Beijing, China - Recent (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
1. Various of empty mall, stores inside mall
2. Various of make-up products on display

FILE: Xiazhu Village, Yiwu City, Zhejiang Province, east China - Date Unknown (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
3. Various of store owner selling products through live stream

Shanghai Municipality, east China - April 4, 2020 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
4. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Li Jiaqi, live streaming host (partially overlaid with shot 5):
"Many people actually stayed at home and barely went out during the outbreak, so I think a lot of them would watch e-commerce live streams. But it has also brought many challenges, a main one of which lies in logistics due to the traffic restrictions. There is a tendency of rising costs of raw materials in some products. Therefore, apart from keeping the price advantage, I'd also find more ways to give better deals to the customers. Our company has also brought out some new contents and ideas under the premise of stable operation, including some new product selection mechanisms. We sold more than 66 million pieces of goods for the whole of last year, but since Feb 5 this year, we've already sold more than 33 million items."

FILE: Beijing, China - Date Unknown (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
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5. Live streams of Li on mobile app
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FILE: Qingdao City, Shandong Province, east China - 2019 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
6. Man working in office
7. Various of man setting up equipment for live stream

Shanghai Municipality, east China - April 4, 2020 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
8. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Li Jiaqi, live streaming host (starting with shot 7/partially overlaid with shot 9):
"Our mode is to promote a certain number of the latest high-quality products with limited-time offers. With quality goods and low prices, we can give our fans a better deal. In the meantime, our company has also set up a QC (quality control) team to review the qualification, background and reputation of the products. I think live-streaming hosts must provide customer service for any products they promote."

Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, east China - Nov 11, 2019 (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
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9. Live streaming shown on mobile phone screen
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FILE: China - Date Unknown (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
10. Various of Li, other livestreaming host

Beijing, China - April 4, 2020 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
11. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Bao Ran, expert, Beijing Netcasting Services Association:
"We see live streaming hosts including Li Jiaqi ride the latest wave of e-commerce development. Statistics showed that in 2019, online sales accounted for over 25 percent - a fourth - of the country's total retail sales of consumer goods. The latest economic wave in the whole e-commerce sector is live stream shopping, which promotes products through live streams. Top live streaming hosts like Li Jiaqi and Weiya seized the opportunity and grew rapidly in the last two to three years."

Xiazhu Village, Yiwu City, Zhejiang Province, east China - Recent (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
12. Store owner selling products through live stream

Beijing, China - April 4, 2020 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
13. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Bao Ran, expert, Beijing Netcasting Services Association (partially overlaid with shot 14):
"This industry is bound to be sustainable. First, speaking of platforms, network resources are the most expensive in China's internet nowadays, while live streaming can select the wanted resources more accurately from the great number of resources online. The growth rate of online retail is still rising, and I personally estimate that in the future, online sales will make up 50 percent of the total retail sales of consumer goods in our society. There is still enormous room for its development."

FILE: Beijing, China - Nov 11, 2019 (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
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14. Various of website of Tmall
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FILE: Xiazhu Village, Yiwu City, Zhejiang Province, east China - Date Unknown (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
15. Various of store owner selling products through live stream

Retailers have been teaming up with online celebrities and influencers to attract customers in China, proving the advantages of live streaming products and services during the COVID-19 outbreak as it continues to affect the real economy.

Li Jiaqi is a well-known influencer who first made his name by selling lipstick on Taobao Live - the live-streaming unit of China's e-commerce giant Alibaba - who now boasts over 13 million followers on the Chinese microblogging site Weibo.

In an interview with China Central Television (CCTV) on Sunday, Li said his company has been doing extremely well recently thanks to live streaming. However, he knows that other businesses were hit hard during the early months of the epidemic.

"Many people actually stayed at home and barely went out during the outbreak, so I think a lot of them would watch e-commerce live streams. But it has also brought many challenges, a main one of which lies in logistics due to the traffic restrictions. There is a tendency of rising costs of raw materials in some products. Therefore, apart from keeping the price advantage, I'd also find more ways to give better deals to the customers. Our company has also brought out some new contents and ideas under the premise of stable operation, including some new product selection mechanisms. We sold more than 66 million pieces of goods for the whole of last year, but since Feb 5 this year, we've already sold more than 33 million items," said Li.

Even though Li's company offers consumers good deals during his live streams, he is also paying attention to the quality control of the products and customer services.

"Our mode is to promote a certain number of the latest high-quality products with limited-time offers. With quality goods and low prices, we can give our fans a better deal. In the meantime, our company has also set up a QC (quality control) team to review the qualification, background and reputation of the products. I think live-streaming hosts must provide customer service for any products they promote," He said.

Bao Ran, an expert working for the Beijing Netcasting Services Association, said that the live streamers have seized this opportunity and leveraged the power of social media to achieve their success.

"We see live streaming hosts including Li Jiaqi ride the latest wave of e-commerce development. Statistics showed that in 2019, online sales accounted for over 25 percent - a fourth - of the country's total retail sales of consumer goods. The latest economic wave in the whole e-commerce sector is live stream shopping, which promotes products through live streams. Top live streaming hosts like Li Jiaqi and Weiya seized the opportunity and grew rapidly in the last two to three years," said Bao.

With regards to the e-commerce sector, Bao added that due to the effectiveness of resource allocation, online retail, including live-streaming shopping, will continue to grow in the coming days.

"This industry is bound to be sustainable. First, speaking of platforms, network resources are the most expensive in China's internet nowadays, while live streaming can select the wanted resources more accurately from the great number of resources online. The growth rate of online retail is still rising, and I personally estimate that in the future, online sales will make up 50 percent of the total retail sales of consumer goods in our society. There is still enormous room for its development," he said.

According to China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), sales of consumer goods totaled some 41.16 trillion yuan (about 5.8 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2019, while online sales continued to report robust expansion with a year-on-year increase of 16.5 percent to top 10 trillion yuan (around 1.41 trillion U.S. dollars).