How Whatnot Turned Live Shopping Into a $6B Business

Watch more: Inside Whatnot: Why Live Shopping Works — And What It Means for eCommerce

It all started with Funko Pops. Those pint-sized vinyl characters with giant eyes and even bigger fan bases. Whatnot was originally just a small corner of the internet built for the superfans who hunted down rare editions, traded duplicates and argued (politely… mostly) about which variants were truly worth the hype.

From that single community came a spark. A show. A conversation. A little live stream test. And then suddenly, the thing snowballed. What began as a niche marketplace for a quirky, beloved toy turned into a full-blown live-commerce universe, driving $6B in annual sales and where people now spend an average of 80 minutes a day hanging out, chatting, bidding, forming followings and building actual businesses. Businesses that sell everything from sports cards and luxury handbags to classic cars and farm-fresh clementines delivered the next morning.

This isn’t eCommerce as we knew it. This is shopping crossed with entertainment, crossed with fandom, crossed with “you’re not going to believe what’s about to drop next.”

As Karen Webster put it in the latest SKU series, live commerce — when it works — can be “mesmerizing,” pulling viewers into auctions and social moments unfolding in real time. Whatnot has built an entire ecosystem around that feeling.

But the secret isn’t just the format. It’s the environment. A place where people actually want to spend time.

Armand Wilson, Whatnot’s VP of Categories and Expansions, said the platform didn’t set out to reinvent shopping. It set out to serve one community. Livestreaming was simply the natural answer to what that group needed.

“The earliest days [were about]… just staying really close to our community and trying to solve needs for them,” he said.

And that community-first instinct shaped everything that followed.

Whatnot’s sellers aren’t anonymous storefronts. They’re super-passionate, sometimes wonderfully quirky experts who know their stuff, know their audience and make the experience feel more like a show you tune into than a store you browse.

“Our sellers are deeply passionate about the products that they’re selling. They’re experts,” he explained.

From those Funko Pop beginnings, Whatnot has exploded into categories like sneakers, apparel, handbags, produce, collectibles, wholesale and more. Buyers don’t browse casually — they return night after night, often making repeat purchases and sometimes picking up a dozen items a week.

Whatnot has also rebuilt something that the first era of eCommerce accidentally erased: the joy of stumbling into something unexpected. The “I didn’t know I needed this, but here we are” moment. Webster called it the “serendipity associated with shopping,” and Whatnot sees that as a design principle.

To cultivate it, Wilson leads a team where people go deep, really deep, on individual verticals. Because the sports card crowd has absolutely nothing in common with the luxury handbag crowd, and both are wildly different from the “I grow clementines on my farm and ship them next day” crowd.

Meanwhile, the “and whatnot” section is like the platform’s laboratory. It’s where new categories are born. The team watches uncategorized streams to spot what’s bubbling up,  what’s catching fire, who’s standing out, how quickly interest is growing. Then they dive in to decide whether to formalize a new category.

And the experience feels intensely personal. Join a show and you’re greeted by name. Sellers recognize you, remember what you like, and pull pieces tailored to your taste. It’s relationship-driven commerce at scale.

Rewards add another layer. The program is purposely flexible so sellers can design their own incentives, and Wilson said that buyers who participate show about a 20% increase in multi-purchase behavior. It’s loyalty built around community, not coupons.

Wilson is clear. artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t at Whatnot to replace the humans who make live commerce fun. While some platforms abroad rely on AI avatars and automation to host streams, Whatnot uses AI more like a behind-the-scenes assistant, speeding things up while keeping the spotlight firmly on the people.

A seller can, for example, hold up a pair of AirPods and let the camera do the work: instant product recognition, automatic listing creation, auction ready to launch. No pausing. No typing. No killing the momentum that live selling depends on.

AI tools also help with trust and safety checks in the background so sellers can stay in the moment with their audience.

Wilson described AI as a practical “efficiency layer,” something that protects the human connection instead of replacing it.

Food and drink categories are already picking up speed. Farms and bakeries are moving real parts of their business onto Whatnot, shipping fresh goods straight from the source. Wilson also sees huge potential in high-ticket categories.

“Cars would be really good on Whatnot,” he said, noting that the traditional online auction flow could become more transparent and more exciting with a live final stage.

At its core, Whatnot is trying to bring back what early eCommerce unintentionally stripped away: warmth, personality, spontaneity, connection.

As Wilson told Webster, “We’re adding the personal element to the shopping experience that has been missing as eCommerce has just taken off.”

And that element, the human one, is exactly what turned a tiny Funko Pop community into a platform where people now spend entire evenings hanging out, discovering, buying and connecting. And where sellers build their businesses.

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