Is Live-Stream Shopping The Future Of Retail?

I’m sitting on my couch, staring at my phone as I watch Noah Thomas, a pitchman wearing glasses like Willy Wonka’s, sell a pair of Adidas sneakers through a live stream. “Adidas has been killing it lately!” Mr. Thomas assures viewers before ticking off the brand’s recent collaborations and a few factoids from its history. It takes him a few minutes to even get to the sneaker on offer, but he insists it “is a very coveted shoe” as the cameraperson swoops around the yet-to-be-opened box. “Here we go, boom, the beautiful ZX 10000 C,” he hollers as he pulls out the all-white shoe. Mr. Thomas rapidly runs through details like the rubber outsole and the neon-yellow shoe-lace bangle. A couple of minutes later he moves onto a grey pair and goes through the whole spiel again. This frenetic digital shopping experience played out on Ntwrk, a three-year-old, live-shopping app that could be billed as “ QVC for Hypebeasts.” At appointed times, store owners, designers, and personalities like celebrity jeweler Ben Baller and ex-”HQ Trivia” host Scott Rogowsky host live-streams to show off whatever they’re selling that day. The streams are like extended infomercials, with enough uses of “sick” or “dope” to suggest that Ntwrk’s target audience is primarily those born after, say, 1985. Read more at The Wall Street Journal.