Livestreaming ecommerce booms in China amid the pandemic

“Buy it! Buy it! Buy it!”

That’s the battle call of China’s “King of Lipstick” Jiaqi Li, the livestreaming beauty product salesman who once sold 15,000 tubes of lipstick in just five minutes.

Li is part of a rising number of people hawking products on China’s ecommerce and livestreaming platforms. Part-salespeople and part-influencers, they push everything, from Louis Vuitton bags to homegrown oranges – and millions are tuning in to watch.

Jiaqi Li (center) / Photo credit: Jiaqi Li

The trend hasn’t quite caught on in other parts of the world: Amazon’s experiments with livestreaming haven’t attracted much attention, while Facebook’s and TikTok’s have only just begun.

But in a sense, the concept isn’t new. It’s an evolution of the television shopping channel, which has been tempting (usually elderly) viewers to buy jewelry and fancy knives since the 1980s.

Instead of on TV, however, online salespeople hawk their wares on livestreaming services. These platforms have grown exponentially in China, as online penetration booms and viewers search for content that’s more exciting than what the risk-averse and government-controlled TV networks broadcast.

And then the pandemic struck.

Covid-19 paralyzed the country, leaving many industries struggling – but not livestreaming. With shops closed and people stuck at home with little to do, livestreaming ecommerce is expected to grow to US$129 billion this year, according to iiMedia’s estimates.

“It is one of the tactics to stimulate online sales for most vendors, especially in the [Covid-19] recovery stage,” says Sophie Pan, research manager at IDC China.

Li is one of the most well-known faces of this booming trend, partially because he uses his face to test the lipsticks he sells. But Li has made a name for himself not just because of his eye-popping sales figures – which can reach millions of dollars in a single stream – but because his fans say he doesn’t act like a salesman.

“I haven’t bought any of the things he recommended but since I first saw his videos, I felt he was a very sincere person,” wrote one fan on China’s Q&A forum Zhihu.

Influencers like Li build their fanbases by appearing to be genuine. Chatly’s Lauren Hallahan says they’re seen both as experts and as peers who help people cut through the overwhelming number of choices with their personal picks.

For many consumers, it’s also more comfortable to tune in to a livestream than to deal with pushy salespeople in stores.