How To Boost Your TikTok Shop Sales Through Influencer Livestreaming

What’s turning casual scrollers into instant shoppers? It’s not just TikTok dances or trending sounds: it’s influencer livestreams. These real-time events are becoming a must-have strategy for brands looking to boost sales, build trust, and stand out in an oversaturated social commerce space.

At Near, we’ve seen how TikTok Shop livestreams can transform a viewer’s curiosity into checkout clicks. Our thoughts? When you tap an influencer for a live, you’re not just hiring a host, you’re inviting a distinct personality and their dedicated audience to care about your brand.

But what makes influencer livestreaming so effective? And how can brands overcome challenges like content fatigue or conversion gaps to harness its full potential? Let’s break it down.

1. Product Demos That Feel Real (and Sell Fast)

Influencer livestreams give viewers what static content can’t: real-time, unfiltered product experiences. Makeup tutorials showing how a lipstick lasts through coffee sips. Fashion hauls with live try-ons and styling tips. Even small businesses can spotlight products and answer customer questions on the spot.

According to a study in MDPI, livestreamers who spark genuine emotions create stronger purchase intent. It’s proof that connection is what drives conversions.

2. Trust That Converts Viewers into Buyers

On TikTok, influencers feel like trusted friends, not faceless ads. TikTok influencers have a staggering 26% engagement rate, making their live recommendations even more impactful.

We’ve seen beauty brands host “get ready with me” lives where creators chat about products while casually applying them while viewers ask questions, share emojis, and often buy mid-stream. It’s authentic, interactive, and highly effective.

And as our TikTok Growth Tips blog explains, Gen Z especially loves brands that feel like part of their daily lives—not just another sales pitch.

3. Seamless Shopping 

Thanks to TikTok Shop, buying during livestreams is frictionless—viewers can tap product tags mid-video and check out without ever leaving the app. This “see it, want it, buy it” flow is at the heart of social commerce, where content and commerce merge seamlessly.

As we shared in our TikTok Shop social commerce playbook, this trend is redefining how brands connect with consumers. E-commerce giants now use live selling to mirror flash sales, creating urgency with limited-time discounts and stock updates. This strategy doesn’t just move products; it builds community and keeps buyers coming back for more.

How to Make Most Out of Influencer Livestreams

• Schedule Ahead & Promote Use TikTok’s Live Event Scheduler to set dates and promote via teaser posts. Consistently scheduling lives helps audiences anticipate and prioritize your events. A well-promoted live not only drives higher attendance but also increases chances of virality as TikTok’s algorithm favors upcoming events.

• Use a Live Moderator Assign a moderator to manage comments, filter spam or negative messages, and highlight top questions. This allows the influencer to focus fully on engaging with the audience instead of getting distracted by technical hiccups. A smooth, well-managed live feels more professional and keeps viewers hooked longer.

• Tap Micro-Influencers & UGC Partner with niche creators (5k–50k followers) and encourage user-generated clips for a more authentic vibe. Micro-influencers bring a loyal audience and often foster deeper connections during lives. Their relatability makes viewers feel like they’re hearing from a trusted friend rather than a brand rep.

• Make It Interactive Integrate Q&As, polls, countdowns, and limited-time giveaways to invite participation. This keeps viewers invested and makes them more likely to stick around. The more engaged your audience feels, the more likely they’ll take action, whether that’s adding to cart, buying goods, or sharing your live.

• Create Flash Offers Use live-only deals, stock countdowns, and exclusive bundles to trigger urgency and boost conversions. Highlighting limited availability creates FOMO, which can dramatically increase on-the-spot purchases. This tactic encourages impulse buying and rewards viewers for showing up in real-time.

Your Livestream Success Checklist

✔ Bridge Awareness and Conversion Show real-time product demos and answer audience questions to turn “just browsing” into instant purchases.

✔ Keep It Authentic Let influencers speak naturally and showcase products in unscripted ways—viewers trust personality-driven lives over polished ads.

✔ Make It Interactive Add Q&As, polls, and live giveaways to engage viewers and create a sense of community that keeps them coming back.

By embracing this format, your brand can deliver unfiltered demos, foster real-time connections, and turn watchers into loyal customers.

Level up your TikTok game today–book a TikTok Shop strategy session with Near and learn more about social media trends here.

If you’re still running one-off influencer campaigns hoping to win over Gen Z, it’s time to rethink your strategy. For real.

Gen Z consumers are some of the most marketing-savvy, socially aware audiences we’ve ever seen. They scroll fast, spot fakes faster, and won’t hesitate to click away if something feels even slightly off. According to a McKinsey report, 70% of Gen Z say they try to purchase from brands they consider ethical, and they’re quick to hold brands accountable for performative or inauthentic behavior. So what’s the problem with single-shot influencer posts? Simple: Gen Z doesn’t just want a pitch, they want proof.

According to Later’s Gen Z consumer insights, 49% of Gen Z relies on influencers to discover new products, and 58% follow them for entertainment. But those influencers aren’t just selling, they’re seen as virtual friends, trendsetters, and trusted voices. In a generation built on connection, a one-time ad just won’t cut it.

Let’s break down why these short-term campaigns are falling flat and what marketers can do instead.

Why One-Off Campaigns Aren’t Effective

Lack of Consistency = Lack of Trust

Gen Z can smell a transactional endorsement a mile away. If they see an influencer promoting a product just once and never again, it raises questions. They need to see consistent usage and long-term engagement before they consider buying in.

Inauthenticity Feels Loud

Forced collabs? Scripted lines? Gen Z will scroll past. They want storytelling, not sales pitches. Influencers who post candid, unfiltered content about their real experiences are far more likely to spark interest and trust.

It’s About Community, Not Clout

A huge following isn’t enough–Gen Z prefers creators who have meaningful engagement with their audience: ones who answer DMs, start conversations, and act like people, not billboards. That’s why micro and mid-tier influencers often perform better than macro ones in this space.

Culture > Product

Product-first posts feel out of place in a generation that values shared experiences. Gen Z connects with brands that embed themselves in their lifestyle, values, and humor—not ones that interrupt it.

Enter: The Age of “Deinfluencing”

The rise of deinfluencing proves that Gen Z is increasingly critical of overconsumption. They reward brands that promote sustainability, transparency, and responsibility, not hype.

What Smart Marketers Do Instead

1. Build Real Relationships with the Right Influencers

Winning brands don’t just collaborate, they commit. Long-term partnerships with creators who align with your values allow for more natural, recurring content that feels real, not rehearsed. It’s what Gymshark does by working with fitness influencers who genuinely use their products, and it’s how Spotify turned their Wrapped KOL campaign into a cultural moment.

Start by partnering with influencers who already reflect your audience’s values and lifestyle. Then stick around. Gen Z needs to see consistency before they buy in.

2. Prioritize Authenticity

Forget polish—focus on personality. Gen Z craves storytelling that feels spontaneous, not staged. Let influencers speak in their own voice, share real experiences, and even show imperfections. That’s where trust builds.

And if your brand aligns with Gen Z’s bigger interests (like mental health, sustainability, humor, or activism), don’t just nod to it—embed it into the content. This kind of cultural fluency is key to standing out.

3. Focus on Engagement, Not Just Exposure

It’s not about how many followers  they have, it’s about how many care. Partner with KOLs who are talking with their audience, not just talking at them. Prioritize those who start conversations, share comments, or co-create content with followers.

Gen Z also responds well to campaigns that invite participation. Think TikTok challenges, comment-led prompts, even gamified or AR experiences. Interactive campaigns create shared experiences—something one-time posts rarely do.

Key Takeaway

Gen Z isn’t buying into one-time influencer posts—they’re looking for proof, patterns, and people they can believe in. Winning their loyalty takes time, intention, and a strategy that puts real connection first. That means fewer quick hits, and more long-term partnerships rooted in trust, culture, and creativity.

Want to learn more on how to make marketing campaigns that actually resonate with Gen Zs? Download Near’s Social Media Trends Guide here.

Building long-term influencer relationships is one of the smartest moves a brand can make in 2025.

Because today, influencer marketing must be more than aesthetics or perfectly timed posts. It’s also about the relationships behind the content—the real, meaningful connections between brands and the creators who bring their stories to life.

KOLs (key opinion leaders) don’t just promote products. They shape conversations, shift culture, and define your brand. That’s why the best influencer strategies today focus on shared values and consistency. Whether you’re working with micro-influencers or household names, the key is to cultivate partnerships that grow over time and actually mean something.

Why Long Term Matters

We’ve all seen it: BTS and Louis Vuitton, Roger Federer and Uniqlo, Serena Williams and Nike. They show how long-term partnerships can shape brand identity, deepen audience connection, and unlock bigger, more creative collaborations over time.

According toTraackr, an influencer marketing software company, long-term partnerships deliver better ROI as influencers better understand your brand. Their content feels more genuine, more informed, and more trusted by their audience.

Yes, short-term influencer campaigns might bring short-term buzz. But lasting brand impact is usually a result of a lasting relationship.

When you partner with an influencer for a one-off collab, that’s totally normal! It happens all the time. But what happens after that post matters. That first project is the spark and you have to nurture the relationship. Why? Familiarity breeds trust and opens the door to better work. And if that first collab went well? That’s your green light to go bigger next time.

Here’s the thing. If you’ve worked with a KOL before, whether as a brand or an agency, you already have something money can’t buy: familiarity. 

They know how you work. 

You know how they communicate. 

And that kind of trust? It speeds up production, reduces back-and-forth, and leads to better-performing content. Familiarity often translates into smoother workflows, more aligned content, and higher engagement because you’re not just briefing a stranger. You’re building with someone who already gets it.

It’s way easier to co-create something meaningful when both sides already get each other. No awkward intros or over-explaining. You both build on trust and content that clicks.

And what does this mean for your customers?

• They see consistency, which builds trust.

• They get to know your brand over time, not just in a one-off post.

• Your product becomes tied to someone they already trust.

That familiarity leads to better brand recall, stronger emotional connection, and more confident buying decisions. Because when an influencer genuinely sticks around, the customer does too.

If your goal is loyalty and trust, long-term relationships are the foundation.

Make Influencers Want to Stay

Relationships go both ways. Think of it as dating—no one wants to feel used, rushed, or ghosted, right? Influencers are more likely to stay when they feel seen, supported, and creatively fulfilled.

Sustainable influencer partnerships rely on transparency, mutual respect, and trust. Creators aren’t just content machines, treat them like partners.

Here are a few ways to make that happen:

• Alignment matters from the start. Start by choosing an influencer who naturally fits your brand. look at their tone, content style, values, and audience. If they’re already a user, even better! No hard selling needed, just real advocacy. When their voice and your values align, the content feels seamless and hits harder.

• Collaborate, don’t dictate. Influencers thrive when they’re trusted to tell the story their way. Share clear guidelines, then let them translate your message in a voice their audience already connects with. It’s about guided direction, not control.

• Show up outside the campaign cycle. Feedback, check-ins, and simple “thank yous” go a long way.

• Recognize real value. Celebrate their wins, compensate them fairly, and loop them into bigger plans! It shows you value them beyond a post. At Near, we start with real conversations, not mass emails. Getting on calls and co-developing ideas with KOLs builds trust and loyalty.

And if you’re still searching for the right influencers, we’ve got tips for that, too! Check this out.

The Relationship Ripple Effect

Long-term influencer relationships don’t just drive better engagement. They create a ripple effect across your entire brand presence: boosting brand recall, increasing UGC volume, improving follower growth, and building long-term customer loyalty. When KOLs show up consistently for your brand, their audience remembers, trusts, and eventually acts.

When creators feel genuinely connected to your brand, they become advocates. They talk about your brand naturally, tell more real stories, and create content that drives higher engagement rates and stronger customer retention. It’s the kind of content that doesn’t just look good, it lands.

This kind of consistent content builds credibility and shapes your brand identity. As Forbes notes, long-term influencer partnerships can help define how audiences perceive your brand, not just during a campaign, but long after.

What Real Relationships Do for Brands

Long-term partnerships are about more than performance metrics. They’re about trust, shared purpose, and building something bigger together.

When brands invest in real relationships with creators, they gain:

• More authentic content

• Stronger audience trust

• Deeper brand storytelling

• And creators who want to grow with you
  

It’s this kind of energy that turns KOLs into collaborators… and collaborators into community.

Want to build influencer relationships that last and drive real results? Download Near’s Social Media Trends Guide here.

It’s this kind of energy that turns KOLs into collaborators… and collaborators into community.

User-generated Content: What It is and Why Your Modern Brand Marketing Needs It in 2025

The difficult but also exciting thing about brand marketing today is that brands have to constantly find novel and interesting ways to promote their products.

One aspect of a great marketing strategy that many tend to overlook even in 2025 is producing user-generated content, or UGC, which offers amazing opportunities for a brand to really carve out its own space in a saturated social media space.

If UGC still isn’t a consideration for your marketing campaigns today, read on and let us tell you why you need it. But before that, let’s get into the difference between UGC and influencer content.

What's the difference between UGC and influencer content?

Both are great ways to promote your brand, but the two are very different.

An influencer or key opinion leader creates content for a brand and promotes it on their various social media platforms. They have an established online following and community, often casting a wide net as they market products through their posts, which are typically in the form of photos and videos.

UGC creators, on the other hand, are everyday people who also make content to promote brands and their products. Brands can also gain full rights to the photos and videos they create, which they can then distribute across their own social platforms instead of the creator’s.

3 reasons why you shouldn’t skip UGC in your 2025 marketing strategy

1. To boost brand presence

UGC can expand the visibility of your brand on social media platforms because the format – usually bite-sized videos posted on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook – lends itself to more unique and creative content that can match content styles popular on each platform.

According to HootSuite, “Video content is becoming increasingly effective with Facebook users, leading to higher engagement than posts using photos or graphics.”

UGC gives your brand room to play around and find ways to promote your brand story that goes beyond a typical explainer post. Nobody wants to interact with an “about us” page slapped onto a social media static, right?

Tip-Top Chicken is a brand that encourages UGC creators to make wacky content, which results in great outputs like this:

https://www.tiktok.com/@tiptopchickenph/video/7470892915666029829

When done well, UGC can be more engaging and thus more shareable because content featuring real people is just more interesting than perfectly polished ads in this era of social media.

2. To build social proof

In Near Creative’s recent webinar entitled “Winning Strategies: Social Media Engagements to Conversions,” our senior brand manager Viktor Kapunan discussed why social proof is an essential for social commerce.

Viktor shares, “The more validation potential buyers see, the more likely they are to purchase from your brand. You have to leverage social proof to build credibility and stand out from competitors and to turn engagement into actual sales.”

Great testimonials can even be simple demo videos like this from Dyson Philippines:

https://www.tiktok.com/@dyson_ph/video/7468655056816999686

When you have a variety of real people showcasing their positive personal experiences with your product, it makes you more trustworthy in consumers’ eyes because it strengthens your claims and gives your brand more credibility.

3. To address customer concerns

Every discerning consumer has valid questions about a product before they buy it. Posting a FAQ carousel on your social channels are a quick and straightforward way to address these, but they may not be the most engaging.

UGC offers your brand a more creative and visual means of answering these questions. Take this example from Wellspring, a local brand of yummy gummy supplements. The brand used a man-on-street interview to show people why their Ashwagandha gummies are great for stress relief without explicitly saying it.

https://www.tiktok.com/@wellspringph/video/7486852909506858245

Influencer content and UGC for a balanced marketing strategy

The role of influencers and UGC creators are two distinct but important parts of an airtight marketing strategy. A good mix of these can lead consumers to get to know your product well enough to eventually make a purchase. But just remember that UGC is meant to boost brand presence, build social proof, and address customer concerns.

Want to learn about making campaigns that work in 2025? Download our social media trends guide here.

Here’s a blast from the past: remember the days when our social media feeds displayed content chronologically?

These days, whether you’re scrolling through Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok, you will see a feed curated according to your interests and preferences. Personalization is the name of the social media game, and it has brought about a shift in the influencer space. We are seeing an increasingly even playing field for content creators, in which micro-influencers (10,000 to 99,000 followers) are growing in prominence.

But while we’ve established that micro-influencers have great potential in promoting brands this year, you may be wondering how to approach this shift for your 2025 campaigns. Well, Near’s got you.

3 tips for finding the right micro-influencers

1. Take notes from your audience.

No marketing campaign can be successful without an understanding of the audience you’re marketing to.

If you want to find the right micro-influencers, you can start with your audience. Who are they following? Whose content do they interact with? What kind of content do these creators have? Finding the answers to these questions will already give you an idea of the right micro-influencers to tap because the answers will tell you about their interests, their pain points, and the niches they belong in.

Tapping a micro-influencer your audience already follows is a simple way to ensure that your campaign is a match.

2. Gauge the influencer’s authenticity.

There are simple ways to check if a micro-influencer will be a reliable partner for your campaign even before you contact them.

Just go on their social media profile and take a look at the following:

• Content quality: Look at their posts. See if the content they create is well-made and executed, from the hooks and scripts to their filming and editing styles. They don’t need to have high production value, but they do need to be creative and offer something substantial to the viewer.

• Previous posts: Branded or otherwise, their posts will tell you more about their interests and the kinds of products they gravitate towards. This will also give you an idea of what their audiences care about. Their existing posts are a good way to gauge if your product is something that could resonate with their audience or address a pain point they are experiencing.

• Follower engagements: Micro-influencers tend to have more opportunities to interact with followers due to their smaller community and specific niche. You can tell if a micro-influencer has an engaged following if they respond to followers’ comments on their posts or if the followers themselves have discussions in the comments.

3. Make use of influencer discovery tools.

There is a wealth of influencer marketing platforms that can point you to different content creators in the Philippines. At Near Creative, in addition to our wide influencer database, we use these tools to enrich our influencer recommendations, as they are able to provide in-depth insights such as content niches, posting consistency and performance, average engagement rates, and even influencers in the same category. This way, we are able to refine our recommendations to ensure a brand fit for our campaigns.

These tools simplify and speed up the vetting process, while also ensuring the quality of content for the future.

Making memorable content with micro-influencers

Choosing the best micro-influencers is half the battle, but the other half is developing high-quality content that your target audience will watch.

• Collaborate. An influencer is a partner; not simply a doer. This means that the final output must be the result of collaboration with them; you can guide them on the brand’s identity, while they direct on what content works best for their platforms.

• Communicate. Be clear about what you need, when you need it, and how you need it. When everyone is on the same page, it will be a seamless experience from when you onboard an influencer to when they finally upload the content.

• Cultivate. Build and nurture a relationship with your influencer partners. Getting to know them leads you to understand them better, which will help you create even better content for your future collabs!

So remember, in 2025, micro-influencers are key to social media success! Understand your audience, get to know your influencers, and employ appropriate tools to find the best recommendations. From there, three Cs: collaborate and communicate with your micro-influencer partners, then cultivate a relationship with them to ensure you create more great content and campaigns together.

Want to build an influencer strategy that works? Sign up for our webinar today!

With 2024 birthing a new face to authenticity, it has also put the spotlight on different kinds of influencers – those who capture audiences with their distinct personalities. Here are five Filipino influencers keeping your timelines fresh with their content!