Live stream in Chinese e-commerce retail: the best way to Sell at your Launch

The not-so-new live streaming feature is currently very successful in China for everything: sales, promotion, and branding, …Since the outbreak forced stores to close their doors, companies had to find an alternative and go digital. For several weeks, Chinese’s people life was exclusively digital for shopping, sport, entertainment, social life, and so on.

The direct consequence of this life of digitalization is the rise of videos and digital content consumption.  Livestreaming was already coming in China, but the situation made things go faster, and live streaming quickly became fashionable and a big opportunity for foreign and local companies.

Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) play a crucial role in the digital marketing landscape in China, especially when it comes to livestreaming. Here are seven quick facts on why brands use KOL livestreaming to drive sales in China:

1. Massive Reach: KOLs have large, dedicated followings, allowing brands to reach millions of potential customers instantly.
2. High Engagement: Livestreaming is interactive, fostering a direct connection between KOLs and viewers, which can lead to higher engagement rates compared to traditional advertising.
3. Trust and Credibility: Followers often trust KOLs more than traditional advertising, seeing their endorsements as more authentic and credible.
4. Real-Time Interaction: During livestreams, viewers can ask questions and get immediate responses, which helps in reducing doubts and can lead to on-the-spot purchases.
5. Targeted Marketing: KOLs often have specific niche audiences, making it easier for brands to target their marketing efforts to the right demographic.
6. Immediate Sales Impact: The direct nature of livestreaming allows for real-time sales, as viewers can purchase products during the stream through embedded links.
7. Content Versatility: KOLs can creatively showcase products in various ways during their streams (e.g., tutorials, unboxings, real-life uses), which can be more convincing than static ads.

Why is live-streaming a golden opportunity these days?

Chinese people’s attention is more than ever focused on the digital world with an ever-growing internet user base. With the rise of Kols, it was only a question of time before live-streaming become the norm when marketing in China.

If Daigou and Kols are part of the live-streaming success, the love for convenience of Chinese consumers was one of the major reasons if this success. It offers an immersive experience with social interaction, it is the most relevant way to reach a bored and isolated audience. Live-streaming is entertaining and creates proximity between a brand and its customer base, which is an excellent tool for eCommerce.

China Lifestreaming’s incredible numbers

China’s live-streaming market reached about RMB 90 billion and is expected to reach RMB 112 billion in 2020.

For example, in 2019, on 11.11 days, Tmall’s turnover was about RMB 268 billion and Taobao’s live broadcast turnover was about RMB 20 billion. This feature used in e-commerce is more than efficient to make a business grow quickly. It is so efficient that pretty much every single Chinese social media and eCommerce platform has launched a live-streaming tool.

A concrete example is Lin Qingxuan’s live streaming on Taobao. Lin Qingxuan is the founder of an innovative cosmetics company that suffered from the outbreak since its shops had to close, making its turnover severely decrease. But in February, when Chinese people had to stay home, the company launched a large-scale stream shopping event. It was the first Taobao’s live broadcast: 60 000 people watched it and more than RMB 40 000 of products were sold in only two hours! A very good result in this period!

Best Social Media and App for Live-Streaming in China

You can choose to use the live-streaming feature on the most popular apps such as:

#1 Douyin

Douyin, known internationally as TikTok, is a leading short-form video platform in China, developed by ByteDance. It allows users to create, share, and discover videos ranging from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. Douyin is especially popular among younger audiences and has incorporated extensive features for livestreaming, which influencers and brands use to interact with followers and promote products.

Douyin’s Livestreaming Features

Douyin’s livestreaming feature enables Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs), celebrities, and brands to engage in real-time with their audience, demonstrating products, answering questions, and encouraging immediate purchases through integrated e-commerce functionalities. This seamless integration of entertainment and commerce has made Douyin a powerhouse in the influencer marketing realm.

On Douyin, KOLs range from celebrities and well-known personalities to micro-influencers who cater to niche markets. They utilize the platform’s tools to create engaging and often interactive content that can go viral, leveraging Douyin’s algorithm which prioritizes user engagement.

Case Study: Li Jiaqi on Douyin

Background: Li Jiaqi, also known as the “Sales King,” is famous for his ability to sell products through engaging and informative livestreams. His rise to fame was marked by his record-setting sales performances during livestream sessions.

Livestreaming Strategy: Li Jiaqi’s approach involves rapid-fire testing of dozens of lipsticks, providing honest reviews, and engaging directly with his viewers by answering their questions in real time. His energetic personality and trustworthy recommendations create a compelling shopping experience.

Notable Achievement: A standout event in his career on Douyin involved a special livestream session during a major shopping festival where Li Jiaqi sold over 15,000 lipsticks in just five minutes. This event not only highlighted his influence but also underscored the effectiveness of live commerce on Douyin.

Impact: This event had multiple impacts:

• It boosted Li Jiaqi’s status as a top KOL in China.
• It demonstrated the potential of Douyin as a major platform for influencer marketing and direct-to-consumer sales.
• It encouraged many brands to explore and invest in KOL partnerships on Douyin.

Li Jiaqi’s success on Douyin illustrates the platform’s power in transforming how brands interact with consumers, merging entertainment, immediate customer interaction, and direct sales capabilities to drive remarkable commerce results.

• WeChat Channel

Chinese Facebook with over 1 billion daily users. Live streaming was recently in the testing process and is now available for official accounts and a few KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders). Streamers can program their coming live stream and send invitations to their followers so they can be on time to see the wechat video Livestream. They can also enroll by themselves. When Livestream will start, they will receive a push notification as a reminder. Same way youtube or IG does.

• Xiaohongshu

A booming platform for young modern women. Mainly focusing on beauty products, clothing and lifestyle it is a perfect platform to promote your products to reach your female target. Video content is booming on this platform: +265% of the video posted each month and over 100 million views for vlogs each month in 2019. The conversion rate is remarkably high in Xiaohonshu and it is just getting into live streaming, its next big step.

• Weibo

Chinese Twitter with over 500 million monthly active users. Live streaming isn’t new for Weibo! Back in 2016, live streams were already booming. Later, in 2018, Weibo acquired Yizhibo, a top live streaming platform, and linked every Livestream on both platforms. This widened Weibo’s and Yizhibo’s audience and scope, thus boosting their total Livestream viewers.

• Taobao

The main Chinese e-commerce website also started to undertake Livestream to boost sales. Increasing product trust and in a dynamic Livestream, the conversion rate for promoted products becomes even bigger. Doing your Livestream on this huge platform makes it easier for you to sell: consumers are already searching for something to buy and doing a Livestream is the best way to be visible and reliable to them.  

The top Livestreaming KOL in China 2024

who are highly influential in the livestreaming scene in China, particularly for sales and marketing:

1. Li Jiaqi (Austin Li) – Known as the “Lipstick King,” Li Jiaqi has gained fame for his ability to sell enormous quantities of beauty products, especially lipsticks, through his engaging and trustworthy livestreams.
2. Luo Yonghao – A former tech CEO who turned to livestreaming, Luo has made headlines for selling products worth millions of yuan in a single stream, ranging from smartphones to snacks.
3. Simba (Zhang Dayi) – Another big name in the Chinese livestreaming market, Simba is known for his charismatic personality and effectiveness in selling lifestyle and electronic products.
4. Wei Ya (Vivi Wei) – Similar to Viya, Wei Ya is a top livestreamer known for her ability to sell a broad spectrum of products, establishing trust and rapport with her audience.
5. Cherie (Xueli Cherie) – She focuses mainly on luxury fashion and beauty products and is known for her sophisticated presentation and in-depth knowledge of her products.
6. Dong Mingzhu – The chairperson of Gree Electric, one of China’s largest appliance manufacturers, who has taken to livestreaming to boost sales directly, showing the power of combining corporate leadership with personal influence in livestreaming.
7. Huang Wei– Often referred to as the “Queen of Livestreaming,” Viya is famous for selling a wide range of products from cosmetics to cars during her livestreams.

These KOLs have mastered the art of combining entertainment, persuasive sales tactics, and authenticity to engage millions of viewers and generate significant sales through various Chinese livestreaming platforms but they are not cheap 😉

Record-Breaking Sales: Li Jiaqi has a history of breaking sales records during the Double 11 festival. For example, in previous events, he sold products worth millions of dollars within the first few minutes of his livestream. His ability to sell thousands of items almost instantaneously is a testament to his influence and the trust he has built with his audience.

Preparation: Leading up to the event, Li Jiaqi meticulously prepares by selecting products that align with his audience’s preferences and ensuring he has enough inventory to meet the massive demand.

• Engagement: During the livestream, he engages viewers with his charismatic presentation, detailed product demonstrations, and real-time responses to viewer questions, which helps in driving immediate purchases.
• Promotions: Special promotions, exclusive deals, and limited-time offers are strategically utilized to maximize sales during the event.

Impact on Brands

• Brand Partnerships: Many brands seek partnerships with Li Jiaqi for the Double 11 festival to capitalize on his massive reach and influence. His endorsement can lead to significant exposure and sales spikes for the products he features.
• Product Launches: New products are often launched during his Double 11 livestreams, taking advantage of the high viewer numbers to gain maximum market penetration.

How to Choose a suitable KOL?

Once you chose the platform(s) where you want to be present, you will need one or several KOLs to promote your products.

Choosing the right ones is essential: the KOLs have to be aligned with your brand image. You can also choose to select only one big KOL with a huge base of followers or several medium KOLs with a reasonably large scope depending on your budget. 

KOLs promote a lot of products, which generally are:

• Makeup and beauty products
• Clothing
• Video games and esports

But any brand can also use this lever to promote original products or events.

In the end, live streaming is THE FEATURE to use in 2020 to efficiently promote and easily boost any product. After choosing your platforms and KOLs, you will be able to add this feature to your marketing campaign and see how effective this will be for your business.

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