China’s top livestreaming celebrity Viya generated close to $30 million in sales of New Zealand product in four-and-a-half hours on Friday evening.
Viya, a livestreamer on internet giant Alibaba’s online shopping website Taobao, holds a record of selling $66 million worth of product in a single day.
On Friday, during a livestream from Auckland that kicked off at midnight (8 pm China time), Viya facilitated the sale of tens of millions of products from more than 40 New Zealand and Australian brands to her millions of fans.
Close to 10 million Chinese consumers watched the livestream, and collectively spent CNY 134 million ($29.6m).
Viya is considered a KOL or key opinion leader and has nearly 6.5 million followers on Taobao, ranging from teenagers through to those in their 50s – most of them are ready buyers. It is reported that her followers will buy whatever she recommends without reading about the product.
Products Viya promotes often sell out within a matter of seconds.
The livestream, which took place from her Remuera hotel room, featured an alpaca and live haka at one point. She showcased product mostly from New Zealand brands, including Trilogy, Wild Ferns, Linden Leaves, The Collection, as well as product from Vogel’s, Douglas and Ukiwi.
Product she promoted included honey, dairy, skin care and cereals.
Viya facilitated the sale of 120,000 pots of Richora UMF 10+ Manuka Honey worth $3.4 million, and 230,000 packs of the Auckland-based honey producer’s throat lozengers worth around $200,000. She also facilitated the sale of 125,000 tubs of Australian dairy company Maxigenes’ milk powder worth $2.5m and $1m worth of Royal Fibre alpaca-fur duvets.
Other top selling items during the live stream included a BB cream from GeoSkincare, and an Australian Lanolin oil moisturiser.
