Live Commerce Tips for Brands to Successfully Sell in China

This article was originally released by SmartBrief.

As more US and global brands turn to Livestream marketing, they must carefully plan their strategy for the Chinese market because missteps can be costly and embarrassing, as one global luxury brand recently learned. China is the leading e-commerce and livestream market in the world.

On Oct. 27, Traffic Yellow, the apprentice of top Douyin (China’s TikTok equivalent) key opinion leader (KOL) Crazy Little Brother Yang (“疯狂的小杨哥” in Chinese), created a scandal for French luxury brand YSL. Her indecent hair and contorted facial expressions disturbed viewers while she promoted YSL beauty products during her livestream. Many consumers complained the show cheapened the YSL brand image.

This unfortunate example offers important lessons for brands trying to leverage live streams for marketing and to drive sales. The livestreaming e-commerce market in China reached about $311.8 billion in 2021 and will surge to $673 billion by the end of 2023, representing a 115.8% increase. That’s why a growing number of US and global brands now want to know how to seize the immense opportunity of livestreaming in China for rapid brand growth. Let’s examine common problems, proven solutions and more practical tips for brands to successfully invest in live streaming.

Read the full article at SmartBrief.