Coresight Research projects US livestream shopping sales to reach $68 billion in 2026, more than double the level of three years earlier and above 5% of US e-commerce, with an estimated 86 million Americans having already bought through a live stream (Coresight Research, cited in Palmstreet press release, August 2026). Outside the US the format is further along: video commerce now accounts for 25% of Southeast Asian e-commerce GMV, up from less than 5% in 2022 (Google, Temasek and Bain, e-Conomy SEA 2025), and China’s Kuaishou alone processed RMB1,598.1 billion of e-commerce GMV in 2025 (Kuaishou 2025 annual results). The US leaders are scaling fast, with eBay Live GMV up roughly eight times year over year in Q2 2026, while the format’s original pioneer, QVC Group, headed into Chapter 11 in April 2026. The creator side of the story connects to our micro-influencer brand deal rate statistics. We aggregated data from Coresight Research, the US Census Bureau, Google, Temasek and Bain, Momentum Works, Kuaishou, CNNIC, China’s National Bureau of Statistics, eBay, QVC Group, TechCrunch reporting on Whatnot, TikTok via EMARKETER and peer-reviewed journals including MIS Quarterly and the Journal of Business Research.
TL;DR
- US livestream shopping sales projected at $68 billion in 2026, above 5% of US e-commerce (Coresight Research, via Palmstreet 2026).
- An estimated 86 million Americans have purchased through live shopping (Coresight Research, via Palmstreet 2026).
- Video commerce is 25% of Southeast Asian e-commerce GMV in 2025, up from less than 5% in 2022 (e-Conomy SEA 2025).
- 80% of top-performing video commerce products in Southeast Asia are featured in livestreams (e-Conomy SEA 2025).
- Kuaishou e-commerce GMV reached RMB1,598.1 billion in 2025, up 15.0% (Kuaishou 2025 annual results).
- Kuaishou had 143 million monthly active e-commerce paying users in Q4 2024, a 19.5% MAU penetration rate (Kuaishou 2024 annual results).
- eBay Live GMV grew roughly eight times year over year across seven markets in Q2 2026 (eBay Q2 2026 earnings release).
- Whatnot’s valuation passed $11 billion after a $225 million Series F, with more than 1 billion orders (TechCrunch, July 2026).
- TikTok Shop US GMV exceeded $500 million over Black Friday to Cyber Monday 2025; livestream sellers saw 84% sales growth (TikTok via EMARKETER, December 2025).
- QVC Group’s QxH revenue fell to $5.9 billion in 2025 from $6.6 billion, ahead of a Chapter 11 filing (QVC Group 10-K 2025).
- Giving streamers real-time presale data lifted product sales by about 40.21% in a randomized field experiment (MIS Quarterly 2025).
1. Market Size: How Big Live Shopping Is in the US and Southeast Asia
The headline US number is large in absolute terms and small in relative ones. Coresight Research projects US livestream shopping sales to reach $68 billion in 2026 and to surpass 5% of US e-commerce (Palmstreet press release citing Coresight Research, August 2026). For scale, the Census Bureau puts US retail e-commerce at $340.2 billion in a single quarter, Q2 2026, or 17.1% of total retail sales (US Census Bureau, Quarterly Retail E-Commerce Sales). Live shopping is a real channel in the US, but it is still a sliver of a market that grew 12.2% year over year without it.
Southeast Asia shows what mainstream adoption looks like. The e-Conomy SEA 2025 report finds that video commerce, which includes livestream selling, reached 25% of regional e-commerce GMV in 2025 and grew to 2.5 times its GMV in two years (Google, Temasek and Bain, e-Conomy SEA 2025). The question in that region is no longer whether shoppers will buy on a stream; it is whether sellers can make money on cheap baskets.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| US livestream shopping sales, 2026 projection | $68 billion (more than double three years earlier) | Coresight Research, via Palmstreet 2026 |
| US livestream share of e-commerce, 2026 projection | Above 5% | Coresight Research, via Palmstreet 2026 |
| Americans who have bought via live shopping | 86 million (estimate) | Coresight Research, via Palmstreet 2026 |
| US retail e-commerce, Q2 2026 | $340.2 billion, 17.1% of retail, +12.2% YoY | US Census Bureau, August 2026 |
| Southeast Asia e-commerce GMV, 2025 | $181 billion SEA-6 (+16%), $185 billion ASEAN-10 | e-Conomy SEA 2025 |
| Southeast Asia platform e-commerce GMV, 2025 | $157.6 billion | Momentum Works, Ecommerce in Southeast Asia 2026 |
| Video commerce GMV growth in Southeast Asia | 2.5 times in two years (2023 to 2025) | e-Conomy SEA 2025 |
Context note: the two Southeast Asia totals differ by more than $20 billion because e-Conomy SEA counts six or ten countries and all e-commerce, while Momentum Works measures platform GMV. Coresight’s US figures reached us through a company press release rather than the paywalled report itself, so treat them as Coresight’s projection, not a measured total.
2. Southeast Asia: Video Commerce Becomes a Quarter of Online Retail
No region has moved faster. Video commerce went from less than 5% of Southeast Asian e-commerce GMV in 2022 to 25% in 2025 (e-Conomy SEA 2025). That growth has come from volume, not price: transaction volume rose 50% year over year, while the average video commerce order was only $6 to $7, against $11 to $13 for e-commerce overall in 2025.
That combination says something about the format’s economics. Livestreams are excellent at moving impulse-priced goods to large audiences, and the report notes that 80% of top-performing video commerce products are featured in livestreams. The same pattern of small, frequent purchases shows up in creator storefronts, covered in our creator merchandise and print-on-demand statistics.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Video commerce share of SEA e-commerce GMV, 2025 | 25% | e-Conomy SEA 2025 |
| Video commerce share, 2022 / 2023 / 2024 | Less than 5% / 13% / 20% | e-Conomy SEA 2025 |
| Video commerce transaction volume growth | +50% YoY | e-Conomy SEA 2025 |
| Video commerce average order value, 2025 | $6 to $7 | e-Conomy SEA 2025 |
| Overall e-commerce average order value | $11 to $13 (2025), $13 to $15 (2024) | e-Conomy SEA 2025 |
| Top-performing video commerce products featured in livestreams | 80% | e-Conomy SEA 2025 |
Context note: e-Conomy SEA is the 10th edition of the annual study by Google, Temasek and Bain & Company, and it reports video commerce as a regional total for the SEA-6 markets without a country-by-country split. Its live commerce figures include short-video shopping as well as live streams.
3. China: Kuaishou’s GMV and the Shift Toward Shelf Shopping
China remains the reference market, but its public data now comes mostly from platforms. Kuaishou reported total e-commerce GMV of RMB1,598.1 billion in 2025, up 15.0%, after RMB1,389.6 billion in 2024, up 17.3% (Kuaishou, Q4 and full year 2025 results; Kuaishou, Q4 and full year 2024 results). Growth is slowing from a very high base, and the mix is changing: pan-shelf-based e-commerce, meaning search and storefront purchases, reached 30.0% of GMV in Q4 2024 and over 32.0% in Q2 2025 (Kuaishou, Q2 2025 results).
That leaves roughly 70% of Q4 2024 GMV (100 minus 30) in content-driven channels such as live streams and short video. The trend is that live streams now seed demand that shoppers complete later in a storefront, which explains why Kuaishou’s Q1 2026 release emphasized that e-commerce intent-driven search page views grew 11.0% and that new and returning buyers from the shopping mall tab rose about 36.0% in March 2026 (Kuaishou, Q1 2026 results).
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Kuaishou e-commerce GMV, 2025 | RMB1,598.1 billion (+15.0%) | Kuaishou 2025 annual results |
| Kuaishou e-commerce GMV, Q4 2025 | RMB521.8 billion (+12.9%) | Kuaishou 2025 annual results |
| Kuaishou e-commerce GMV, 2024 | RMB1,389.6 billion (+17.3%) | Kuaishou 2024 annual results |
| Monthly active e-commerce paying users, Q4 2024 | 143 million (+10.0%), 19.5% MAU penetration | Kuaishou 2024 annual results |
| Monthly average paying users, Q2 2025 | 134 million | Kuaishou Q2 2025 results |
| Pan-shelf-based share of GMV | 30.0% (Q4 2024), over 32.0% (Q2 2025) | Kuaishou 2024 annual results; Q2 2025 results |
| Active marketing merchants, Q1 2026 | +38.0% YoY (brand merchant marketing spend +42.0%) | Kuaishou Q1 2026 results |
Context note: Kuaishou’s Q2 2026 release did not report a total e-commerce GMV figure, so 2025 is the latest full-year number. Kuaishou’s separate “live streaming” revenue line is virtual gifting, not commerce: it was RMB39.1 billion in 2025 (+5.5%) and RMB8.7 billion in Q2 2026 (-13.5%) (Kuaishou, Q2 2026 results). Gifting economics are closer to the tipping models in our Twitch Bits and live streaming donation statistics.
4. China’s Online Shopper Base: The Audience Behind Live Commerce
Live commerce in China sits on top of an online shopping habit that is close to saturation. China had 974 million online shopping users in December 2024, 87.9% of all internet users (CNNIC, 55th Statistical Report on China’s Internet Development). By December 2025 the internet population itself reached 1.125 billion, with penetration at 80.1% (CNNIC, 57th Statistical Report).
With so few new shoppers left to win, growth now comes from share shifts between channels rather than new users. National online retail grew 4.6% in the first eight months of 2026 (National Bureau of Statistics of China, January to August 2026), while Kuaishou’s GMV grew 15.0% in 2025. The periods differ, but the gap suggests content-led platforms are growing faster than online retail as a whole.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| China internet users, December 2025 | 1.125 billion, 80.1% penetration | CNNIC 57th Report (2026) |
| China online shopping users, December 2024 | 974 million, 87.9% of internet users | CNNIC 55th Report (2025) |
| Digital consumption users, H1 2025 | More than 958 million (85.3% of internet users) | CNNIC Digital Consumption Report 2025 |
| Digital consumption total, H1 2025 | RMB9.37 trillion | CNNIC Digital Consumption Report 2025 |
| Online retail sales of goods and services, January to August 2026 | RMB13,476.6 billion (+4.6%) | National Bureau of Statistics of China, 2026 |
| Online retail sales of physical goods, January to August 2026 | RMB8,419.5 billion (+4.3%) | National Bureau of Statistics of China, 2026 |
Context note: the CNNIC summary pages we could read do not break out live streaming or e-commerce live streaming users for 2024 or 2025, and the full PDF reports could not be parsed, so this roundup does not report a CNNIC live commerce user count. The digital consumption figures come from CNNIC’s 2025 digital consumption report.
5. US Platforms: Whatnot, eBay Live and TikTok Shop
The US market is consolidating around a few platforms, each with a different angle: collectibles auctions, a legacy marketplace adding live, and a social app adding checkout. eBay said eBay Live GMV grew roughly eight times year over year across its seven markets in Q2 2026 (eBay, Q2 2026 earnings release), after expanding to Germany and Australia in 2025 and to France, Italy and Canada in early 2026. eBay’s 2025 annual report now names live commerce among the categories it competes with (eBay 10-K for 2025).
Whatnot is the clearest pure-play signal. Its valuation passed $11 billion after a $225 million Series F, and sellers have surpassed 1 billion orders (TechCrunch, July 2026), up from a $4.97 billion valuation and annual GMV above $3 billion in January 2025 (TechCrunch, January 2025). TikTok’s peak-season data shows the same momentum at social scale.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| eBay Live GMV growth, Q2 2026 | Roughly 8 times YoY, across seven markets | eBay Q2 2026 earnings release |
| eBay total GMV, Q2 2026 / full year 2025 | $22.4 billion (+15%) / $79.6 billion (+7%) | eBay earnings releases, 2026 |
| Whatnot valuation and latest round | Above $11 billion after $225 million Series F | TechCrunch, July 2026 |
| Whatnot orders and buyer growth | More than 1 billion orders; 20 million buyers added in a year | TechCrunch, July 2026 |
| Whatnot live video processed | More than 500,000 hours per week | TechCrunch, July 2026 |
| Whatnot annual livestream GMV, January 2025 | Above $3 billion (above $2 billion in October 2024) | TechCrunch, 2025 and 2024 |
| TikTok Shop US GMV, Black Friday to Cyber Monday 2025 | Above $500 million; nearly 50% more shoppers | TikTok via EMARKETER, December 2025 |
| TikTok livestream sellers over the same period | 84% sales growth; 760,000+ sessions; 1.6 billion views | TikTok via EMARKETER, December 2025 |
Context note: Whatnot is private, so its figures are company disclosures reported by TechCrunch rather than audited filings. The TikTok numbers come from TikTok’s own disclosure as summarized by EMARKETER; the full article was behind a bot check. EMARKETER also forecasts that 51% of US social buyers will shop on TikTok in 2026 (EMARKETER, US Social Commerce Forecast 2026). At brand level, TikTok reports that haircare company Bask and Lather generated more than $20 million in TikTok Shop GMV from January through August 2026 (TikTok Newsroom, October 2026).
6. Legacy Live Shopping: QVC Group’s Collapse and Pivot
The company that has sold through live TV since 1986 is the cautionary tale. QVC Group’s QxH business, including its digital platforms, generated $5.9 billion in 2025, down from $6.6 billion in 2024, and the company said it intended to file voluntary Chapter 11 cases on or about April 15, 2026 (QVC Group 10-K for 2025). The live format did not fail; the cable-TV distribution model around it did.
QVC is trying to move its studio machine onto social platforms. A management presentation filed with the SEC shows its streaming audience grew from about 50,000 monthly active users in January 2023 to more than 1.5 million by January 2025, with streaming tracking above 10% of QxH revenue on an attributed basis in 2025 (QVC Group, Exhibit 99.3, April 2026). By May 2026 QVC produced more than 220 live hours a week across five TikTok Live channels (QVC press release, May 2026), and TikTok brought QVC Group 1 million new customers in 2025 (Coresight Research, Shoptalk Fall 2026 coverage).
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| QxH revenue, 2025 vs 2024 | $5.9 billion vs $6.6 billion | QVC Group 10-K 2025 |
| QVC unique customers, 2025 | About 10.3 million (QxH 6.6 million, International 3.7 million) | QVC Group 10-K 2025 |
| US live programming | 20 hours a day, 364 days a year, about 82 million TV households | QVC Group 10-K 2025 |
| Share of QVC revenue from e-commerce, 2025 | About 63% (QxH digital 66.9%) | QVC Group 10-K 2025 |
| Streaming audience | About 50,000 MAU (January 2023) to 1.5 million+ (January 2025) | QVC Group, Exhibit 99.3, 2026 |
| Live hours on TikTok | 220+ per week across five TikTok Live channels; 95,000+ products on TikTok Shop | QVC press release, May 2026 |
| New customers from TikTok, 2025 | 1 million | Coresight Research, Shoptalk Fall 2026 |
| Chapter 11 filing | On or about April 15, 2026, Southern District of Texas | QVC Group 10-K 2025 |
Context note: the same SEC exhibit cites an eMarketer and Statista projection of US social commerce sales growing from $71,620 million in 2024 to $159,399 million in 2029, a 17% CAGR, but it does not separate live commerce from other social shopping. QVC also says its content operation produces more than 40,000 hours a year on more than 20 soundstages.
7. What Drives Livestream Sales: Evidence From Field Data and Experiments
Academic work has moved from surveys of purchase intention to field data and randomized tests. In a randomized field experiment on a major platform, streamers given presale product data increased product sales by approximately 40.21% compared with a control group (He, Huang, Wang and Sun, MIS Quarterly 2025). The mechanism was “data-driven improvisation” in promotions, language and presentation, and the gains were larger for streamers with better improvisational skills.
Automation is the next test. A study of 924,036 products from 21,190 streaming shows in 123 broadcasting rooms over four months found that AI streamers can substitute for humans in utilitarian contexts but not in hedonic consumption (Yuan, Lu and Fang, Journal of Business Research 2024). Human presenters still matter where the purchase is about mood, taste or identity, which is also where voice, pacing and audio quality on a stream do the selling; our guide to streamer voice effects covers the audio side of live production.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Sales lift from giving streamers real-time presale data | About 40.21% vs control (randomized field experiment) | He et al., MIS Quarterly 2025 |
| AI vs human streamer dataset | 924,036 products, 21,190 shows, 123 rooms, four months | Yuan, Lu and Fang, Journal of Business Research 2024 |
| AI streamer substitution result | Substitutes in utilitarian, not hedonic, contexts | Yuan, Lu and Fang, Journal of Business Research 2024 |
| Viewer comments vs streamer halo (4 experiments) | 1,227 participants; negative viewer comments outweigh positive streamer impressions | Yun and Meng, International Journal of Electronic Commerce 2025 |
| Human vs AI anchor trust study | N = 439 | Lin, Zou and Wang, Frontiers in Psychology 2026 |
| Douyin fresh durian buyers surveyed | 428 verified buyers plus 18 interviews | Xu et al., PLoS One 2026 |
| Agency-managed streamers on Kuaishou | +60% (2024), +30% YoY (Q2 2025) | Kuaishou 2024 and Q2 2025 results |
Context note: the experiments here mostly use Chinese platforms and samples, so effect sizes may not transfer directly to US audiences. Survey studies such as the durian study (Xu et al., PLoS One 2026) and the eye-tracking study of 95 participants on anchor pairings (Ma et al., Scientific Reports 2026) measure intentions and attention rather than completed purchases. Captions and on-screen text matter for silent viewers too, as covered in our short-form video caption statistics.
Summary: Live Shopping and Livestream Commerce by the Numbers
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| US livestream shopping sales, 2026 projection | $68 billion | Coresight Research, via Palmstreet 2026 |
| US livestream share of e-commerce, 2026 projection | Above 5% | Coresight Research, via Palmstreet 2026 |
| Americans who have bought via live shopping | 86 million | Coresight Research, via Palmstreet 2026 |
| US retail e-commerce, Q2 2026 | $340.2 billion (17.1% of retail) | US Census Bureau 2026 |
| Video commerce share of SEA e-commerce GMV | 25% (2025), less than 5% (2022) | e-Conomy SEA 2025 |
| Video commerce transaction volume growth, SEA | +50% YoY | e-Conomy SEA 2025 |
| Video commerce average order value, SEA | $6 to $7 | e-Conomy SEA 2025 |
| Kuaishou e-commerce GMV, 2025 | RMB1,598.1 billion (+15.0%) | Kuaishou 2025 annual results |
| Kuaishou monthly e-commerce paying users, Q4 2024 | 143 million | Kuaishou 2024 annual results |
| Kuaishou pan-shelf share of GMV | Over 32.0% (Q2 2025) | Kuaishou Q2 2025 results |
| China online shopping users | 974 million (December 2024) | CNNIC 55th Report |
| China online retail, January to August 2026 | RMB13,476.6 billion (+4.6%) | National Bureau of Statistics of China |
| eBay Live GMV growth, Q2 2026 | Roughly 8 times YoY | eBay Q2 2026 earnings release |
| Whatnot valuation | Above $11 billion | TechCrunch, July 2026 |
| Whatnot orders | More than 1 billion | TechCrunch, July 2026 |
| TikTok Shop US GMV, BFCM 2025 | Above $500 million | TikTok via EMARKETER 2025 |
| QxH revenue, 2025 | $5.9 billion (from $6.6 billion) | QVC Group 10-K 2025 |
| QVC live hours on TikTok | 220+ per week | QVC press release 2026 |
| Sales lift from real-time data for streamers | About 40.21% | MIS Quarterly 2025 |
Methodology and Sources
Every figure above was read during research for this article in a company filing or earnings release, a government statistics release, a published industry report, a peer-reviewed paper or a named news report quoting a company. Where a figure reached us through an intermediary (Coresight via a Palmstreet press release, TikTok via EMARKETER, Whatnot via TechCrunch), we name both.
- Coresight Research: US livestream shopping projection, cited in Palmstreet press release, August 21, 2026; Shoptalk Fall 2026 Day 2 coverage
- US Census Bureau: Quarterly Retail E-Commerce Sales, Q2 2026 (August 18, 2026)
- Google, Temasek and Bain & Company: e-Conomy SEA 2025 report
- Momentum Works: Ecommerce in Southeast Asia 2026
- Kuaishou Technology: Q4 and FY2025 results, Q4 and FY2024 results, Q2 2025 results, Q1 2026 results, Q2 2026 results
- China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC): 55th Statistical Report, 57th Statistical Report, Digital Consumption Report 2025
- National Bureau of Statistics of China: Total Retail Sales of Consumer Goods, January to August 2026
- eBay: Q2 2026 earnings release, Q4 2025 earnings release, Form 10-K for 2025
- Whatnot (via TechCrunch): July 15, 2026, January 8, 2025
- TikTok: BFCM 2025 data via EMARKETER (December 3, 2025), TikTok Newsroom, UNGA 2026 (October 1, 2026); EMARKETER: US Social Commerce Forecast 2026
- QVC Group: Form 10-K for 2025 (April 15, 2026), Form 8-K Exhibit 99.3, management presentations (April 2026), QVC 40th anniversary TikTok Shop press release (May 28, 2026)
- Peer-reviewed research: He, Huang, Wang and Sun, MIS Quarterly 2025; Yuan, Lu and Fang, Journal of Business Research 2024; Yun and Meng, International Journal of Electronic Commerce 2025; Lin, Zou and Wang, Frontiers in Psychology 2026; Xu et al., PLoS One 2026; Ma et al., Scientific Reports 2026
- Data watch: There is no single official measure of live commerce. Coresight’s $68 billion US figure is a projection and was read through a company press release because the Coresight reports themselves are paywalled; we could not confirm the year Coresight first published it. Southeast Asia totals conflict ($181 billion SEA-6 from e-Conomy SEA vs $157.6 billion platform GMV from Momentum Works) because of different scopes. Kuaishou’s GMV includes shelf-based storefront sales, not only live streams, and its Q2 2026 release did not report total GMV. CNNIC full reports could not be parsed, so no 2025 count of e-commerce live streaming users is included; China’s Ministry of Commerce pages we read for January to August 2026 did not report livestream sales. McKinsey’s live commerce research, Grand View Research and EMARKETER’s full articles were blocked (403 or bot checks) and were not used beyond the EMARKETER summaries cited. Whatnot and TikTok figures are company disclosures, not audited filings. Unattributed China live commerce user and anchor counts found in academic introductions were dropped.
Last updated: October 3, 2026. We update this roundup quarterly, and the next refresh is expected when Kuaishou, eBay and the US Census Bureau publish their Q3 2026 results and the e-Conomy SEA 2026 report is released.