Live Webinar: Unlocking China’s Digital Success with Live Commerce & Influencer Marketing

Key takeaways from our live webinar with Ron Wardle, Live Commerce Specialist, Yael Kochman, CMO of buywith and Emily Carriveau (@smalltownme) influencer from our content creator community: 

1. Marketplaces contribute to livestream shopping: In China, everything is driven by highly concentrated marketplaces. Each marketplace is an ecosystem that goes beyond shopping. For example, Alibaba has everything a lifestyle needs within the app, with multiple properties that are akin to a huge shopping mall, if not more. This is something Amazon is trying to emulate in the west.  The concentration of populations on marketplaces is much higher than in the west, making it valuable for livestream shopping hosts and shoppers.
2. The D2C factor is key: Unlike the west, not every brand has a dot com site, they are all part of marketplaces, and each brand has a flagship store on the marketplace. This makes it easier to improve access to concentration of shoppers in a marketplace.
3. Focus on community building: Livestream and video commerce has been used to build communities, common in China, but not common in the west. However, brands like Lululemon do this well with hosting events that aren’t brand related, which helps in building communities of complementary brands, store associates, influencers, customers, nutritionists, beauty experts and more! Since a lot of these events are livestreamed, it amplifies the community building aspect.
4. Create trust via authenticity: Authenticity is key, as the influencer or host are in the live without a script, completely unrehearsed. Being real and authentic builds trust, and when audiences trust the influencer or host, they will learn and listen from the recommendations. This builds the likelihood of audiences making a purchase from livestreams, repeatedly over time.
5. Treat livestreams are old-fashioned infomercials: Experienced hosts suggest that it is important to have the items that are on the live clearly on display, in one’s hands, explicitly demonstrated and exhibited. Like old school QVC days, these enable people to understand how the products look and are used, live, allowing people to ask questions and gain clarity, ultimately leading to higher purchases.
6. Give livestream audiences at least one tip or idea, each time: Ideas are free, and so a solid influencer will make sure each piece of social content will give audiences a tip, idea, or something they can emulate in their real life. This goes back to building trust with the audiences, building a community.
7. Repurpose livestream content: 87% of the revenue from livestreams in China comes from replays of the livestream. As such, it is critical that livestreams are executed as if they are catering to a huge audience, irrespective of how big the audience is when live. When snippets of the livestreams are remarketed and placed in different outlets, the replays magnify the commerce via marketing and remarketing.