virtual roundtable on Friday, Soni highlighted the importance of tailoring the speakers and content to the needs of the audience. “It has to be local, it has to be very relatable people but, at the same time, people from whom you can learn, and who can bring some form of expertise, depending upon the product category you’re talking about,” she said.“You need to tailor for the geography, you need to tailor for consumer segments within that geography, and then you need to tailor also by the category, and what consumers are really looking for in terms of meaning and knowledge in that particular aspect.”Quality of contentLive streaming e-commerce is growing rapidly and is estimated to hit US$19 billion in South East Asia by 2023, thanks to better connectivity, the rise in disposable income and more  variety in content.Soni said she expects the next three to five years will be “the golden age for live streaming”.“You don’t need huge budgets, first and foremost, that’s the biggest barrier to entry for smaller players,” she said. “I think this creates a fantastic, and more democratic, playing field for various types of brands to engage.”She added that it’s important not to get “too commercial too quickly” and recommends that brands focus on driving the right degree of engagement and quality of content to build trust with consumers.“The quality of content, ultimately, will be the winner. What we’re trying to do at Zalora is create a platform for brands to showcase. But how well you produce the content, how well you’re able to inspire consumers, is what will define the winners and the losers.” “We’ve seen how streaming services first invested in original content, and that led to very strong competition for traditional broadcasters. The same is going to happen [with live streaming] … so we believe that investing in that quality of content is super critical.”Emotion and authenticityThe Z-Live platform has been built in partnership with Singaporean live streaming technology provider BeLive Technology. Kenneth Tan, CEO of BeLive Technology, told the roundtable that live shopping has become one of the important pillars of e-commerce.“The future of e-commerce is personalisation and sentiment-based shopping, which is something live streaming can really push to the next level,” Tan said.“Based on the comments that users are making in the stream, [we can analyse] what kind of users they are and what products they buy.”Tan also highlighted the importance of authenticity in building trust with shoppers. “Trust levels of [live streaming] shoppers is incredibly high, it’s very compelling. People think ‘This person is talking to me, like my friend, so I can trust him or her’.“We see on average from our customers an ‘Add to Cart’ rate of 30 per cent, which is incredibly high. Traditional e-commerce ‘Add to Cart’ rate is like 2 per cent.”Zalora is owned by the Global Fashion Group, parent company of online retailers including The Iconic in Australia, Dafiti in Latin America and Lamoda in Russia and the CIS.