Livestream shopping app sune aims to provide 'joyful' experience

The rise of TikTok and debate over whether livestreaming will succeed in the U.S. can bring heated opinions in ecommerce.

But look at the actual shopping experiences involved in each of these elements, and you’ll find something that’s a bit more uplifting. A fledgling group of apps are leveraging content and a penchant for social media to create a more engaging and fun online shopping experience.

Now, a new app backed by QVC parent company Qurate Retail Group is entering the fray.

Sune is launching with an aim to provide educating and entertaining videos and livestreams that inspire shopping.

The goal is to harness video content that allows makers, creators and founders to tell their story to audiences. In turn, consumers will be able to purchase products directly from a feed. It’s all designed to provide a form of “window shopping” via ecommerce.

"Unlike other shopping apps, sune's mission is to provide a joyful, inspirational, and relaxing experience, where users can easily connect and directly engage with remarkable 'under-discovered' products from new and emerging brands, and ultimately witness entertaining content based on their personal shopping preferences," said Brian Beitler, Founder of sune and General Manager of Live Shop Ventures LLC, in a statement. "Our goal, as the beta version of sune evolves, is to elevate mission-driven brands to share their stories and products, while offering new ways for the younger generations to shop by leveraging live and live-like video commerce."

In the coming months, the app will introduce creators and brands that it says are undiscovered in currently-used shopping platforms. Additionally, sune will feature a calendar of live product drops.

Here’s how the experience will look for each constituency:

Users will have a customized experience to their preferences and purchase history, including personalized recommendations and filters. The app will aim to provide discovery and inspiration, then provide direct shopping.

Creators, brand founders, hosts – called "sunesetters” – and influencers will have opportunities to build authentic connections, as well as improve discovery and engagement.

Sellers will have access to tools that help to manage their assortment, inventory, pricing, and shipping costs, while maintaining full control over their storefronts, the app said.

Brands will be able to access proprietary in-house studio software, remote co-hosting and guidance on video creation.

What it means for ecommerce: A beta launch likely won't settle any debates about livestreaming's viability in the West, but at a time when TikTok is facing calls for a ban, it shows that the discovery-focused, personalized, video-based style that it brought to the user experience is likely going to be here to stay.