Chinese department stores opt for ‘live streaming’ for customer engagement

Departmental stores and supermarkets in the first-tier cities of China are getting back to normal, though sales in the apparel segment are rebounding slowly in April after falling till March, according to the latest released data by the National Bureau of Statistics of China.

The retail sales of garment, footwear and accessories were down by 32.20 per cent on Y-o-Y basis to earn 225 billion Yuan revenue in January to March 2020 period.

Due to closures caused by COVID-19 outbreak, the stores have witnessed piled up inventories of apparels and, to cope with the situation, the stores’ owners have come up with a strategy to do live streaming of their products through famous app Douyin (TikTok’s local Chinese version) to attract customers who watch this from home.

The live streaming is being done for all major product categories and special promotion price is being offered to the customers sitting at home.