|Tmall upgraded Live Streaming for 11.11| Question: Is Livestreams bringing sales?

Tmall is going to strengthen its Live Streaming strategy for the 11.11 Global Shopping Festival this year. As they would like to engage the new customers too, Tmall Global is going to upgrade the customer experiences. They plan to set up Livestream studios in bonded warehouses and regional industrial parks.

China is leading the Livestream Trend?

Online shopping has been increasing in China especially in Taobao or even Douyin.
Most of the live streaming is with popular celebrities & demonstrating the product as well as sharing their shopping tips. Through Livestream, all the viewers can enjoy offline shopping experience with also online shopping. Livestream is similar to E-Commerce which allows viewers to purchase items immediately within the Apps or website.

In China, there are more than 100 million viewers watching a Livestream every month.
Taobao proved that shopping through Livestream is successful as it generated more than 100billion RMB ($15.1 billion) in gross merchandise volume (GMV) in 2018.

Why do customers love to purchase from Livestream?

Although, we have real-time customer services to provide customers a personalized experience while online shopping. However, the social aspect of personalized shopping is still missing. People love to be served through face-to-face, which Livestream is a good channel to communicate with the customers. This works as much as TV shopping channels plus E-Commerce.

What’s the Future of Livestream?

Businesses are talking about “New Retail” which means to provide customers with a combination of online and offline shopping experience. For example, Taobao opens up a Taobao Store with the tagline “See it, feel it, buy it,” which means visitors were able to touch and experience it before purchase online.
So, will the Livestream be able to continue evolving and become the mainstream?
As the COVID-19 pandemic, Livestream has become a new momentum due to shoppers staying at home. We can’t doubt that during the lockdown period, businesses have to be forced to innovate such as having Livestream to do media review, fashion shows, beauty advice, and so on.
However, Livestream is unable to provide a fully in-store shopping experience but is able to help the brand create customer loyalty, awareness, and reach to the target audience with good real-time customer services.