It would be hard to imagine iPhones being sold through a home shopping TV channel, but apparently Apple livestreaming in Chinese online shopping apps is a thing.
Livestreaming is a popular way for Chinese brands to promote themselves, but most of it is every bit as tacky as TV shopping channels, making it all the more surprising that Apple would join in …
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The vast majority of the e-commerce livestreams are either offering big discounts or using celebrity hosts to draw in shoppers.
But while Apple has launched its own streams, Reuters reports that it’s taking a very different approach – and one that other major brands think is the future.
Apple’s show, hosted by product experts offering tips on making movies with iPhones or using the Apple Watch as a workout aid, drew 300,000 likes and more than 1.3 million viewers within an hour in May.
Apple’s move illustrates how livestreaming is evolving in China from an initial model of massive sales via big discounts, as more big brands seek greater control of a process rendered costly by a fragmenting market and growing use of superhosts.
“You have to move towards content instead of promotion,” said William Lau, chief executive of multibrand beauty retailer Bonnie and Clyde.
“When you focus on building content instead of offering 40% off, you actually get more resonance with the consumer and you also get follow-up in terms of return sales.”
It was the pandemic that saw livestreamed shopping videos really take off, employing a staggering 1.23 million hosts.
But the phenomenon has continued to grow since then, with research firm eMarketer estimating that it generated $480B worth of sales in China last year, and that this is likely to increase by 30% this year. Perhaps unsurprising, then, that Apple felt it needed to be part of it.
Livestreaming was once focused on lower-end products, but it does now encompass more premium ones, says the report.
Zephyr Liu, Asia-Pacific head of women’s apparel brand Ba&sh, said she once thought the sales channel was only reaching bargain-hunters, but she’s been successfully using livestreams to sell dresses at full price.
Apple’s tutorial-based approach is in keeping with the brand’s soft-sell image, and could be thought of as an extension of the Today at Apple in-store training sessions – where the company helps people get more out of their products, as a way to subtly encourage them to buy more of them.
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