Livestream sales may stage a record next month

Livestream sales volumes are expected to hit record highs during the Chinese online shopping festival next month, thanks to technological development, diversified e-commerce channels and consumption habit changes, industry officials said.

The top livestreamers, including "Lipstick Prince" Li Jiaqi and Viya, sold products and services valued at more than 20 billion yuan (US$3.13 billion) in a recent pre-sales campaign for the Singles Day festival.

At a pre-sales event on Wednesday, Li's livestreaming room generated 10.6 billion yuan in transaction within a few hours, while Viya generated 8.2 billion yuan. Several top livestreamers generated transactions of more than 20 billion yuan that night, according to industry figures.

Market competition has promoted "new upgrades" to obtain more traffic and seek more efficient conversions, said Yang Qing, secretary-general of the Shanghai Electronic Commerce Association.

Livestreamers become "bridges" between brands and consumers, instead of traditional e-commerce platforms like Taboo and JD. They are sophisticated and professional, willing to hear consumers' demands and feedback, said Shanghai-based Meione, which has major stakeholders including Li.

In the livestreaming room, the majority of products are cosmetics and beauty merchandise, including many from Chinese brands.

Shanghai is encouraging new methods and innovations to boost digital consumption and support Chinese products, local government officials said recently.

Technology developments like cloud and artificial intelligence bring new business opportunities to e-commerce, said Zhang Xiuzheng, Chinese president of Huawei Cloud Business.

Various models like DTC (direct to consumer) have been growing in the domestic market. Packaged IT services make e-commerce services and channels diversified and professional, covering customer management and product recommendations based on data analysis, industry officials told a Huawei-organized e-commerce conference in Shanghai.

During the Singles Day event, XR techs including virtual reality and augmented reality will be used in livestreaming, Meione said.