Live Commerce Glossary: Key Terms Defined (2026)

Live commerce: Selling products through a live video broadcast where viewers can buy in real time without leaving the stream. Also called livestream commerce, live shopping, or live selling. See What is live commerce?
Social commerce: Buying and selling products directly inside social media platforms — including in-feed shops, shoppable posts, and live shopping — rather than on a separate website. Live commerce is one fast-growing slice of social commerce.
TikTok Shop: TikTok's native e-commerce system that lets brands and creators sell products directly inside the app through live streams, shoppable videos, and a storefront, with in-app checkout.
Shoppable video: Short, pre-recorded video clips with tappable product links that let viewers buy directly from the video. They keep selling between live events, around the clock.
GMV (Gross Merchandise Value): The total value of all goods sold through a channel over a period, before fees, refunds, or costs are deducted. The headline metric for measuring TikTok Shop and live commerce volume.
AOV (Average Order Value): The average amount a customer spends per order. On TikTok Shop, AOV often sits lower than traditional e-commerce but is offset by higher purchase frequency.
Conversion rate: The share of viewers or visitors who make a purchase. Live commerce typically converts at a higher rate than static product pages because of real-time demonstration and Q&A.
Attribution: Tracking which creator, video, and live session drove each sale, so brands can pay creators accurately and reinvest in what works. Real-time attribution that feeds payouts is a hallmark of a serious live commerce operation.
TSP (TikTok Shop Partner): An agency or service provider officially recognized by TikTok to help brands run TikTok Shop — covering creator management, content, ads, and operations. TSP status is one signal of a vetted operator.
Affiliate (creator affiliate): A creator who promotes and sells a brand's products in exchange for a commission on the sales they drive, rather than a flat fee. Affiliate commissions are a core part of how TikTok Shop creators are paid.
Live host: The person who runs a live shopping stream — usually a creator, brand ambassador, or affiliate — demonstrating products and answering questions in real time. In live commerce the host is effectively the product; see how to find creators.
Moderator: A team member who manages the live chat during a stream — surfacing viewer questions to the host, sharing links, and keeping the conversation productive so the host can focus on selling.
Pinned product: The product card a host attaches to a live stream so viewers can tap and check out instantly without leaving the broadcast.
Sampling (seeding): Shipping product to creators so they have it in hand to demonstrate on stream. Coordinating sampling across many creators reliably is one of the quieter operational challenges in live commerce.
Shoppertainment: The blend of entertainment, community, and commerce that defines live and social selling — content people want to watch, with buying built directly into the experience.
Spark Ads: A TikTok ad format that boosts existing organic videos — including creator content — as paid ads, keeping the original engagement and authenticity rather than running a separate creative.
GMV Max: A TikTok Shop advertising tool that automates ad delivery to maximize gross merchandise value across a shop's products and content.
Cadence: How regularly a brand runs live sessions. A consistent cadence — often weekly — trains an audience to show up and compounds results, turning one-off streams into a real channel.
Bilingual / Spanish-first creator: A creator who hosts in Spanish or in both English and Spanish, with the cultural fluency to connect authentically with U.S. Hispanic and Latin American audiences. See the Hispanic live commerce playbook.
Cross-border commerce: Selling into a market other than where a brand is based — for example, a U.S. brand selling into Mexico — which adds logistics, payments, and compliance considerations. See how to sell in Mexico from the U.S.