China's Cross-Border Livestream Commerce Market Set to Explode

Livestream commerce, an eCommerce trend originating from and flourishing in China, has captured the attention of millions since its inception in 2016. Find out how the trend is moving across China’s borders and if it is likely to set foot globally.

Merging live video streaming with online shopping, this groundbreaking concept has become part of China’s everyday eCommerce reality. In 2020, China's shoppable livestream market surpassed ¥1 trillion, signaling a transformative shift in the way people shop and interact with brands and vendors. As the sector gains momentum in China, several players are challenging Taobao's lead and attract double-digit percentages of China’s livestream commerce users. Despite Taobao’s initial market dominance, other players like Kuaishou and Douyin have already surpassed Alibaba’s flagship eCommerce platforms in terms of GMV.

Cross-Border Potential

China’s livestream commerce players have long realized that their concept has great potential also outside of China. Cross-border activities are already a promising business, with an impressive development ahead:

Exponential Growth in the Cross-Border Livestream Commerce Market

China’s cross-border livestream commerce market looks back on a short, yet impressive history. According to iiMedia Research, the market grew by 50% between 2020 and 2021, from ¥24 billion to ¥36 billion. The real surge, however, occurred in 2022, when the Chinese cross-border livestream commerce market reached an estimated ¥111.6 billion. This corresponds to a year-on-year increase by more than 200%. And there is no end in sight: By 2025, the market is expected to soar to ¥828.7 billion. This means exponential growth for the Chinese cross-border livestream commerce market or a 35-fold increase in size in just five years.

Positive Outlook, But Challenges Ahead

The data by iiMedia Research paint a highly positive future for China’s cross-border livestream activities, yet the market size development is not the only performance indicator. Livestream shopping also faces significant challenges. As it has a strong entertainment character, livestream shopping triggers a large amount of emotional and spontaneous purchases. On the one hand, this leads to very high conversion rates in comparison with other eCommerce concepts. On the other hand, spontaneous purchases are returned disproportionately often. While conventional eCommerce sees return rates between 10% and 15%, return rates in livestream commerce are at least twice as high at 30% to 50%. The sector thus needs to work on concepts to improve customer experience and satisfaction and thus reduce return rates.