China’s live-streaming fashion boom woos Gen Z buyers with growing success
Chinese and global brands are turning to live-streaming internet platforms to expand their reach and generate higher sales in China. Consumers can comment and shop as they watch the broadcasts
We are sitting in a small office looking at ourselves on an iPhone screen, being broadcast live across the web to about 4,000 Pawnstar viewers in China. It’s midday and our unannounced, ad hoc show is drawing far fewer viewers than the usual scheduled ones, says Jane Jia, owner and founder of Pawnstar.
Don’t let the shop’s eyebrow-raising name fool you, this is not that kind of live show. Live-streaming platforms have been popular in China since they first appeared about six years ago, but in the last three years, the medium has exploded. Since 2016, this second-hand fashion and accessories store in Shanghai has been selling via live streaming. Its customers are mostly women living in second-tier cities across China, usually aged between 20 and 35, who shop most after work hours.
Chinese live streaming has proven useful and lucrative for both small boutiques and huge brands such as Armani, Macy’s and health products company GNC. According to Alibaba (owner of the South China Morning Post), which launched live streaming on its Taobao platforms in May 2016, about 80 per cent of the viewers are female, about half are Generation Z (post-millennials), and they shop largely between 8pm and 10pm.
Pawnstar uses a WeChat mini-program, supported by Muogujie.com, to live-stream to about 20,000 to 30,000 people a session, four times a week. The broadcasts bring in 30 per cent of the business’ total revenue.
Viewer numbers for major broadcasts can rise into the tens of millions. A live-streamed show on March 31 during Shanghai Fashion Week, Tmall x Labelhood – a collaboration between an e-commerce platform and an independent showcasing platform – attracted almost 90 million views. It’s the kind of reach that would previously have been impossible for many independent designers such as Ejing Zhang, whose jewellery pop-up was featured in a 10-minute segment.
