Home Opinion How big is the bubble in Live streaming e-commerce?

How big is the bubble in Live streaming e-commerce?

Wendi Song

Livestream e-commerce is undoubtedly the most popular outlet in China. However, the increasing sales volume of live streaming e-commerce and the actual converted sales volume have always been questionable, among which the fake behaviors such as the number of orders and the number of viewers are almost an open secret.

Since this industry has emerged, these manipulations are common. New stores change their number of sales to gain some exposure, to enter the ranking lists during major promotional days, and to make their issues more prestigious. As a result, the transaction amount they claim is getting larger and larger, and even a live broadcast transaction volume of more than 100 million is the norm.

Zhao Yuanyuan, former president of Taobao’s live broadcast platform, has publicly mentioned the illusion created in this industry on his social networks: “If an issue fails to reach 100 million sales, is the store ashamed to issue an official statement? (…) The sale price of cars is changed, discounts of 50% on products are offered, the page views are counted as the numbers of viewers, and all stores boast of their numbers. But the truth is that many of these issues see 50% or more of their orders canceled or returned. ”

In fact, the return rate of live streaming e-commerce has been high, with 30% of the return rate almost becoming the default “normal” in the industry, some of which is due to product quality problems, and some of which is the regret after impulse consumption. As a result, when a live broadcast comes down, the total amount of transactions announced by the live broadcast platform is often a lot less than the actual sales volume.

It has been reported that the mainland tax authorities will begin to take measures against a series of behaviors such as brushing, but no concrete actions have been seen so far.

*Journalist at PLATAFORMA

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