Sunday, January 8, 2023

Welcome to the Live Shopping Era

Nearly a year ago, Zoreen Kabani was consumed by an overwhelming sense of ennui. She felt stagnant, and, quite frankly, bored at the job she'd had for the last nine years. So, the 35-year-old financial advisor switched to another company—and then promptly quit two weeks later. It wasn't where she worked, she realized, but what she did.

It wasn't until her brother introduced her to Whatnot, a livestreaming shopping platform-cum-online marketplace that co-founder Grant LaFontaine describes as "eBay meets Twitch," that she found her calling. For the first few months, Kabani was a spectator, tuning into livestreams and getting to know the streamers, before going live for the first time in June. In the months that followed, Kabani had sold an estimated 6,000 products, garnered a following of nearly 10,000, and made $12,000 in her first month alone, and, remarkably, $50,000 in the first three.

"I fell in love with it right away, and now, Whatnot is my life," says the Dallas-Fort Worth-based streamer, who adheres to a rigorous Monday to Friday schedule, going live at 10 P.M. ET to an audience ranging from 85 to 200 people and selling clothing that she sources from anywhere, from online sales to thrift stores and other people's closets. "I treat this like my corporate job. I shop constantly—and that's been my thing: dressing up and looking cute. It's something my clients look for, to see what I'm wearing."

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