Departmental stores and supermarkets in the first-tier cities of China are getting back to normal, though sales in the apparel segment are rebounding slowly in April after falling till March, according to the latest released data by the National Bureau of Statistics of China.
The retail sales of garment, footwear and accessories were down by 32.20 per cent on Y-o-Y basis to earn 225 billion Yuan revenue in January to March 2020 period.
Due to closures caused by COVID-19 outbreak, the stores have witnessed piled up inventories of apparels and, to cope with the situation, the stores’ owners have come up with a strategy to do live streaming of their products through famous app Douyin (TikTok’s local Chinese version) to attract customers who watch this from home.
The live streaming is being done for all major product categories and special promotion price is being offered to the customers sitting at home.
The big players such as Shanghai New World Department Store, Intime Department Store and Rainbow Department Store among many others are capitalising on this live streaming strategy to attract and engage consumers.
During live streaming, a model wears a particular product and he/she describes the product features as well as the special promotion price. “It’s like watching TV shopping, the difference is just it’s now being done through stores on TikTok app and the consumers have now started showing great interest,” informed Vincent Djen, Director, Cheng Kung Garments, Shanghai to Apparel Resources.
Recently, in live streaming of accessories, the CEO of Intime Department Store could be seen explaining product features to the viewers.
“Not just department stores, many other offline clothing retailers such as Peacebird, Icicle and Teenie Winnie are also joining in to do live streaming,” claimed Vincent.
Even if the export is down, the domestic consumption in China is huge and domestic clothing retailers know this fact. Online has become a major source of income for them; though sales were down in the first quarter of 2020 by 15.1 per cent, it is expected to pick and see growth till mid-May.
“People are not at all focusing on devastation done by COVID-19; a positive enthusiasm can be seen among consumers and retailers. Live streaming along with many other offers such as e-coupons, customer day, member’s day, etc. based on CRM system in department stores will be helpful in sales growth,” concluded Vincent.
