On June 7, for the short-video platform Kuaishou’s inaugural 616 Shopping Festival, Chinese luxury e-tailer Secoo launched a 24-hour livestreaming channel on its new account. The channel sold over $14.8 million (105 million yuan) in luxury goods from the likes of Louis Vuitton, Armani, and Gucci over the first five hours, according to local tech media 36Kr.
Secoo opened livestreaming rooms under different themes like vintage, fashion, handbags, shoewear, and KOL-hosted sessions, all of which went live on a rotating schedule. In a promotional post, the brand said it would offer dedicated sessions to brands such as Burberry and Versace. The account currently has over 500 pieces on Kuaishou’s e-commerce platform, where consumers can pay without being redirected to Secoo’s website or app.
Jing Take#
Kuaishou’s ambition in the luxury e-commerce space has met Secoo’s need to expand its online sales channels, the latter suggested by its CEO Li Rixue in a recent interview with Jing Daily. Their collaboration comes about after the development of luxury sales via livestreaming e-commerce in China, which was still a novel concept not so long ago.
Although Kuaishou’s 616 looks like a direct answer to e-commerce giant JD.com's midyear shopping bonanza, the two supposed competitors also have a partnering relationship where JD.com provides selected products for sale on Kuaishou for 618. Given this, the chosen date of June 16 swiftly circumvents a head-to-head situation.
Since a few luxury brands’ attempts at livestreaming sparked backlash this year with criticism over poor video and staging quality, what will Secoo do to avoid the same pitfalls? For one, it looks like the Nasdaq-listed company is going to work with Kuaishou long-term by dedicating physical space where hosts can demonstrate products. Additionally, it has asked a roster of fresh-faced hosts to produce original content with themes like "what if you can order a boyfriend from livestreaming?" Followers reached 28,000 within a month, which is faster than most brands can gather followers on Tmall or JD.com.
The Jing Take reports on a piece of the leading news and presents our editorial team’s analysis of the key implications for the luxury industry. In the recurring column, we analyze everything from product drops and mergers to heated debate sprouting on Chinese social media.