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Live shopping with prerecorded videos

Make live shopping fit your schedule! Film your video whenever it suits you and broadcast it at your convenience with prerecorded lives.

Last updated: May 2024
Applies to: All Sprii users
Category: Get started

💡 Top takeaways

Easily broadcast from anywhere at any time using our prerecorded live feature. This allows you to go live with a prerecorded video instead of being in front of the camera during the actual live session, a perfect tool to make live shopping fit your schedule.

 

Table of contents

What does it mean to go live with a prerecorded video?

How to go live with a prerecorded video?

Other relevant reads

How to create an image post

 



What does it mean to go live with a prerecorded video?

Going live with a prerecorded video allows you to enjoy the benefits of a live show while having the flexibility to film it at your convenience. Your audience will see it as a regular live show, and they won't even know that you're not actually in front of the camera during the stream unless you disclose it. It's a perfect tool to make live shopping fit into your busy schedule.

 

Important to note

With our Business subscription, you can stream prerecorded live videos to both Instagram and Facebook. Other subscriptions only allow streaming prerecorded live to Facebook.

How to go live with a prerecorded video?

Step 1 - Timing

First off you want to set the timing for your campaign. During this step, you'll follow the same process as you would for your regular live shopping campaigns. The time you set determines when the video will be broadcasted to your page, where it'll look like you're live for the viewers.
If you are going live with Instasprii, the broadcast will start automatically at the scheduled time.
Check out our Instasprii guide here: Instasprii - what is it? 

If you are using Instagram Live Producer, please note that you need to confirm the broadcast on Instagram. 

Step 2 - Products

Add products to your campaign before filming your video to ensure that the search terms defined in Sprii match those communicated in the video. This process is the same as for a regular live shopping campaign.

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If applicable, you should also print your product signs once all the products are uploaded and search words are added so that you can showcase them in your video.

Important to note

When filming on your phone, the video will often be mirrored by itself after the video has been recorded. Therefore we recommend making a 10-second video and looking it through, to check if the sign is printed correctly. 

Step 3 - Content

Now it's time to film and upload your video. You can film your video straight on your phone, and we recommend filming on the following settings: HD & 30 fps.


When recording your live session in advance, imagine that you are hosting a regular live stream. Remember that you won't have the opportunity to answer questions verbally, so be sure to provide detailed descriptions of each product. After filming, you can upload the video by navigating to the 'video' tab and selecting 'add a video to your campaign'.
Live shopping with prerecorded videos (3)

Tip

Please upload your video in Sprii at least half a day in advance to allow time for your video to convert to the right format for streaming.

Step 4 - Upload

When you upload your video, you'll be able to track its progress. Once the upload phase reaches 100% completion, it will automatically begin the conversion process.

The video is ready to go when the 'converting' box in the left corner of the video field turns into a green box that says 'valid'.

It's important to keep an eye on the video's status to ensure that it's valid in time for your live stream.

Important to note

If you upload the video from your phone, it's important to wait until the initial loading stage reaches 100% before performing any other tasks on your phone. If you leave the page during the initial loading the upload will stop.

Step 5 - Digital overlays

Applies to: Business users only

If you use digital overlays, you should now edit the product timing to ensure your overlays are playing when you want them to. Enter 'edit product timing' and choose a start and end time for your products.

Step 6 - The rest

The remaining steps are the same as for a normal live campaign. If you require a more detailed explanation, please check out this guide: Live shopping campaigns.

Replies:

As usual, all your standard replies will be available here, including reservation confirmations we send out and sold-out messages. There's no need to change this between an ordinary and a prerecorded live. 

Channels:

No action is required unless you have anything already posted on social media that you need to connect to this campaign.

Streaming (Only Business users):

Make sure everything is properly connected and select the platforms for your prerecorded live. 

Prerecorded with IG Producer (1)

Setup:

No action is required.  

Step 7 - Start Live Stream

Now you can sit back and wait, as the live will automatically stream at the set timing. However, although you're not actually live it might be a good idea to moderate the comment section to see if any questions are coming through that need to be addressed, but you can do that from anywhere!

Important to note

If you are streaming to Instagram with the native Live producer setup, make sure to confirm the live stream on Instagram. Otherwise, the live session won't start on your Instagram account.

You can monitor the comment field directly on the platform you're streaming to, or you can keep up with your dashboard in Sprii (or the control centre for business users).

The dashboard can be found in the menu inside of your campaign in Sprii. 

Here you can scroll down to 'questions', where every comment that's not a purchase and that's over 3 words will show up, ready for you to answer. 

You can answer a question by pressing the little arrow icon to the far right. Here you will be able to choose if you want to reply to the comment or in private on Facebook comments, while Instagram does not support that function and only allows you to answer privately.