Why is live shopping bigger in Asia than the West?

Because the buying was built into the platforms there first, and because a shopping habit formed on the phone rather than moving to it. It is infrastructure and habit, not culture.

In more detail

The Gulf sits closer to the Asian pattern than to the Western one — very high phone use, strong social commerce, comfort buying from people rather than from catalogues. That is why it grows here faster than in Europe.

What to do about it

Recorded short-form outperforms live for most small stores: the same content, none of the scheduling, and it keeps working.

Live shopping works where a product has to be seen moving, worn or demonstrated. It does almost nothing for a spare part.

The format is not new anywhere except the West — it has been the default in parts of Asia for years, and the mechanics are settled.

The mobile app angle

TicApp built a live shopping tab into Eleganza La Mode — buyable video inside the app, on both stores since December 2025.