Chinese live commerce goes global: Inside Yowant’s operating-system playbook
Live commerce is not a Chinese habit. It is an exportable system and Yowant is already proving it in the UK, US and beyond. Find out how they do it and what it means for European retail. Read the full article. Bonus: Want to see models like this live in China? Learn more about the trip with E-commerce Berlin Expo and Expanding Together at the end of article.
Written by Zheng Xu
At a glance: Live commerce is moving beyond a China-specific phenomenon. During a meeting with Yowant, also known as Yaowang, in Hangzhou, Zheng Xu (an expert with 18 years of experience as a Customer Relationship Architect, helping brands create authentic connections with their customers across Europe and Asia) examined how the company turns livestream selling into a repeatable operating model rather than a format dependent on one star creator. This case study explores Yowant’s approach and the lessons it may offer European retailers and e-commerce brands.
When one starts talking about live commerce in Europe, it’s usually met with the objection that live streaming is a uniquely Chinese habit, something Western audiences will never sit through and Western shoppers will never buy from. On a recent visit to an innovative Chinese e-commerce company, I found a business built specifically to prove that assumption wrong, and the numbers it shared are difficult to argue with.
The company is Yaowang, which trades internationally as Yowant. Its central claim is blunt: live commerce is not a Chinese novelty but an exportable system. Yowant already runs its operating model in the United Kingdom and the United States, and is now expanding into South America, beginning in Brazil. Rather than betting everything on one charismatic host, the company has built infrastructure it believes can travel across markets and languages.
That framing matters for anyone still treating live commerce as a curiosity rather than a competing factor. The debate Yowant wants to end is not whether people will watch – it is whether the mechanics behind a successful stream can be standardised and shipped abroad.
From influencer agency to live commerce operating system
Yowant is not a start-up chasing a trend. The company began roughly a decade ago as a traditional influencer agency, then moved early and decisively into live streaming. Based in Hangzhou, it has since reinvented itself around the idea that the performance is not the creator, it is the operating system.
That distinction is the core of this article. Most Western live-shopping efforts still depend on finding the right personality in front of the camera. Yowant’s bet is the opposite – that a repeatable system, not an irreplaceable star, is what actually drives results.
A three-stage system: performance without the star
To make live commerce transferable, Yowant built a three-stage system – a transportable standard operating procedure (SOP) designed to turn ordinary team members into effective livestream sellers:
Stage one – pre show input
- scripted short videos,
- scientific product pairing,
Stage two – live floor execution
- real-time pacing,
- hourly run-downs,
- floor direction,
Stage three – post-show capture
- CRM routing,
- e-mail sequences based on purchase.
The goal is to remove a brand’s dependence on any single creator. If the method can be taught and repeated, the business is no longer hostage to one person’s availability, mood or fee.
This also reframes what live selling really is. It is not about how quickly a host can switch outfits on screen. It is about interaction, the story told across a session, and the way a product is shown – and younger audiences respond to exactly that.
The results: from a UK record to $2.37 million in a day
The proof points Yowant shared read like a textbook case study, spread across two years and two continents:
- In 2024, the company began operating in the United Kingdom with a single UK influencer, growing one 12-hour session from €78,000 to €720,000 – close to a tenfold jump within a single broadcast.
- Two months later, it broke the TikTok UK single-session record, helping a nutrition-focused creator lift revenue by 300%.
- In July 2025, Yowant took part in a multi-creator large-format US campaign from an LA base, generating $2.37 million in a single day across more than 120,000 orders.
Read together, the figures show clearly that the idea that live streaming only works for Chinese audiences needs to change fast.
A shopping mall rebuilt as a live commerce city
Yowant’s most striking move is physical. In Hangzhou, the company took over a large shopping mall and converted it into a dedicated live streaming complex, with distinct sessions and shop areas built for broadcasting. The site records 315 livestreams in a single day. Individual sellers can rent a unit and turn a physical retail space into an online session, while Yowant supplies not only the operating system but the logistics behind it.
Then, from 2023, the company added a twist. Rather than keeping the mall purely online-facing, it turned the space into a pop-up shopping mall – running festivals and offline events to draw physical visitors and layer seasonal, in-person shopping on top of the livestreams. It is the kind of hybrid that may only be possible at this scale in China right now but who knows what the future holds for the West? One thing is sure: Better to be prepared and informed because changes in the e-commerce and retail world are already happening in the West. And a lot of them started in China.
What China live commerce signals for Western retail
The lesson here is not that Europe should copy Yowant slide for slide. It is that Chinese live commerce has quietly moved past the “will it work here” question and into the harder one of operational systems. Marketplaces such as Shein were the first wave; companies like Yowant represent the next one – building exportable playbooks while many Western firms are still deciding whether livestream shopping is worth trying at all.
For Western e-commerce leaders, the takeaway is uncomfortable but useful: the competitive edge may not be the creator you sign, but the system you can repeat.
Seeing China live commerce in context
Knowing about the trends and innovative concepts emerging in China is important – but real advantage comes from access: seeing these systems in person, talking to the teams, and hearing how they think, rather than only reading reports and case studies. Marketplaces like Shein were the first wave. The next one is being built right now, by people most European companies have never met.
That is why E-commerce Berlin Expo and Expanding Together are organising the E-Commerce Networking Trip: seven days total, visiting Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou in November 2026, bringing Europe’s e-commerce community into direct contact with the people building China’s next wave.
If Chinese live commerce models like Yowant’s are something you would rather see live and in context than in a slide deck, this trip is worth considering. What you can expect:
- No factory tourism or generic show sessions – instead closed-door conversations with operational decision-makers, exclusive networking sessions with potential partners, and a fully tailored programme built around who is in the room;
- All networking sessions run in German and English, with professional interpreters throughout;
- Plenty of inspiration from seeing models two to three years ahead of Europe, live and in context;
- A concrete action plan for your business for the 30–90 days after you land back in Europe.
Interested in joining?
Source
This case study is based on information shared during Zheng Xu’s meeting with Yowant. The results and descriptions reflect the information presented during that exchange.
About the author
Zheng Xu is an International Expansion Architect with 18 years of Germany–China experience, architecting strategic relationships across cultural boundaries systematically, authentically, and with long-term impact.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is live commerce?
A: Live commerce combines livestreamed video, real-time audience interaction, product demonstrations and the ability to purchase products during or directly after a broadcast. It brings elements of physical retail, entertainment and e-commerce together in one shopping experience.
Q: What is Yowant?
A: Yowant, also known as Yaowang, is a Hangzhou-based social commerce company that developed from an influencer agency into a large-scale live commerce operator. Its model combines presenter training, content production, technology, product selection and logistics.
Q: Does live commerce work outside China?
A: Yowant’s company-reported results suggest that live commerce can be adapted to markets outside China. The company has operated in the UK and US and is expanding into South America. However, successful localisation still depends on the platform, product category, audience expectations, presenters, logistics and local regulations.
Q: Is live commerce the same as influencer marketing?
A: Not exactly. Influencer marketing usually centres on a creator promoting a product to their audience. Live commerce includes real-time demonstrations, questions, audience interaction and direct selling.
Q: Is live commerce the same as TikTok Shop?
A: No. Live commerce is a selling format that can operate across different platforms and technologies. TikTok Shop is one platform that supports livestream shopping, shoppable videos and in-app purchases. Live commerce can also take place through other social networks, marketplaces or retailers’ own platforms.
