Twitch is launching a live-shopping feature in partnership with e.l.f. Cosmetics, powered by Amazon Ads. Users will be able to purchase e.l.f. Cosmetics products as they discover them in a stream, without being taken to Amazon's website or mobile app, marking the first time that a native live-shopping element has been offered on the platform.
e.l.f. Cosmetics launched its e.l.f.YOU! channel on Twitch in 2020, making it one of the first beauty brands to lean into the platform. Since then, it's grown the channel to over 24,000 followers and hosted creator collabs, custom tournaments, and live events that have pulled in more than 43 million minutes watched and 800,000 chat messages.
Patrick O'Keefe, Chief Integrated Marketing Communications Officer at e.l.f. Beauty, said:
“When we launched e.l.f.YOU! on Twitch, our vision was simple yet bold — to meet our community where they play, create and connect. Live Streaming on Twitch has always been about self-expression, and we saw an opportunity to ‘game-up’ the space by bringing beauty into the conversation and creating a safe space for every eye, lip and face… We didn’t just want to show up on Twitch — we wanted to level it up, amplify voices that were often overlooked and prove that beauty belongs everywhere.”
This isn’t the first time Amazon has brought its products to the Twitch platform since acquiring the company in 2014, however it’s been a few years since they've experimented with adding new shopping features. In 2019, Twitch tested interactive shopping extensions that let viewers purchase Amazon products during streams, however they were redirected to Amazon.com to make the purchase. Twitch also experimented with an affiliate-style product panels under streams (which also redirected users back to Amazon to complete checkout), but none of these shopping integration efforts gained much traction.
This new partnership with e.l.f. Cosmetics marks Twitch’s first major return to live shopping, now with integrated checkout for a frictionless shopping experience.
Honestly, I forget that Amazon owns Twitch sometimes, as you rarely hear about the two worlds overlapping. However when it comes to competing with TikTok Live with social commerce and live shopping, Twitch is the biggest card Amazon has up its sleeve.