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Spotted: Chinese retailer Suning has launched what it claims is the first store in the world to combine live-streaming with offline shopping. The store, called “Qu guang guang”, allows customers to buy either in-store or online, and will feature in-store salespeople who will be simultaneously live-streaming.

Suning has partnered with ByteDance’s popular short video platform Douyin to provide live-streamed branding and supply chain services for the project. According to the retailer, consumers will be able to purchase directly from Douyin’s e-commerce live-streaming platform, with Suning providing delivery and after-sales service.

Suning.com is one of the largest non-government retailers in China. Headquartered in Nanjing, the company has more than 1600 stores in over 700 Chinese and Japanese cities and ranks among the top three Chinese B2C companies. Suning will leverage this offline presence to help it deliver live-stream services, with many of its in-store salespeople live-streaming to Suning’s online channels. 

The retailer also announced that it is planning to train 50,000 part-time live-streamers over the next three years. Fan Chunyan, Suning.com’s vice-president described the partnership as a way to reach a wider —and younger — market, saying, “Douyin’s e-commerce platform is a platform that can help users find good products at good prices. 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.”

Gao Feng, a spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce, has said: “Live streaming has become the new engine for the development of eCommerce.” We can see this in the increasing number of live-streaming innovations that we are covering. These include live-streams by virtual idols and a live-streamed sitcom.

Written By: Lisa Magloff

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