Chinese retailer Suning.com partners with short video platform Douyin on social e-commerce
- The company’s push for social e-commerce and further digitalisation of its offline stores saw Suning.com’s online sales rise 20.19 per cent year on year in the first half
- In the first half of this year, there were over 10 million e-commerce related live streaming sessions in China, attracting more than 50 billion views
Suning.com is the latest online Chinese retailer to partner with a live streaming platform to promote products amid changing consumer behaviour amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The Nanjing-based company, which has seen its online sales boom during Covid-19, will partner with ByteDance’s popular short video platform Douyin in providing live streamed branding and supply chain services.
Under the initiative, consumers can purchase Suning.com products directly from Douyin’s e-commerce live-streaming platform without being re-redirected, and Suning.com will provide delivery and after-sales service, the retailer said in a statement on Thursday.
The company’s push for social e-commerce and further digitalisation of its offline stores saw Suning.com’s online sales rise 20.19 per cent year on year in the first half of 2020 despite a net loss of 161 million yuan (US$23 million) due to the impact of Covid-19.
Online sales accounted for about 70 per cent of total sales during the same period, according to the company’s financial report published on Thursday.
“Douyin’s e-commerce platform is a platform that can help users find good products at good prices,” said Fan Chunyan, vice-president of Suning.com. “Through in-depth cooperation [with Douyin], Suning can further reach young consumers and get insights about their needs so [we can] provide more high-quality services.”