Live shopping with Shopify in Belgium: channels, apps and what it takes

Since TikTok Shop went live in Belgium on 15 June 2026, the question has become concrete: can you also sell live with a Shopify webshop, and does it deliver anything? In this guide we set out through which channels you can sell live in Belgium today, where the connection between Shopify and TikTok Shop stands, which live shopping apps exist for Shopify and what they cost, what you need technically and when live shopping does not pay off. We stick to what the platforms and the sources themselves confirm, as of September 2026. So you will not find Chinese conversion figures here.

What is live shopping and does it work in Belgium?

Live shopping is a livestream with a buy button: a presenter shows products, viewers ask questions in the chat and buy during the broadcast, without first having to look for a webshop themselves. In Belgium you can do that today via TikTok Shop, YouTube Shopping and your own webshop. It does remain a niche, and no Belgian company has published figures on what it delivers.

The concept comes from China and Asia. According to an estimate by Next Move Strategy Consulting, the global live commerce market was worth $195 billion in 2025, of which about 68% was in Asia-Pacific. Such market estimates vary widely between research firms, so read them as an order of magnitude.

What live shopping delivers in Belgium has not been measured: no Belgian company has disclosed revenue or conversion figures for its streams. The percentages that circulate in blogs and AI answers come from China or from American studies and vendor case studies, and they do not automatically translate to a Flemish webshop.

ClickForest builds Shopify webshops for SMEs in Flanders and therefore looks at live shopping from the webshop: through which channel your store can sell live, what that takes technically and when it is worth the effort. That follows below, after the Belgian examples.

Which Belgian companies already sell live?

Only a handful are publicly documented. MediaMarkt announced in October 2020 that it was the first retailer in Belgium to test live shopping, JBC launched a fully integrated live shopping experience in May 2022, and the Waasland Shopping mall in Sint-Niklaas launched a monthly livestream on TikTok in April 2026. None of them disclosed revenue figures.

MediaMarkt invited consumers to visit its website on Saturday 10 October 2020, where experts and influencers would present the 10 favourite smartphones of MediaMarkt: in Dutch with Jeroen Dewulf, in French with actor Christophe Stienlet. Viewers could ask questions in a live chat and order via links below the presentation. Yannick de Bièvre, head of marketing at MediaMarkt Belgium, explained why:

“Live Shopping was created to combine the convenience and speed of e-commerce with the good advice of a salesperson in one of our stores or seen during a product test on YouTube”

— Yannick de Bièvre, Head of Marketing at MediaMarkt Belgium (October 2020, translated from Dutch)

The reason was concrete: customers preferred not to buy more expensive technology online without advice. Spokesperson Janick De Saedeleer put it like this: “So Live Shopping is a way to offer this advice, something they do not find on an online platform” (translated from Dutch).

Fashion retailer JBC went further in May 2022, with a live shopping event in which you could immediately buy the items that passed on screen during the livestream. According to Made in, this made JBC the first company in Belgium with a fully integrated live shopping experience; MediaMarkt had already claimed a first for its test in 2020. CEO Bart Claes said at the time: “A unique customer experience that will certainly become the standard in the future” (translated from Dutch). Whether that prediction came true cannot be tested, because JBC did not publish any results either.

The most recent example is on TikTok. In the monthly livestream of Waasland Shopping, viewers can ask questions online and discover products, while visitors in the shopping centre itself watch along. You can read the broader picture of online buying in our country in our e-commerce trends for Belgium.

Through which channels can you sell live in Belgium?

With a buy button in the broadcast, that is possible in Belgium today through three channels: TikTok Shop LIVE (since 15 June 2026), YouTube Shopping, where you tag products in livestreams, and your own Shopify webshop with a live shopping app. Instagram Live and Facebook Live are out: Meta removed the buy function from live broadcasts in 2022 and 2023.

Channel	Buy button in the live broadcast?	What you need	Source
TikTok Shop LIVE	Yes, since 15 June 2026	A seller account in the TikTok Seller Center, and you must confirm that you are 18 or older to go live	TikTok
YouTube Shopping	Yes, tagging products in livestreams is possible and viewers in Belgium can buy; whether a Belgian channel can connect its store, YouTube does not state per country	A channel in the YouTube Partner Program and a connected Shopify store	YouTube Help
Your own Shopify webshop	Yes, with an app	A live shopping app from the Shopify App Store	Shopify App Store
Instagram Live	No, since 16 March 2023	Going live is still possible, tagging products during the livestream no longer is	Search Engine Land
Facebook Live	No, since 1 October 2022	Going live is still possible, without a buy function	TechCrunch

Instagram deserves a word of explanation, because older articles still recommend it. Facebook stopped live shopping on 1 October 2022 to focus on Reels, and Instagram followed on 16 March 2023: since then you can no longer tag products in an Instagram Live. Our guide to social commerce explains how Instagram Shopping and the rest of buying in the feed work today.

Which channel suits you depends on where your audience is. TikTok Shop brings reach and sells in the app itself. On your own webshop you keep customer data and margin, although you then bring the viewers yourself. YouTube makes sense if your channel is already in the Partner Program.

Can you sell live on TikTok Shop with your Shopify webshop?

Yes, with a seller account in the TikTok Seller Center, but a connection with your Shopify store has not been confirmed for Belgium. On 15 September 2026 the Shopify Help Center listed ten countries where your store must be located to connect TikTok Shop, without Belgium. Test the free TikTok app in your own store first, and otherwise manage your products in the Seller Center.

Without the connection you keep your product catalogue in two places, in Shopify and in the Seller Center. That is double work, especially with stock that changes quickly. Our guide to TikTok Shop in Belgium covers which countries Shopify lists, what TikTok Shop costs per sale and how to become a seller.

Can you sell live via YouTube Shopping?

Yes, if your channel is eligible. YouTube supports Shopify as a store platform: anyone who is in the YouTube Partner Program and meets its subscriber threshold connects their store and tags products in videos, Shorts and livestreams. Viewers in Belgium can buy those products, because Belgium is on YouTube’s list of countries where viewers can buy via YouTube Shopping.

A few details are worth checking. Which products a viewer gets to see depends on the countries of sale that your store sets in Google Merchant Center. The affiliate program, which lets creators tag products from other brands, is not open to creators from Belgium. And whether a Belgian channel can connect its own Shopify store, YouTube does not state per country: you will see that in YouTube Studio as soon as your channel meets the requirements. To connect, you use the same email address for YouTube and Shopify, with admin rights on both accounts.

YouTube is mainly interesting if you already make videos that people search for, such as product demonstrations. Our guide to video marketing trends explains how video fits into your broader marketing.

Which live shopping apps are there for Shopify and what do they cost?

For live shopping on your own Shopify webshop, you choose an app from the Shopify App Store. In September 2026 Channelize costs $97, $297 or $497 a month, Bambuser Video Shopping has a free plan and paid plans of $79 or $249, Firework goes from free to $259, and TalkShopLive charges per sale. Only Channelize has a Dutch-language interface.

App (Shopify App Store)	Price per month (September 2026)	Language of the app	What stands out
Channelize Live Shopping & UGC	$97, $297 or $497, with a 14-day trial	17 languages, including Dutch	The entry plan broadcasts simultaneously on your website, your app, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, with 15,000 viewing minutes
Bambuser Video Shopping	Free (250 views per month), $79 or $249	English	Streaming to social channels at the same time only comes with the $249 plan
Firework Shoppable Video & UGC	Free, $39 or $259	English and Japanese	Live selling, livestreams and shoppable videos in one app
TalkShopLive	$0 plus $0.30 per item sold and 10.25% of the order value	English	No monthly fee, you pay per sale

All prices are the vendors’ public rates in the Shopify App Store, retrieved in September 2026, in dollars. They change regularly, so check them before you choose.

For a Flemish webshop that wants to broadcast in Dutch, Channelize is the only one of these four with a Dutch-language interface. If you want to test for free first, start with the free plan of Bambuser or Firework. TalkShopLive fits if you only want to pay when you actually sell. A live shopping app comes on top of your theme and your other apps; our guide to Shopify apps covers which other apps a Shopify webshop needs. If your webshop is not on Shopify yet, start with setting up a Shopify webshop.

Is your Shopify foundation not in order yet? ClickForest builds Shopify webshops for SMEs in Flanders and migrates existing webshops to Shopify, as an official Shopify Partner. See how a Shopify launch or migration works, or have your Shopify webshop built.

What do you need technically to sell live from Shopify?

You need a channel with a buy button, a product catalogue whose prices and stock are correct on every channel, a checkout that works smoothly on a smartphone, someone who presents, a fixed time slot and a way to measure what each stream sells. Most of the work lies in that preparation, and much less in the software itself.

A checklist for your first stream:

1. One channel and an account: a seller account in the TikTok Seller Center, a connected store in YouTube Studio, or a live shopping app in your Shopify admin.
2. Catalogue and stock in sync: product names, variants, prices and stock must be the same everywhere, otherwise you sell during the stream what is already gone. If the TikTok connection does not work for your store, you keep that separately in the Seller Center.
3. A checkout that works smoothly on a smartphone: TikTok and YouTube Shorts are watched on your phone, so paying must also work there without detours. You will find points of attention in our guide to mobile optimisation for e-commerce.
4. Clear shipping and return conditions on your product pages, because a viewer decides within a few minutes.
5. A presenter and a fixed time slot: someone who knows the product and answers questions live. In Belgium you can consider broadcasting in two languages, as MediaMarkt already did in 2020.
6. Measuring per stream: put UTM tags on every link to your webshop and use the analytics of the app or the platform. How to capture that traffic in GA4 is explained in our GA4 setup guide for Shopify.
7. Follow-up after the stream: answer questions left open during the livestream afterwards, for example via WhatsApp marketing for Shopify.

In your test, measure the sales per stream, the average order value and the returns, and put them next to the figures of your regular webshop. Only then do you know whether a next series of streams is worth it.

What does live shopping realistically deliver?

You only know that after a test, because independent Belgian figures do not exist. What is certain is that live shopping stayed small in the US, that Meta scrapped its own feature, and that a vendor like Firework saw that streams on social media often deliver less than expected. So treat a first series of streams as an experiment.

When Facebook stopped live shopping in 2022, Jason Goldberg of Publicis estimated that brands had spent roughly 1% or less of their marketing budget on it:

“Nobody was attributing a major part of their budget to it or making it a key pillar of their growth strategy.”

— Jason Goldberg, chief commerce strategy officer at Publicis (August 2022)

He also pointed to reach: a livestream only reaches those who are watching at that moment, and in the US the habit of buying live was missing. Vincent Yang, the CEO of Firework, saw the same with his own clients. Firework sells software for live shopping on your own website, so read it as a vendor’s argument:

“Most of our clients are brands that tried livestream shopping on social first, but weren’t getting the ROIs they expected.”

— Vincent Yang, co-founder and CEO of Firework (August 2022)

There is also a platform risk. Anyone who builds their live shopping entirely on one social network depends on decisions they do not make themselves. Analyst Jasmine Enberg said so in September 2022, after Facebook had announced the shutdown:

“There is going to be lots of trial and error as the platforms fine-tune their offerings, and I expect there will be more tools that are shut down and new tools that are rolled out.”

— Jasmine Enberg, analyst at eMarketer (September 2022)

Instagram followed half a year later. Since June 2026, TikTok Shop has given Belgium a platform for live selling again, and the lesson remains the same: turn what you build there into value on channels you own, such as your webshop and your email list.

When does live shopping deliver nothing?

Live shopping delivers little if nobody watches, if your product needs no demonstration, if nobody in your business can present it regularly, if your margin does not carry the costs of the platform, or if your webshop itself does not convert well yet. A stream reinforces what is already there: an audience you know and a product that deserves explanation.

• You do not have an audience yet: a livestream only reaches those who are watching at that moment. On your own webshop you bring those viewers yourself, via your customers, your email list or advertising.
• Your product needs no explanation: live shopping revolves around demonstration and questions. MediaMarkt chose it in 2020 precisely for more expensive products on which customers want advice.
• Nobody can keep it up: a stream requires a presenter, preparation and a fixed rhythm. One single broadcast says little about what a series would deliver.
• Your margin does not carry the platform costs: calculate in advance what remains after the costs of TikTok Shop and any fees for creators. Our guide to TikTok Shop explains what TikTok Shop charges per sale.
• Your webshop does not convert yet: if you send your viewers to a webshop that loads slowly or has a cumbersome checkout, you lose them there. Then start with conversion optimisation, or read why a webshop does not convert.

In those cases it makes more sense to start with short product videos that you make once and keep using, or with user-generated content from your own customers.

Is live shopping something for your Shopify webshop?

Selling live has become more practical in Belgium since June 2026, especially via TikTok Shop, although it remains an experiment with an uncertain return. Choose one channel that suits your audience, check in advance whether the Shopify connection works for your store, and test a series of streams at a fixed time before you put more time or budget into it.

Our advice is to start where your audience already is, and to put the figures of your streams honestly next to those of your regular webshop. If you have regular customers who want advice, it is best to test it first on your own webshop with a free plan; if you already have an audience on TikTok, first check how TikTok Shop works with your Shopify store.

What counts in every scenario is a webshop that is in order. ClickForest builds Shopify webshops for SMEs in Flanders, from launch and migration to maintenance and support. Get in touch if you want to have your Shopify webshop built or improved.