Live shopping didn’t die with QVC on TV… it’s alive and well in China

In China, Alibaba’s Taobao Marketplace makes $15B in sales by appealing to shoppers who want to buy products from a live stream.

Sandy Friesen makes handmade leather purses in Connecticut. But one of her top customer bases is China. 

Live shopping didn’t die with QVC on TV… it’s alive and well in China

Friesen’s company, Welden, is one of many fashion-related companies dipping into the Chinese live-stream market, where companies all over the world broadcast their wares to massive audiences.

It’s a market with millions of views and billions of dollars 

In China, some 500m people watch live-streaming on channels owned by companies like Alibaba. These programs are based around sales, and they’re hosted by online and IRL celebs. 

Welden’s VP of sales joined a fashion influencer on a live-stream on Black Friday, and thousands of viewers asked questions in real time. In the next 2 days, Welden made $350k — and now, the company sells 20% of its bags from Chinese live-streams.

Alibaba is the big live-streaming fish    

Most of the live-stream shoppers are women between the ages of 18 and 35. Amazon has tried to launch copycat live-stream services, but so far it hasn’t matched the success of the biggest Chinese live-stream channels, such as Alibaba’s Taobao Marketplace.

Taobao Marketplace makes $15B in sales volume, and some of the top companies selling products make up to $400m.

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