AliExpress launches livestream shopping in UK

Chinese marketplace platform AliExpress has launched a new livestreaming e-commerce service in the UK through a partnership with Vogue Business.

From this week, shoppers can browse a platform on which a number of local models, actors and TV personalities will host livestreaming videos where they will sell various products.

The initiative comes as part of the company’s new ‘It Girls’ mini shop programme, for which former Love Island contestants Kady McDermott and Olivia Attwood have already been named among the influencers participating. The duo will be joined by invited UK-based content creators, who will also be making their own livestreams.

Each creator is to earn a commission on every sale made via their streams, and will also be offered the chance to develop their own fashion collections through a competition taking place later in the year.

While livestreaming is an already widely popular form of shopping in China, it has less of a presence in the UK market.

Such a feature had a rocky start in the region on the popular social media app TikTok, which initially launched live shopping in the UK as a trial with the goal to later expand the offer into other European countries.

The plan, however, was ultimately brought to a halt when the UK project was said to have failed in meeting targets and influencers began dropping out of the scheme. The company said that it would instead focus live shopping strategies on the Southeast Asian market.