DHgate Pioneers in Steering Chinese Export Into Live Streaming e-commerce Era

DHgate, China's leading B2B cross-border e-commerce marketplace, has announced the launch of DHgate Sourcing Connect (DSC), a project allowing buyers to place orders during a live streaming session, marking Chinese export has entered the live streaming e-commerce era.

DSC comes at a time when Chinese exporters are facing increasing uncertainties worldwide amid the COVID-19 pandemic, such as the soaring shipping prices, while overseas retailers and wholesalers are challenged by the unstable supply chain. Under the DSC project, DHgate offers accountable suppliers a new marketing channel to showcase their products. On the other hand, it attracts buyers with high-quality goods stored in their local warehouses, exclusive discounts, and financial aid.

"For the first session of DSC in September, we chose goods which were already located in warehouses in the US and could be shipped to buyers there in three to five days. Our US team, which knows the buyers there well, served as the anchors," said Jane Zhang, head of marketing operations of DHgate.

"The first session shows that live streaming e-commerce not only works well for individual consumers in China but also is welcomed by businesses," she shared her findings, adding that DHgate is the first company to do this in the B2B cross-border export e-commerce sector.

"It's interesting and fun. And I am also able to see how real products look like," said a business buyer registered on DHgate who attended the live streaming event, confirming that this was his first time enjoying this form of shopping and shared his expectation that more live streaming sessions to introduce more products could be held in the future.

Jane added that the DHgate Source Connect project is now more like an online sourcing meeting, which serves as a direct platform to collect needs from potential buyers, since the company's local salespersons and the sellers themselves sometimes still need to move further steps to make the final deals, unlike live streaming e-commerce in the B2C sector, which features impulse buying.

"Live streaming e-commerce opens a window for us as we will be able to customize our supply chain to meet the needs of overseas buyers, since it is easier for us to gain feedback via live streaming, and may encourage merchants to live stream too," said Jane.

However, a consumer electronics seller on DHgate said that her company, for the time being, is not able to do promotion yet during live streaming due to various constraints, but rather rely on direct messages to respond to potential buyers inquires. She revealed that her company decided to join this promotion soon after she got the invitation and informed her previous clients in advance about the live streaming session.

"I am so happy to see DHgate, which boasts charismatic anchors who can timely explain goods interestingly to overseas buyers to help us break barriers of language and time differences, start moving to live streaming and I expect this new form of communication tool can further bring sellers and buyers closer to facilitate our business,” said the seller. She added that she is willing to participate more in similar promotions in the future and believes DHgate can enlarge the scale of live streaming e-commerce.

DHgate plans to host two live streaming sessions for VIP buyers monthly to enhance the purchasing experience, especially during traditional shopping festivals such as Black Friday.

About DHgate

Founded in 2004, DHgate has become the leading B2B cross-border e-commerce marketplace in China. Through our global operations and offices, including in the USA and UK, we reach millions of people with trusted products and services. As of December 31, 2020, DHgate served more than 36.4 million registered buyers from 223 countries and regions by connecting them to over 2.3 million suppliers in China and other countries, with over 25 million products added to the platform annually. For more information, please visit dhgate.com and follow @DHgate.com.

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