Newegg’s Livestream Shift Follows Push Toward Self-Made Creators

Digital electronics retailer Newegg is hoping to capitalize on the potentially $1.2 trillion creator economy trend with a series of live streams centered around the holiday shopping season.

According to a Monday (Nov. 21) news release, the company plans to broadcast extended livestreams throughout this upcoming shopping holidays, including 12-hour live events on both Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Produced by Newegg’s in-house video production operation Newegg Media, the livestreams are recorded on studio sets inside Newegg’s California headquarters, said the company, which has seen its stock price decline by 90% in the past year.

“Livestream hosts will highlight special deals curated from thousands of Newegg offers going live before and during Black Friday and Cyber Monday,” the release said. “In addition to showing deals on popular tech products, live stream hosts will play video games, demonstrate products, share gift ideas and interact with viewers in chat.”

The company says viewers can make purchases directly from Newegg’s TikTok and YouTube channels, the Newegg mobile app and its live site.

The first livestream was due to start Monday (Nov. 21) at 1 p.m. ET. On Monday morning, the company’s “live” page showed a video recorded two days ago. The video, small when viewed on a desktop, played better on the company’s mobile site.

With this move, Newegg seems to be attempting to tap into a creator economy that has “quietly but consistently been gaining steam,” as PYMNTS noted recently. Believers in this movement say they value building authentic brand sponsors rather than purchasing them in an age of unsurpassed social media influence.

“Our view at Visa is that we have a commitment to digitally enable small and medium-sized businesses,” Visa Head of Innovation and Digital Partnerships Vanessa Colella said in an interview with PYMNTS’ Karen Webster upon the launch of the company’s new Creator Commerce Program, which aims to transform individuals into paid influencers.

“Whether you’re giving makeup tips or you’re an aspiring musician, it’s all fine for us,” Colella told Webster last month. “What we want to do is make sure that with Visa, these creators can pay, and importantly, get paid,” she noted, calling the rise of creative types “the sole proprietorships of this generation.”

The past few weeks have also seen YouTube debut its creator-centric “From YouTube to You” project. In addition, American Express partnered with TikTok for the “#ShopSmall Accelerator,” a program to offer small businesses social media advice from TikTok creators.

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