The Beeline Business unit of Russian operator Beeline has introduced a new service for business customers, aimed at fostering online sales. The service, called Beeline.Stream, has been launched in cooperation with the AdTech unit of the company. The new service lets customers choose goods and services in online shops using video streams. No additional software is needed. Beeline.Stream provides live interaction with staff at shops or showrooms.

Retailers need to install a widget with the shape of a button into a code of their website. The service has flexible settings and supports tools for attracting customers and then connecting them to staff. An application for retailers has been designed as part of the service. Available for Android and iOS devices, it helps carry out video-streaming sessions. The service can be managed from the Personal Office section, which will also give statistics connected to the service.

Tarifica’s Take

This is a particularly ambitious attempt on the part of an MNO to carve out a place for itself in e-commerce, and indeed to create e-commerce where it did not previously exist. To that extent it is commendable.

Beeline has created a tailored service that essentially creates a video-based online shopping platform for retailers that have no such capacity. The software demands, at least as described by the operator, are near nil, since Beeline.Stream makes the interface seamless. The addition of tracking and statistics is especially savvy, making this a truly everything-included, from-the-ground-up solution.

As a value-added non-traditional service for business customers, Beeline.Stream is yet another contribution to the tool kit of mobile operators’ efforts to reinvent themselves or at least achieve a new level of relevance in the rapidly changing market landscape. The success of the service will depend in large part on the extent to which customers do not presently have the ability to do these things on their own.