While it may not be popular across Europe, the e-commerce live streaming industry is enormous in China where, over the past few years, customers seeking to shop online have looked for more immersive and personalized experiences.

But what is live stream shopping? Well, in China it involves an influencer or celebrity advertising products through a live stream to a digital audience of thousands. While the seller or influencer demonstrates the product – anything from skincare to tech – the audience can ask questions about the product in real time, and receive instant responses, almost like receiving direct reviews.

Since the coronavirus pandemic led to lockdowns all over the world and severely impacted economies as shops were forced to close, live stream shopping has experienced a boom, with many shoppers moving online.  

"Live streaming was already very popular in China, but the pandemic has certainly boosted that adaptation," Arnold Ma, CEO of digital agency Qumin, told CGTN Europe. "So, for example, a lot of companies in China invested in live streaming, especially with the closure of offline stores, essentially all their activities moved online," he said.

$280m in 90 minutes

The figures themselves are very impressive. Ma said that at the height of the pandemic in China in February, users spent an average of 120 minutes per day watching live streams on Douyin, the Chinese TikTok app. To put that into perspective, in the same period they only spent 89 minutes a day watching other forms of content on social media.

"More specifically, during 618 – which is China's equivalent of Black Friday, it's the first of the two in the year – Alibaba's live streaming session went up by more than 120 percent year on year and sales on Taobao Live hit two billion renminbi, which is about $280 million in just 90 minutes after the shopping festival officially launched," said Ma.

China's largest retailer, JD.com, this year hosted 300,000 live sales broadcasts, with 31 brands reporting roughly $14 million dollars in sales.

It's no surprise, then, that the industry is seen as a success by entrepreneurs and business owners, so much so that even CEOs are getting involved in selling their products on the live stream platforms.

"For example, the CEO of Gree, which is China's largest air conditioning manufacturer, sold 300 million renminbi [$43 million] worth of products to 60 million viewers – the CEO directly did this," Ma explained.

Another CEO from Alibaba's retail division even managed to sell a whopping six million crayfish in just five seconds using this live streaming platform.

Adapting to the global market

However, while this e-commerce business continues to attract hundreds of millions of Chinese viewers and buyers, Ma said it might have a more difficult chance at success elsewhere.

"I think it's going to be at least a few years, if at all, before live commerce reaches mass adaptation outside of China. I think the biggest hurdle is probably resistance, I guess, towards technological innovation with Western consumers," Ma said.

"For example, in China, going from offline stores and cash economy to social commerce and live commerce is a huge improvement in convenience. But going from 'brand.com' or 'website.com' or traditional e-commerce to social live commerce is just not much of an improvement and convenience for people to invest in habitual change."

So it might be a long time until Europeans get to experience this immersive and vibrant shopping experience.