Ding Kelun, 42, traveled all the way from Zunyi, Southwest China’s Guizhou province, to pick up his newly bought truck in Cheng’an county of Handan, North China’s Hebei province, in late June, after seeing the vehicle on seller Wu Ranran’s livestreaming promotion.
He said he knew the company Handan Boang Special Vehicle Manufacturing from Wu’s Douyin account. After discussing details about buying a truck on WeChat, Ding drove about 20 hours to the company in April to see if the truck was really as good as Wu said, and finally decided to make the deal at a price of 400,000 yuan ($59,000).
Wu, who now has 170,000 fans since she began livestreaming in 2024, said in the past, sellers had to drive vehicles to places like petrol stations to do marketing, and as such could only reach potential customers in Handan and nearby cities.
“As competition became more fierce, and profit became less, we developed livestreaming platforms so we could reach clients across the country,” she said.
Now the company has 20 livestreaming personnel and last year sold 1,300 trucks — about double the number before it started livestreaming — with sales of 350 million yuan. Around 85 percent of those orders were from livestreaming and 70 percent from outside Hebei. Last year, Wu’s personal livestreaming sales alone exceeded 100 million yuan.
Wu said the local government has many good policies that support livestream marketing, such as organizing training for livestream hosts and opening green channels for drivers to apply for a temporary license plate.
The transformation of Boang epitomizes how Handan, a heavy industrial city, is helping traditional industries embrace the digital economy.
In recent years, Cheng’an has vigorously promoted the “one product, one livestream” e-commerce model. Cameras are focused on production lines, assembly workshops, testing labs and shipping warehouses, drawing viewers and inquiries through real-life scenes.
Over the past one and a half years since the launch of this initiative, 107 industrial enterprises in the county have launched livestream sales. From January to May, livestreaming enterprises generated revenue of 15.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15 percent, according to local authorities.
The local government built a 7,800-square-meter “one product, one livestream” industrial park, with a logistics warehouse, a product exhibition hall, 18 shared livestreaming rooms and training classes. They are all available free to local enterprises.
There, two young women were passionately introducing screws in front of cameras. They work for Yibang Machinery Technology (Handan), a fastener producer, which previously sold by the ton, now sells by the piece via livestreaming.
“Though each screw sells for about 3 yuan, and the logistics cost is about 1.5 yuan, the goal is to link directly to customers and promote our brand, so that big merchants can notice us,” said Yang Jianhui, chairman of the company.
The company used to rely entirely on distributors and agents. The sales teams had to travel extensively to visit clients one by one. Distributors also required them to tie up large sums of capital on inventory stock. Now, customers place orders and settle payments instantly through online storefronts, which suggests greater profit margin, he said.
Yang agrees livestreaming industrial products is not as fun as others, but he doesn’t mind if only three to five people are watching because those who stay are more likely to purchase.
Each day the company receives about 1,000 livestreaming orders from clients such as repair shops, processing factories and construction teams, at an average of 40 yuan per order. The repurchase rate has reached 70 percent.
Since starting in August, the company has about 6,300 fans, and livestream sales have contributed 20 percent to its total, which reached 15 million yuan from January to March.
Guo Yanwen, director of the county’s development and reform bureau, said so far livestreaming has realized fruitful results for promoting the county’s industrial development and has become a driving engine for its economy. The growth rate of added value of industrial enterprises above designated size across the county reached 9 percent from January to May.
The public e-commerce service center at the park houses government departments including market regulation, finance, taxation and administrative approval, delivering one-stop, zero-distance government services for e-commerce businesses.
To help firms reduce costs, the local government has negotiated with courier companies. The delivery fee for parcels weighing under one kilogram has fallen to 1.6 yuan, a 36 percent reduction.
Tanks to chinadaily.com.cn
Please visit:
Our Sponsor