Young consumers’ social lives have been put on hold during the coronavirus lockdown, and this is hitting the hospitality and drinks sectors hard.

Bars, clubs and music venues have been shut down and many are worried about their future. Is there anything we can learn from China? Tech giant JD.com and leading drinks brands have thought of inventive ways to stay connected with their customers, according to an article in The Drum.

Live-streaming and drinks ecommerce

Seeing the trend for young music fans looking online for music events, JD.com decided to shift entertainment online and leverage the promotion of drink products through this channel.

It says it has reinvented clubbing for the coronavirus lockdown, live streaming club nights into people’s living rooms and delivering them alcohol from their favourite brands during the evening.

Having teamed with drinks giants Budweiser, Carlsberg and Pernod Ricard, and Remy Cointreau, JD.com now believes there will be a new opportunity for brands even once the Covid-19 storm has passed.

‘Shoppertainment’

The live-streaming e-commerce campaign “Online-Clubbing” began when JD partnered with Chinese record label Taihe Music Group.  Every week, JD invites musicians and DJs from Taihe to hold a three-hour live music show on JD Live, the live-streaming e-commerce session of the platform, and encourage viewers to purchase drinks at the same time as if they were in a nightclub.

It is hoped these ‘shoppertainment’ sessions create an innovative win-win situation allowing customers to shop in a new way and drinks brands who’ve suffered from the shutdown of offline channels to pick up some sales.

How successful has this been?

After kicking off in mid-February, the sessions have has some successes. During one of the live shows, the sales of imported liquor from a single partner brand increased by 70%, and sales of its whiskey products increased eight times compared with the same period on the day before. In another session, beer sales increased by 40% compared with the same period of the day before.

Moving clubbing online to a live stream is not a new phenomenon, and many clubs and entertainment organisations are doing the same across the world. However, the link JD.com was able to make with the alcohol brands and e-commerce was the deciding factor for some of the brands.