Live Chat, Polls and Live Deals: How to Drive Engagement and Sales During a Live Show

The difference between a video and a live shopping show is interaction. Viewers who type in chat, vote in a poll or race to use a discount code are far more engaged than those passively watching, and engaged viewers are the ones who buy. LiveShoply includes a set of tools designed for exactly this: live chat with moderation, polls, keyword giveaways and time-limited live deals.

This guide explains how each tool works, when to use it, and how to combine them into a show that keeps people watching and shopping.

Why engagement tools matter

Engagement does three things for a live show:

• It keeps viewers watching longer. A poll or giveaway gives people a reason to stay until the result.
• It gives the host material. Chat questions and poll results are natural talking points, which makes the show feel less scripted.
• It creates urgency. A deal that disappears in ten minutes encourages decisions that might otherwise be postponed indefinitely.

The goal is not to use every tool in every show, but to use the right one at the right moment.

Setting up live chat

Live chat is available in every show, including live broadcasts and premieres. It appears next to or below the player on your storefront, depending on screen size. Viewers enter a display name to participate, and their messages appear in real time for everyone watching.

As the merchant, you see the same chat in the LiveShoply admin and in the studio. Messages you or your team send are marked so viewers know they come from the store. The chat interface on your storefront is localized based on your store's locale, so buttons and labels appear in your customers' language.

Moderating chat

A friendly, on-topic chat makes viewers more comfortable participating. LiveShoply lets you moderate messages from the admin during the show. You can remove individual messages that are spam, offensive or off-topic, and keep the conversation focused on the products.

Good moderation practice:

• Assign a moderator. For any show with more than a handful of viewers, a second person handling chat makes a big difference. They can answer shipping and sizing questions while the host presents.
• Publish simple rules. A short note in the show description, such as "Be kind, stay on topic, no links," sets expectations.
• Answer, then pass to the host. The moderator replies in chat and flags interesting questions for the host to answer on camera.
• Do not delete criticism automatically. A polite complaint handled well builds trust. Remove abuse and spam, not honest feedback.

Running polls

Polls let you ask viewers a question with a set of options and show results in real time. They are quick to create from the admin during a show and appear directly in the viewer experience.

Effective uses for polls include:

• Choosing what comes next. "Which should I try on next: the green dress or the denim jacket?"
• Product preferences. "Which colorway would you buy?" The results are also useful market research.
• Warm-up questions. "Where are you watching from?" or "Have you tried this product before?" to get chat moving at the start.
• Planning future shows. "What should our next show be about?"

Keep polls short, with two to four options, and always react to the result on camera. A poll whose result is ignored teaches viewers that their input does not matter.

Keyword giveaways with random winners

Giveaways are one of the most effective ways to boost participation. In LiveShoply, a keyword giveaway works like this:

1. You start a giveaway and set a keyword, for example "COZY".
2. The host announces it: "Type COZY in the chat to enter."
3. Viewers who type the keyword in chat while the giveaway is open are entered.
4. When you close the giveaway, LiveShoply picks a random winner from the entries.
5. You announce the winner on camera and in chat, and follow up to arrange the prize.

Because the winner is picked randomly from people who entered, the process is fair and easy to explain. Before running a giveaway, make sure your rules comply with the laws where you and your viewers are located, and state what the prize is, who can enter and how winners are contacted. Our dedicated guide on how to run a giveaway during a live show covers rules and timing in more depth.

Time-limited live deals

Live deals are discount codes that are only available during the show and only for a limited time. They are created using Shopify discounts, so they work with your normal checkout, appear in your Shopify reports and follow the same rules as any other discount in your store.

A typical live deal flow:

1. Set up the deal in LiveShoply, choosing the discount (for example a percentage off) and how long it should be active.
2. Launch it during the show at the moment you want to create urgency. Viewers see the discount and the code, with a one-tap apply button.
3. Viewers apply the code at checkout while it is active.
4. When the timer ends, the code stops working.

Ideas for live deals:

• Flash deal on the featured product. "For the next ten minutes, 15 percent off this jacket."
• Bundle incentive. A discount that encourages viewers to buy the full look.
• Thank-you code at the end. A short window for those who stayed until the end.

Be honest about deals. If you say a price is only available during the show, do not offer the same code the next day. Viewers notice, and trust in future live deals depends on it.

Putting it together: a sample show flow

Here is how the tools might fit into a 30-minute show:

• 0:00 to 3:00 Welcome. Warm-up poll: "Where are you watching from?" Announce the giveaway keyword.
• 3:00 to 12:00 Products one to three, each pinned while presented. Moderator answers questions.
• 12:00 Poll: "Which should I show next?"
• 12:00 to 20:00 Winning product plus two more. Launch a ten-minute live deal on the hero product.
• 20:00 to 27:00 Recap the pinned products, answer remaining questions.
• 27:00 to 30:00 Close the giveaway, announce the winner, thank viewers and mention the next show.

For a fuller version with talking points, use our live shopping show script template.

Frequently asked questions

Do viewers need an account to chat? No. Viewers choose a display name and can start chatting. This keeps the barrier low, which is why moderation matters for larger shows.

Can I run a poll and a giveaway at the same time? You can, but it is usually clearer to run one interaction at a time. Overlapping calls to action can confuse viewers about what to type or tap.

Are live deal codes visible after the show? Live deals are designed to be time-limited and live-only. Once the timer ends, the code stops working in checkout. If a replay viewer sees a mention of the code, it will no longer apply, so consider mentioning that in your replay description.

Can live deals stack with other discounts? Live deals are Shopify discounts, so combination behavior follows Shopify's discount settings and rules. Check how your existing discounts are configured before the show to avoid surprises at checkout.

How do I contact a giveaway winner? Announce the winner in chat and on camera, and ask them to contact you through a channel you name in your giveaway rules, such as your store's support email. Never ask winners to share payment details in public chat.

Can I use these tools during a premiere? Yes. Chat, polls, giveaways and live deals all work during premieres, which is one of the main ways to make a pre-recorded video feel live.

Measuring what worked

After the show, open the Insights page to see viewers, watch time and orders attributed to the show. Compare shows where you ran a live deal with those where you did not, or check whether viewers stayed longer when a giveaway was announced early. In Shopify, you can also see how often each live deal code was used. Our guide to measuring live shopping ROI explains how to interpret these numbers.

Engagement tools are included across LiveShoply plans; see the pricing page for details and the features page for the full list. Questions? Reach us through live chat on the in-app Help page.