As livestreamed shopping videos take off in China, Western brands look for a way in

As livestreaming shopping videos have become increasingly popular in China, they’ve also become critically important to brands’ strategies for the biggest shopping holiday in the country, Alibaba’s Singles Day.

This year, Alibaba kicked off Singles Day with a livestream between Kim Kardashian West and Chinese livestreamer Viya Huang to promote her fragrance line, KKW, to Chinese consumers. Overall, the number of merchants who incorporated livestreaming into their Singles Day campaign was up 200% compared to last year, according to Alibaba.

There’s a number of key differences between online shopping in the U.S. and in China — namely, that most e-commerce transactions in China take place on just a few platforms, owned by Alibaba or its main competitor, JD.com. But the rise of livestreaming shopping in China may offer some clues as to how the trend may take off in the U.S., particularly as apps like TikTok, which is owned by China’s ByteDance, become more popular in the U.S.