Live Commerce
How Korean live selling broadcasts work
How one broadcast runs in order and who handles what, plus what the brand hands over by when: product, stock, price, material. Also what overseas brands add on top, and what to keep so it is not a one-off.
A live selling broadcast in Korea is a scheduled sales show that runs about an hour. The team that makes the broadcast and the brand that supplies the goods are separate parties, and the brand supplies four things: product, stock, price, and reference material. Hosting and technical work sit with the production team in Korea. What an overseas brand needs is not how to produce a show, but how the whole thing runs and what you hand over by when.
How does one broadcast run, in order?
One session usually runs 60 minutes. Some slots are cut to 30 minutes, others stretch to 120 minutes. Preparation starts a week out, not on the day.
| When | What the production team does | What the brand does |
|---|---|---|
| D-7 | Fixes the products and the running order | Hands over product data and images |
| D-3 | Writes the script and the screen graphics | Checks the wording for factual errors |
| D-1 | Loads the listing and the offers | Confirms stock count and price |
| Day, -2 hours | Sets lighting, sound and camera | Places the physical products on set |
| Day, -30 minutes | Runs the order through once | Puts its answering contact on standby |
| 60 minutes on air | Repeats intro, demo and replies | Feeds facts to live questions |
| After air | Sorts orders and inquiries | Confirms the dispatch schedule |
Inside the hour, the show does not run once end to end. Because viewers arrive mid-broadcast, the team repeats a 15-20 minute block three or four times. One block is intro, demo, offer, and questions. The same lines come round three or four times because for someone who joined late, that round is the first explanation they hear.
Who handles what in one broadcast?
| Role | What they do | Who takes it |
|---|---|---|
| Host | Talks and shows the product | Someone presenting in Korean |
| Director | Moves the order and the clock along the cue sheet | Production team |
| Technical | Handles camera, sound, screen graphics, streaming | Production team |
| Chat | Picks questions and passes them to the host | Production team |
| Product contact | Confirms facts and stock | Brand |
Cue sheet — a table that cuts the airtime into minutes and states what happens when. The brand fills one seat on that list, the product contact. That person does not have to appear on camera, only be reachable while the show is live. When chat asks about ingredients, sizing or usage, questions a host cannot answer on their own, that person supplies the answer.
What does the brand supply?
| What | In what form | By when |
|---|---|---|
| Physical product | 3-5 units including demo spares | D-3 |
| Stock | Units you can release to this show | D-1 |
| Price | On-air price, bundles, free gifts | D-1 |
| Data | Size, ingredients, origin, how to use | D-7 |
| Images | Product-only cuts and in-use cuts | D-7 |
| Wording | List of phrases that must not be used | D-7 |
Spares are needed because demo units get opened and used up. Stock is nailed down as a number, since it is hard to raise mid-show. The price goes into three places as the same figure — screen graphics, listing, script. Settle it a day ahead and all three line up in one pass.
What do overseas brands prepare on top?
Two things get added: language and material.
The show is hosted by someone who speaks Korean. Even when a person from the brand appears on camera, it tends to be a greeting and a line or two about the product, and the host takes it from there. Adding interpretation sends every line out twice and doubles the time it takes — on a 60-minute show, keep interpreted segments under 10 minutes.
Reference material is rewritten, not carried across. Wording used at home cannot always be used as is under Korean labelling rules. So hand it over with the original phrasing and the evidence behind it together — with the evidence in hand, the Korean side can restate it in wording that works there. Settle whose name the sale is made under as well. It splits into selling as the overseas company and selling through a seller based in Korea, and the conditions differ by channel, so check that channel's own seller guide before you commit.
How do you line up time zones and delivery wording?
Airtime is set in Korean time, and evening slots are common, so where your head office sits decides when your contact is on standby.
| Head office | Local time when Korea is 20:00 |
|---|---|
| Southeast Asia (UTC+7) | 18:00 |
| Central Europe (UTC+1) | 12:00 |
| US East Coast (UTC-5) | 06:00 |
Regions on summer time shift by an hour. If the slot lands before dawn for your contact, do not move that person's working hours for one day. Write out answers to the 30 questions that come up most and hand them over in advance, so whoever is on standby reads an answer instead of hunting for one.
The question chat asks most is when it arrives. With stock already inside Korea you can say it ships within a few days of payment; shipping from abroad, you give an expected arrival window that includes customs. Either way, fix it as one sentence and put that same sentence in all three places — screen, listing, script.
What do you keep so it is not a one-off?
Five things are kept after the show — the script file, every question asked on air, the times stock stepped down, the raw video, and the date of the next session.
The valuable one is the question list. It is a written record of what people watching in Korea want to know about that product, so it goes straight into the next script, the listing copy, and short video material. It often differs from the questions you expected at home.
Run the same product three or four sessions in a row and the host comes to know it, so explanations get shorter and more accurate. Hand each session to a different team and none of that carries over. Keep one person on the brand side as well.
What to do today
Pick one product and write seven lines on a single page — product name, units you can release to a show, on-air price, days from payment to dispatch, whether stock sits inside Korea, the name of the contact reachable during the show with standby hours in Korean time, and phrases that must not be used. Walk in with those seven lines and the first conversation with a Korean team ends in 30 minutes.
