​Streaming live from a screen near you... Quirky sales pitch, hooks not included

But Ms Lerine Yeo, 30, has a talent for coming up with persuasive and funny sales quips within minutes of laying her eyes on a piece of apparel.

Earlier this month, she whipped out a black blouse peppered with metal rings from plastic bags strewn all over the floor of her five-room flat in Yishun.

It was the first time she had seen it but, almost immediately, she realised it was wrongly sent to her. She had not ordered it from the supplier and said she found the design "childish".

Yet, with more than 1,000 eyeballs tuning into her live-stream video on her Misshopper Boutique Facebook page, and 100 holey black tops to sell, she had an idea.

The metal rings reminded her of the holes in her storeroom shelves, where she had attached "S hooks" to hang anything from her son's water bottle to tuition bag to a bamboo cane and toilet rolls.

So she stood in front of the camera and launched into the practical benefits of having such a top.

"Today, you go to market, no hand to carry, no problem, okay?" she exclaimed.

"Buy many this kind of hook... You can put your wonton mee, your kueh png (chicken rice), your whatever, okay?" she continued.

Her quirky sales pitch not only enabled her to sell all 100 pieces in 15 minutes, but the recording went on to garner more than two million views.

Live streaming is a billion-dollar industry in countries such as China, and it is catching on here.

Communication and digital marketing experts say such direct selling appeals to customers who are drawn to the thrill of real-time buying and bidding, as well as the authenticity that comes with being able to interact with the online salesman.

Ms Yeo did not realise she had become the talk of the town until inquiries for the black blouse started flooding her phone and inbox. She is still receiving hundreds of messages asking for that top every day, though it is sold out and she does not intend to bring in more stock.

When asked what her initial reaction to the attention was, she encapsulates it succinctly in a Hokkien and Singlish expression: "Siao liao! (gone crazy)".

Her surprise and fright, she says, are due to her concern over how her candour and dirty humour - which endear her to her viewers - would be received by a broader audience. For instance, in one live video, when cautioning her viewers against buying a dress that may be too short for them, she refers to the female private parts as "seaweed" and "luncheon meat" that may be accidentally exposed.

Ms Yeo says: "It's a way to make my viewers laugh and help them destress, as many have their own problems. They also need to be entertained so that they will stick around, as I can take 20 minutes to sell all 100 pieces of a top before I move on to another design."

Assistant professor Daniel He from the department of marketing at National University of Singapore Business School says Ms Yeo's videos have succeeded because she is able to relate to her target audience.

"Her videos stand out, as the Singlish expressions add local flavour, as do the silly but relatable situations like struggling to find your Transit/ez-link card when your hands are full," he adds.

Ms Yeo started her Misshopper Boutique business in March this year, initially with only 20 to 30 people watching her live broadcasts.

Slowly, her following grew to the hundreds. On a good day, her live video can get some 1,500 viewers.

To the feisty woman, anything can be sold. Most of her items are usually sold out after their first appearance on the live video. She estimates her profit margin is a few thousand dollars a month.

Unlike other blogshops which describe the colours of their wares as the usual "ivory white", "pearl white" or "baby blue", Ms Yeo relates to her buyers as a heartlander by using familiar terms such as Panadol pink, 7pm sky colour or Comfort taxi blue.

She and her family members have been attacked by netizens who posted snide comments after the videos went viral. Some questioned her upbringing and asked why she had to resort to such sales tactics.

She says: "If it's about me, I've become numb to it all. But when it's targeted at my family, I feel hurt."

Her husband, who works in the finance industry but who she does not want to name, comforted her when she felt down after reading the online criticism. They have an eight-year-old son who is as talkative and outgoing as her, though the boy is not aware of the hype surrounding her videos.

But, she admits, it is mostly a "happy problem". As a mini-Internet celebrity, she has since received many business and personal propositions.

Few people, however, know that her gift of the gab was honed from more than 15 years of selling anything from underwear to bags to earrings during her younger days.

Like most teenagers, she coveted the latest fad items of the day then.

"If my friends had Converse shoes, I wanted Converse. If they had outdoor bags, I also wanted them," she recalls.

Rather than pester her parents for money to buy them, which proved unsuccessful, she worked for a few hours after secondary school each afternoon at a clothing stall at the street market in Bugis Village to earn more pocket money, but lied to her parents that she was giving tuition classes.

"At first, I just stand there, gong gong (blur). Customers ask then I answer, but I don't know how to approach people to sell things," says Ms Yeo in her trademark Singlish. She studied multimedia at the Institute of Technical Education (ITE).

Over the years, she grew in confidence and picked up sales skills by working at more than 10 stalls at Bugis Village. Even after she got married at 21, she continued renting spots at flea markets or pushcarts at shopping malls to sell things during the weekend.

All the full-time jobs she took on after graduating from ITE were administrative office jobs.

"Ya lah, it's boring and it's a dead thing. Do the same thing over and over again. But it's only five days a week and I can leave on the dot. A retail job needs long hours and work on weekends," she says.

So she held on to her office job but sold apparel on the side. When orders became too much to handle, she quit her administrative job in May to sell clothes online full-time. She sources her clothes from Thailand and China.

Being an online retailer is tiring, she says. Her longest live-streaming session lasted for eight hours, from 8pm to 4am, because the buyers were keen to view more items.

Comments left by viewers describe her way of selling things as creative, authentic and hilarious.

She adds: "They also call me a true-blue Singaporean, but I don't know what that means."

By 2020, the live-streaming industry in China is estimated to be worth 100 billion yuan (S$19.8 billion) - driven largely by the many young Chinese making a living from showcasing their lives or products to others in real time.

And while the market in Singapore is not as big, the last few years have seen individuals and businesses starting to sell anything from seafood to clothing to electronic and beauty products via live video.

Communication and digital marketing experts say the appeal of live streaming lies in the thrill of interacting with the seller and snagging a bargain in front of hundreds of people who are watching.

"Being live increases engagement and a sense of urgency, as one will miss it if one does not take action to view it now. This is a great way to create marketing buzz and excitement," says Dr Jimmy Wong, senior lecturer of marketing at the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS). He adds that cheaper mobile data plans have contributed to the trend.

Businesses benefit because they are able to reach a large group of people at the same time.

Experts say video or digital marketing works because it does not come across as an advertisement.

"It is like the next level of blogging but, instead of using words, you use videos," says Dr Wong.

"Once your audience is willing to watch your video, it will not come across as though you are selling something. Instead, the audience will feel that you are making a sincere recommendation."

Associate Professor Lynda Wee from the division of Marketing and International Business at Nanyang Technological University agrees that videos or live streaming work, as the seller develops a relationship with customers first.

Prof Wee says: "Engage first, then endear, to make customers remember. Selling proposition comes last."

The experts say authenticity is what sets such live videos apart from other marketing platforms, as they require genuine interaction with the audience.

Globally, many companies have tapped video marketing to enhance their brand and expand their reach. Examples include British Airways' safety videos, to make a point on how passengers feel about them, and Tide's video ads, which use humour and surprise to promote its washing detergent.

However, video marketing may not necessarily translate to boosted sales, says Dr Brian Lee, head of the communication programme at SUSS.

"It is easy to increase awareness with video marketing. However, it may not help positively the brand image, especially if the video is very much just for laughs.

"So new brands should be cautious when they want to use it to launch their products or services."

Source: The Straits Times, 30 September 2018