Boxes of roses, lilies and carnations pile up as influencer Caicai speaks into her smartphone from a small studio at Asia’s biggest flower market — with thousands of customers eagerly awaiting her view on the best deals.
E-commerce is big business in China, and influencers and livestreamers have made their fortunes showcasing products for luxury brands and cosmetics firms.
Now the nation’s horticulture industry, worth an estimated 160 billion yuan (US$25.1 billion), is getting in on the action. And where once people visited markets and florists themselves, they are increasingly shopping for blooms via their smartphones. Online retail now represents more than half the sector’s turnover.
Photo: AFP
“Five bouquets, only 39.8 yuan for those that order right away,” the 23-year-old said — a sales pitch she hones for eight hours a day delivered at lightning speed.
However, earnings can be unreliable.
“Flower sales vary in busy and slack seasons, so a livestreamers’ daily income is very variable. All I can say is that the more you work, the luckier you will be,” she said, as colleagues next to her put the bouquets in cardboard boxes ready to be shipped.
Demand for cut flowers has soared in China as standards of living have risen, with the southern province of Yunnan at the epicenter of that boom thanks to its all-year mild climate.
Provincial capital, Kunming, boasts the biggest flower market in Asia — the second-biggest in the world after Aalsmeer in the Netherlands.
Everyday at 3pm, a rose auction starts in a huge room where more than 600 buyers share the day’s supply behind their screens.
“Yunnan represents around 80 percent of flower production in China and 70 to 80 percent of the flowers on sale pass through our auction room,” said Zhang Tao, responsible for the market’s logistics — a crucial role when the goods are so perishable. “That represents on average more than 4 million flowers sold every day. For Chinese Valentine’s day, we sold 9.3 million in a day.”
They are shipped across China within 48 hours.
On the retail side of the market, another influencer, Bi Xixi, showcases flowers and bouquets from stalls to sell on to her own online subscribers. Wearing a traditional Chinese dress known as a hanfu, passing from one stand to another with her phone at the end of a cane, the 32-year-old has racked up about 60,000 subscribers.
She picks up flowers, shows them on her screen while followers hurry to place their orders. Bi Xixi started livestreaming early last year, when China was paralyzed by the COVID-19 pandemic. That was when she realized people were eager to see online the flowers they could no longer buy outside.
Now, on a good day, she said she manages to sell 150,000 yuan of flowers in three hours of livestreaming. She takes a commission of about 10 percent and is optimistic about the future of the trade.
“People appreciate rituals more and more. Flowers give them a feeling of being happy and young people are beginning to like buying flowers,” she said.
The market is still very far from saturation, said Qian Chongjun, head of the Dounan Flower Corp, one of the largest entities on the market.
“Buying flowers every week has become a habit in many families,” Qian said. “I think that one day they will become a vital need, like air and water.”
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion
The most powerful solar storm in more than two decades struck Earth on Friday, triggering spectacular celestial light shows from Tasmania to the UK — and threatening possible disruptions to satellites and power grids as it persists into the weekend. The first of several coronal mass ejections (CMEs) — expulsions of plasma and magnetic fields from the sun — came just after 4pm GMT, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center. It was later upgraded to an “extreme” geomagnetic storm — the first since the “Halloween Storms” of October 2003 caused blackouts in Sweden and damaged
INFLUENCE: The French president last year appealed to Xi Jinping to ‘bring Russia to its senses,’ but the call was not followed by any apparent change in stance French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday was to press Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to use his influence to move Russia toward ending the war in Ukraine during a two-day state visit to France. The leaders were also expected to discuss trade disputes over electric vehicles, cognac and cosmetics. Macron’s office said talks about diplomatic efforts to support Ukraine and put pressure on Russia are a top priority for France. Discussions would also include the Middle East, trade issues and global challenges including climate change. The European Commission president was to join part of the meetings to raise broader EU concerns. France is