Features March 15, 2023

Why Live Selling Works, According to Shoppertainment Co-founder and CEO Hiyasmin Neri-Soyao

By marrying the concept of e-commerce and content creation, Shoppertainment Co-Founder and CEO Hiyasmin Neri-Soyao pioneered a future-ready way for businesses to grow digitally.

Before Shoppertainment Live, Inc. became the full-production live selling or livestream shopping network that it is known for today, it first started out as a small shared space with a makeshift cloth backdrop and some Christmas lights. A mere three employees were running the show, while the company’s Co-Founder and CEO acted as both talent and boss.

To date, Shoppertainment has more than 250 brand partners under its wing and proudly boasts of a revenue increase of 300 times versus its first year of operations… all in a span of two years! What’s more, the company has expanded its studios to an 11,000 sqft space—taking up three floors of their current office building.

While the monumental success was a product of ingenuity, many months of hustling, and a big idea that just worked, it also took the leadership of a skilled captain to steer the business to its success. And at the helm of this live selling network is Hiyasmin “Yas” Neri-Soyao—the Co-Founder and CEO and a woman leader in her own right.

In this exclusive interview with The Business Manual, Yas reveals how it all came to fruition—stemming of course from how she made live selling work.

From Humble Beginnings—Despite expanding into a three-floor studio and office space, Hiyasmin Neri-Soyao preserved the small shared area where Shoppertainment started out as a fond reminder of the growth they’ve achieved in a span of three years.

From Home Shopping Network to Live Selling

A former shop host—popularly known for her stint at TV channel O Shopping—Yas was no stranger to the limelight, as she has also been an ABS-CBN talent and a content producer for lifestyle publications like One Mega Group, ANC, and Rappler.

But now, the multi-hyphenated woman gears up for yet another role as the Co-Founder and CEO of the country’s pioneer full-production live selling network, Shoppertainment Live Inc.

Established in 2019, Shoppertainment was co-founded by Yas together with her husband Patt Sayao—the CEO and co-founder of ICON Executive Asia—Ace Gapuz, the CEO of Blogapalooza, and Steve Sy, founder of Great Deals E-Commerce Corp. This coming-together of digital game-changers was serendipitous in nature, as it began with a chance encounter.

“One of our partners [Steve Sy] was actually an Alibaba entrepreneur,” Yas recounts. “He saw that there was this new trend in China—home shopping but on mobile e-commerce. Back then, I was working in the TV network and I knew that there were big opportunities in digital. So with my background in home TV shopping and the opportunity of putting that here in the Philippines—home TV shopping but on mobile—we were able to create something called Shoppertainment.”

“Another opportunity is that in digital, you always have to get some revenue from ads. But I had a brand back then in the network and I felt like it was kind of a long negotiation of sales,” she continues. “But with real-time shopping, which I saw from home TV shopping, I saw that there was revenue while it was actually airing. So I saw those opportunities and tried to integrate [them into the business].”

Thus taking the concept of live selling to a whole new level, Shoppertainment is responsible for conceptualizing and executing live selling episodes that are tailored to their brands’ needs. By bringing together the concept of e-commerce and content creation, live selling can be used not just to sell and generate revenue, but also as a means to improve the online shopping experience.

“We offer everything you need to amplify your brand’s digital presence—from an in-house team of e-commerce natives and highly-skilled creatives to studios dedicated to full video productions,” she explains. “Best of all, through every informative livestream shopping episode, we help [a brand’s] customers shop smart—so all they need to do is add-to-cart.”

A multi-hyphenated woman in her own right, Hiyasmin Neri-Soyao was a former ABS-CBN Star Magic talent, a content producer for ABS-CBN, One Mega Group, ANC, and Rappler, and a professional shop host for ACJ O Shopping before co-founding Shoppertainment Live.

Starting a Business Without a Roadmap

The diversity of businesses has presented many with a road map or benchmark to guide their actions. But given the novelty of live selling—at least back then—Yas was working with a clean slate. While it did pave the way for innovation as the first, it also came with challenges.

“It was quite difficult because there wasn’t really a roadmap,” she confesses. “There were no managers or bosses before you who would tell you what to do. You have to do all the research. You have to do all the grind. You have to do the sales and even the product itself. You need to create a minimum viable product plus sell it. And prove that what you created actually be sold.”

“The hustle was a lot because you were wearing multiple hats,” she says simply.

Nevertheless, Yas was set on her vision, and thus, she persisted. “There was a part of me that just wanted to do it already because, at the back of [my] mind, I knew that I wanted to create a business,” she says. “The first step that I had to do was just to make it happen. [And to make] it happen, I knew it would take a lot of hard work—even if there was no safety net that I know [of]. I’m just gonna do it and play it by ear.”

“And then from there, I was able to get opportunities from certain brands. So it all started with data gathering also. Proving to them that this service is actually useful for their e-commerce.”

Taking Advantage of the Pandemic

Although the concept of live selling did not initially take flight, it took a pandemic to skyrocket it into fame. During the height of lockdowns where people were confined in their homes, online activity rose, and with that, came live selling.

“There weren’t really events during that time and a lot of products are launching,” Yas reveals. “A lot of brands are looking for ways to market to people. And we knew that our services can actually be the ones that could help them market to people through online sales.”

“Back in 2020, we knew that we wanted to create live shopping here in the Philippines. So we created the studios, [and] we had three studios on one floor. But then the pandemic happened and it was a lockdown. Imagine—we invested a lot of money for the studios [and] we couldn’t really use it!”

Despite the challenge, Yas explored alternatives—anything to keep the business going. “We did remote shoots and we started doing live selling, even though we didn’t have [any] studios. But because we were so consistent and we wanted to help brands go live inside their marketplaces and social media, we were able to create 200 livestream shows in 2 months for different brands.”

“And with that, we’re able to get data points also,” she enthuses. “We were able to help brands see that this service was actually helping them with their e-commerce marketing.”

Grit, innovation, and hard work are the founding pillars of Shoppertainment, and Hiyasmin Neri-Soyao was not about to let a pandemic stop her from hustling. Remote shoots were explored—up until she and her team could return to their studios.

Live Selling: A Pandemic Game Changer

In a time when stores were closed and most shopping was done online, live selling was a business model that thrived, as it provided a real-time, authentic experience—a connection between people that have been sorely lost during the pandemic.

What’s more, live selling leads to conversions, which brands needed to stay afloat. “We knew that content was a way to drive people inside the store so that you get more loyal followers [and] you get more conversions,” Yas explains. “So we started creating frequent livestream selling programs for our brands. [That way], we can attract more people to buy inside their stores. And that was really helpful because the brands were looking for conversions during that time.”

“We were [also] able to help them launch their products online with the conversion aspect because we have an add-to-cart [feature].”

But how does live selling work—the Shoppertainment way? “[In] a Shoppertainment program, we have your screen, we have your presenter, and we have your product, right? And there’s this small button already [which] you can click and add to cart right away. It makes the consumer journey really really short and really really fast. That’s why it’s really convenient and unique to a lot of shoppers,” Yas explains.

While the beauty of live selling is in the ease and convenience of the user experience, engagements from viewers are what keeps things going. “Real-time engagement is very very important when it comes to livestream shopping.”

Providing a Real and Authentic Selling Experience

More often than not, brands are taught to put their best foot forward with curated, post-edited content. However, Shoppertainment changed the game by introducing a real and authentic selling experience—done in real time.

And it actually works in their favor. “In my experience before, it was always post-edited,” Yas explains. “So you don’t know if the product is really functioning well or if it’s really meeting the needs that you are looking for. [But] with live shopping, you see the product [in] real-time. You live vicariously through the presenters showing the product. You can actually see the size of it!”

“[You can] even ask the presenter [in] real-time,” she adds. “‘Is that something with this size? Does that come with this a certain freebie?’ So you can have a highly engaged interaction with your shoppers.”

And that’s the beauty of live selling. “You know how some of the brands, as shoppers, you feel like they have certain walls—like it’s too structured? But with livestream shopping, you can actually feel the brand in a more authentic way because the brand is actually talking to you through presenters, celebrities, [key opinion leads] KOLs, or micro-influencers.”

“We just combine all of those people who can represent the brand and then we interact and engage with the people [in] real-time, so that is very very powerful.”

Yas recounts how this was proven right—and in real-time too, no less. “I remember we had this really popular celebrity and a lot of people thought that it was recorded because we had a beautiful set. We had really nice graphics. And there was this shopper [who] said, ‘That’s recorded, that’s not that celebrity.'”

“And then the celebrity answered, ‘Hey user something, something, this is live!'” she laughs. “And that user was like ‘What?!’ then a lot of users started commenting on that. So there’s power in real-time engagement especially if you are a brand, you have products, and a lot of people want to ask what’s in it for them.”

Establishing a Competitive Edge for Shoppertainment

Live selling may be a foreign concept back then, but given how readily it was embraced during the pandemic and even until now, Yas anticipates the influx of more live sellers—thereby, more competition for Shoppertainment.

Even so, she is unperturbed, as she believes that Shoppertainment’s diverse services serve as its competitive edge. “So a lot of influencers—even KOLs—create content but it’s through their own voice,” she explains. “They have a way or style to talk to the audience.”

“But when it’s [in the] Shoppertainment style, we really align it to the voice and tone of the certain brand,” the CEO declares. “We create an end-to-end solution for them with live shopping. We make it really detailed when it comes to the product reviews—the features [and] the benefits. And we really create a lot of data analytics for them so that they understand where they [are] at as a brand inside their e-commerce or marketplace, inside social media space. That’s why it’s also really very relevant to a lot of our brands because they know where they are at and how they can reach their KPIs.”

In fact, Shoppertainment can promise content as needed, too! “For individuals [like] KOLs, it is really good that they are able to do live selling with brands,” she continues. “However, if you are talking about consistency, can they actually do that every day, we can. Can they do that every payday? Every double day, all of those big campaigns, consistently with high quality, that’s where we come in.”

“We actually help those individuals as well to go live inside their pages if the brand wants to.”

But what of the many live selling companies that may come into the picture? “It’s [all about] standing firm with a certain quality that you want for your brand,” Yas points out. “So for example, we know that in China there are a lot of livestream sellers that are very raw—without real broadcast quality. And that’s very easy to do, right?”

“But we stood by the whole production quality and that was actually something that a lot of our brands were looking for. And it was very very consistent. With that, we were able to increase the demand because our quality was actually speaking for our service.”

People are the lifeblood of the Shoppertainment team. Thus, Hiyasmin closely coaches Shoppertainment Live’s roster of InfluensalesTM by mentoring them with the best techniques and strategies in selling, hosting, and marketing.

Spotting Opportunities to Grow the Business

With Shoppertainment’s fast growth in three years and its overwhelming success in pioneering the concept of live selling in the country, the world is its oyster, as it is brimming with opportunities for even more growth.

A hustler by nature, Yas immediately has plans in mind for the company, which include diversifying its services. “We have new services like direct-to-commerce,” she tells The Business Manual excitedly. “We actually empower our brands to go live in their brand dotcoms already. That has been a trend, especially for western countries, even in East Asia. And we also have social commerce—a TikTok shop. It’s very, very big—not just here in the Philippines but also across Asia.”

“We would sell every day with the short videos plus the live selling, so all of those things help you convert more on social media. That’s something we do as well,” she adds.

In fact, the Shoppertainment team is looking to cover more ground. How? Outsourcing. “For example, we had this brand [that] wanted to go to Asia. They wanted their products to have a presence in Asia. So we would do livestream shopping for them here in the Philippines. But at the same time, it’s being broadcasted in Singapore. It’s broadcasted in Vietnam [and] it’s broadcasted in Malaysia—all at the same time with our English-speaking presenter.”

And that’s not all. Buyers can even get their orders from the country of origin, too! “If they order it from Malaysia, they get an order from Malaysia,” she explains. “In a way, we are trying to globalize that one stream. Shoppers in different places can actually receive their products in their own countries.”

Hiyasmin Neri-Soyao on Being a Multi-hyphenated Woman

Beyond her many achievements as the Co-Founder and CEO of Shoppertainment, Yas is foremost a wife and mother. This, of course, entails being on top of many day-to-day affairs—both on and off work. But she has a game plan that has served her well.

“It’s good to know how to delegate,” she advises. “But even if you delegate, of course, you still need to be on top of things. People support [you and] that’s very very important. I won’t say that I do everything by myself. I need help. But at the same time, you need to be clear with your directives so that the project happens. So that things translate to how you want them to be.

“Just be clear with your directive but have people that you can trust and delegate these tasks as well. At home and even at work.”

In fact, her husband and fellow co-founder Patt Soyao has been an asset, given that he complements her creativity with logic and an expert understanding of people and the workforce. But even so, the couple respects the occasional need for space. “We work on different floors. Like I have one floor and he has another floor. The space also helps,” she says.

“We [also] know about each other’s strengths. I know that this type of job is his strength, and this type of job is my strength. So we create a separation [of tasks]—like this is my turf, that’s your turf. And then we integrate afterward. So we just respect the strength of each other. And also respect the weaknesses of each other so that we can be complementing,” she adds.

Wise Words of Advice for Entrepreneurs

A woman leader in her own right, Yas has made waves in the live selling and e-commerce industry. What’s more, her line of work has exposed her to many brands, business concepts, and ventures. Thus with a keen eye for what will and won’t work, she reveals her game plan for aspiring entrepreneurs who are looking into starting businesses of their own.

“First, look for a really good product that you can put good margins with,” the CEO advises. “If you’re able to find that and find ways to market it in a very unique way with your own personality for example, or something that would engage people, [use it to] entertain people.”

“People right now are all about entertainment,” she continues. “They would get enticed to buy something if they can relate to that certain content or certain video. So if you can get that good product, you know how to engage with people, and you can create content, you can actually create your own live shopping show if you want. Just be very very consistent at it.”

Not one to forget her assets as a woman, Yas also believes in using them to one’s advantage. “When you put up a business and you are a female entrepreneur, make sure that your womanhood contributes a lot to that business because your voice will be heard more if you put that femininity in that business.”

“For example here in Shoppertainment, it’s shopping, it’s fun! It’s fashion and beauty. We have those home cooking stuff. And those are the things that I really like doing. So having that feminine touch inside the business is very very important,” she opines.

“If you’re a female founder, I think that is very important,” she ends. “You need to be the heart of the business as well.”