Cookbook author Neo Nontso on the MasterChef South Africa set.

It’s October 2024 and tension is running high in the MasterChef kitchen in Cape Town. This isn’t because a fresh set of amateur cooks is stepping up to dazzle the judges. Rather, the kitchen is filled with social media celebrities, chefs and media personalities getting ready to host a 90-minute live shopping show. This Pick n Pay asap! event was streamed live on pnp.co.za, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok and saw the hosts showcasing their cooking skills and encouraging viewers at home to make purchases while they watch. Customers had access to a range of “Unreal Deals” in the live online video by clicking on a pop-up and then adding the item to cart.

Known as livestream social commerce, livestream selling or shoppable video, retailers can now make it even easier for customers to bag the items they want. And viewers can ask the hosts questions as they go along. According to McKinsey, China is the most mature of all live-commerce markets, with a market size of 2.27 trillion yuan in 2021. The US is another major player, with the live ecommerce market size expected to double over the next three years, from $31.7 billion in 2023 to $67.8 billion in 2026, Statista data shows.