Livestream e-commerce festival helps boost sales of African products in China

As an activity scheduled for the ongoing second China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo, a livestream e-commerce festival was held on Sept. 26, the same day when the expo opened in Changsha, central China’s Hunan province.

An influencer promotes African products in front of the camera during a live-streaming session held during a livestream e-commerce festival. (Photo courtesy of the publicity department of Yuhua district, Changsha)

The festival, the first of its kind that is being held during the expo, aims at building a platform for African products to enter the Chinese market while expanding their sales channels. During the three-day festival, 62 live-streaming sessions are expected to be held and 10 live-streaming rooms will be available for use.

The festival has invited social media influencers to promote African products. Most of the products were imported from Africa in the form of raw materials, and then they were further processed, packed and marketed by Chinese companies before finally reaching the market.

The advertising for the products is being carried out by companies from an e-commerce incubation center at a demonstration park for the promotion and innovation of China-Africa cooperation located at the Changsha Gaoqiao Market, the expo’s only parallel exhibition venue.

Photo shows a booth of African products located at the demonstration park for the promotion and innovation of China-Africa cooperation in Changsha. (Chinanews.com/Xiang Yipeng)

“We’ve hosted 4,200 live-streaming sessions since the establishment of the center, with the total sales volume reaching 550 million yuan,” said an executive with Changsha Gaoqiao Market, who added that the festival will help gather together business resources, e-commerce platforms, and sales channels, thereby facilitating China and Africa to bring benefits to each other through mutual cooperation as well as cultural, business and trade exchanges.