Overview

In early 2024 Alibaba rolled out a series of enhancements to its livestream shopping platform, targeting both domestic Chinese shoppers and international buyers. The upgrades aim to narrow the functional gap with Amazon’s live‑selling tools and give third‑party merchants richer ways to engage audiences, making the ecosystem a more attractive diversification channel for sellers who currently rely on Amazon.

Key Points

• Livestream‑driven GMV climbs — During the 2023 Singles’ Day campaign, sales generated through live broadcasts topped $90 billion, marking a double‑digit year‑over‑year rise and underscoring the channel’s growing commercial weight.
• Generative‑AI product tagging — The refreshed Taobao Live UI now auto‑creates up to ten relevant tags for each item, cutting the manual tagging workload by roughly 40 % and helping products surface faster in search results.
• In‑stream “Shop the Stream” button — A new purchase badge appears beside every featured SKU, allowing viewers to add items to their carts without exiting the video and trimming checkout abandonment by an estimated 15 %.
• Cross‑border livestream hub — Alibaba International introduced a dedicated live‑shopping zone for overseas brands, equipped with real‑time subtitle translation and localized payment options across twelve additional markets.
• Minute‑level analytics dashboard — Sellers now receive a live overlay that reports viewer counts, click‑through rates, and conversion percentages every 30 seconds, enabling on‑the‑fly promotional tweaks.

How the Updated Livestream System Works

1. AI‑Generated Tag Suggestions — When a merchant schedules a broadcast, the platform scans the uploaded catalog and proposes a set of relevant tags.

   • Example: A skincare company planning a 20‑minute tutorial receives auto‑filled tags such as “hydrating serum,” “vegan formula,” and “K‑beauty,” which instantly appear in the stream’s sidebar.

2. Real‑Time “Shop the Stream” Purchase Badge — Each product highlighted in the video is accompanied by a clickable “Buy Now” icon that adds the item to the viewer’s cart while the stream continues.