Will luxury livestream shopping become the new TV shopping? Farfetch will launch exclusive shopping sessions dedicated to Private Clients

Livestream shopping has always been a somewhat ambiguous phenomenon. Until a few years ago, it was more of a social media content format than a genuine business model: endless live streams on TikTok or Douyin where girls — often young, impeccably presented and almost always Chinese — would sell any type of product at breakneck speed, moving seamlessly from a handbag to a non-stick pan. An incredibly fast, almost hypnotic style that in the West became, above all, a meme.

And yet, beneath the internet spectacle, the luxury sector began to see something far more interesting — especially at a time when the Asian market remains central to the industry's survival. It comes as no surprise, then, that Farfetch has also decided to enter the livestream world, albeit on its own terms. The platform has just announced Farfetch Live, a new digital shopping format designed exclusively for its most important customers, known as "Private Clients."

How do Farfetch's livestreams work?

Rather than resembling the classic live shopping sessions seen on social media, Farfetch Live seems closer to a private conversation among collectors. Each session will be built around an ultra-curated selection of watches, jewellery and high-value accessories, presented alongside the platform's Fashion Concierge team and a number of industry experts. The stated goal is not so much to drive impulse purchases as to turn the live stream into an educational, almost advisory experience, where the focus is on brand heritage, the craftsmanship behind the products and even their investment value.

During the live stream, clients will be able to purchase in real time exceptionally rare pieces selected specifically for the event, including collectible watches, limited-edition jewellery and Hermès accessories considered investment-grade. Farfetch has also specified that access will remain limited to Private Clients only, in an effort to preserve that exclusive, personalised aura that luxury is now desperately trying to recreate online.

Teleshopping 2.0 on social media

In truth, shopping-focused livestreams are not even that radical a novelty. Rather than inventing something new, platforms like TikTok, eBay and Farfetch are simply updating the language of old-school home shopping for the social media age. QVC, HSE24 and countless late-night infomercials have existed for decades, and they already operated on the same logic: building a direct connection with the viewer, presenting the product in real time and turning the act of buying into a form of entertainment.

And this is precisely where the problem lies for luxury, because historically home shopping has never really been its target audience. On one side sits the idea of exclusivity, distance and limited access; on the other, a fast, impulsive and often broadly popular format. This is exactly why Farfetch's "members-only" model works — because even as it embraces the democratic livestream format, it does so for a small, carefully curated clientele.

Livestream shopping: a sector on the rise

In China, livestream e-commerce is already a colossal machine: according to Forbes, sales generated by the sector are expected to reach $1.1 trillion by 2026, driven by platforms such as Taobao Live, Douyin and WeChat Channels. In the United States the phenomenon is still smaller in scale, but growing rapidly: sales are projected to exceed $68 billion by next year, and nearly 60% of American adults have already watched at least one live shopping event. eBay, too, launched «48 Hours of Drops» last March — a forty-eight-hour livestream marathon featuring celebrities, live auctions and Birkins starting at one dollar.

TikTok Shop, meanwhile, has already begun pushing a dedicated vertical for second-hand luxury through specialist resellers and creators. The point is that livestreaming is not replacing traditional luxury — it is attempting to translate online that same idea of personal relationship that once belonged exclusively to private boutiques. The question, however, remains: can we be sure that all these workarounds will automatically translate into sales?