DFS Group’s livestream beauty event was hosted on the Douyin app.

DFS has become Douyin Life Service’s inaugural cross-border retail partner.

The partnership was marked by a livestream beauty event at several DFS Group (DFS) stores in Hong Kong, in a move that both parties say will revolutionise the international luxury travel retail shopping experience for its Chinese customer base.

It is Douyin’s first livestream collaboration with a Hong Kong based retailer.

The livestream event introduced a physical shopping model detailing and demonstrating the products on offer, with users buying cash coupons to purchase over 80 beauty products. These cash coupons were made available to subscribers of DFS’ loyalty programme, DFS Circle.

Douyin is the most popular short-video platform in Mainland China, and a second livestream event is planned for 2-3 February, 2024.

The alliance is intended to create further incentives for new customers, drawing on Douyin’s massive user base; online platform Statista, which specialises in data gathering and visualisation, reported 752 million monthly active users in China as of November 2023.

DFS and Douyin plan to further expand their collaboration to DFS stores in Macau.

Long Chiu, Executive Vice President for Global Marketing & Digital Ventures at DFS Group, said: “DFS always remains true to our innovation philosophy, and has long been committed to leveraging technologies to continuously enhance the shopping experience for our customers.

“At the same time, innovation helps us to create value for our brand partners. We are pleased to have formed an unprecedented cross-border retail partnership with Douyin Life Service, and we are overwhelmed by the enthusiastic responses from Douyin users.”

Statistics from the first livestream event indicated 30% of the direct revenue generated came from new customers, and the sales per visit for customers attracted by the livestream event were 88% more than those from new customers at offline stores.

Due to the positive reception of the first livestream collaboration, DFS and Douyin Life Services are now running a second beauty product livestream event, with professional hosts displaying products across the skincare and fragrance categories.

Chiu added: “The partnership has attracted new customers in Mainland China, a core customer group for us, and generated extra e-commerce revenue for both DFS and Douyin Life Service, setting a successful precedent for more diversified collaborations in the future.”

DFS also became the first merchant in Hong Kong allowing customers to redeem their cash coupons by showing a QR code on the Douyin app when purchasing in-store.

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