Live streaming e-commerce in China as a whole is covered mainly across platforms Kuaishou, Douyin, and Taobao. From late 2020, the market share, Taobao had approximately 44%-55%, Kuaishou 27%-36%, and Douyin 16%-24%. Per customer transaction value across these three, Taobao averages 120 yuan for each product, Douyin 100 yuan, and Kuaishou 70 yuan.

From April to December 2020, Kuaishou and Taobao have had a pressing advantage in terms of the number of star live streamers on their platforms. Among the top 100 star streamers in total sales on the three platforms, 45 came from Kuaishou, 40 from Taobao, and only 15 from Douyin.

With the rapid development of the live streaming market and the rapid development of transaction volume, more and more brands have begun to reduce the budget of inviting talented live streamers to sell products and officially set foot in live streaming by hosting live streaming in their online stores. Store-hosted live streaming will also become a major industry trend in the future. If we take the Double Eleven festival in 2020 as an example, among the top 50 leading streamers on three major platforms in terms of turnover, 60% came from store-hosted streaming, and 40% came from leading streamers. In the previous three seasons, the store-hosted live streaming takes 44%, the leading streamer rate is 56%. As more and more stores join, the battle for leading streamers will continue to develop.

It should be noted that the store-hosted live streaming also requires the brand to pay attention to the platform characteristics. In Taobao, store-hosted live streaming has become a standard feature, and Taobao users are becoming more favoring official flagship stores with live streaming. In Douyin, the personalized IP with its own traffic is the absolute way to sell goods. The key for brands to make successful live streaming on Douyin is to work with celebrities or mega influencers. In addition to offering a good price, taking advantage of celebrities’ and influencers’ fan effect is also the key to a successful live-streaming on Douyin.

As to product category of best sellers, In general, the products with lower transaction value such as makeup, skincare, daily necessities, clothes, and snacks are the top categories to generate high sales performance, Previously, China Merchants Securities’ live streaming report showed that, of the total annual turnover of 40-50 billion yuan, food accounted for more than 40%, daily necessities accounted for about 30%, and cosmetics accounted for about 30%. The median average unit price is 79 yuan. This shows that live streaming products are more on the path of low customer unit price.

The reason why beauty and clothing are popular is that they have a higher gross profit, and they are more likely to be favored in the selection of live streamers. Food, daily necessities, etc. are standard products, with low customer unit prices and high repurchase rates, which are more adaptable to the random and impulsive consumption characteristics of live streaming.

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