Uncovering Douyin's fast-growing popularity in China and the key actions brands can take to utilize the platform sustainably amid fleeting consumer trends.

INFocus Series

INFocus provides exclusive insights and trends from experts and leaders across the Asia Pacific region, exploring the forces, opportunities, and challenges shaping its future.

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As traditional e-commerce user traffic reaches its peak, Douyin is no doubt the next bonanza for brands.

Douyin’s e-commerce business experienced a compound annual growth rate of 350% in gross merchandise value (GMV) from 2019 to 2021.

However, brands still find it hard to make their fortune.

Due to poor organic user traffic, an over-reliance on influencer marketing, and hefty content creation costs, brands are forced to sell their products as “loss-leaders”.

At the same time, faced with fleeting trends and constantly updated platform rules, brands find themselves unable to cope. 

They feel overwhelmed as their ability to transform quickly is limited.

However, as e-commerce will always be highly relevant to user traffic, brands must closely follow customers’ interests and preferences.

For an e-commerce platform with so many uncertainties like Douyin, brands need to leverage influencers on Douyin, so as to keep harnessing the benefits of their in-store streams, content, and private domain traffic.

Brands also need to evaluate Douyin with an omnichannel KPI approach by tracking its value in brand building and consumer interaction, instead of focusing only on GMV.

At Oliver Wyman, we work with many leading brands to explore the strategies for content, user traffic, retail, and other data on Douyin.

With the everchanging consumption trends and channels in China, we are trying to redefine the e-commerce business model so that it is customer-first and sustainable.

Hello, my name is Dave XIE, and I'm a Principal at Oliver Wyman.

Together, let’s accelerate breakthroughs.

Uncovering Douyin's fast-growing popularity in China and the key actions brands can take to utilize the platform sustainably amid fleeting consumer trends.

INFocus Series

INFocus provides exclusive insights and trends from experts and leaders across the Asia Pacific region, exploring the forces, opportunities, and challenges shaping its future.

Go to series

As traditional e-commerce user traffic reaches its peak, Douyin is no doubt the next bonanza for brands.

Douyin’s e-commerce business experienced a compound annual growth rate of 350% in gross merchandise value (GMV) from 2019 to 2021.

However, brands still find it hard to make their fortune.

Due to poor organic user traffic, an over-reliance on influencer marketing, and hefty content creation costs, brands are forced to sell their products as “loss-leaders”.

At the same time, faced with fleeting trends and constantly updated platform rules, brands find themselves unable to cope. 

They feel overwhelmed as their ability to transform quickly is limited.

However, as e-commerce will always be highly relevant to user traffic, brands must closely follow customers’ interests and preferences.

For an e-commerce platform with so many uncertainties like Douyin, brands need to leverage influencers on Douyin, so as to keep harnessing the benefits of their in-store streams, content, and private domain traffic.

Brands also need to evaluate Douyin with an omnichannel KPI approach by tracking its value in brand building and consumer interaction, instead of focusing only on GMV.

At Oliver Wyman, we work with many leading brands to explore the strategies for content, user traffic, retail, and other data on Douyin.

With the everchanging consumption trends and channels in China, we are trying to redefine the e-commerce business model so that it is customer-first and sustainable.

Hello, my name is Dave XIE, and I'm a Principal at Oliver Wyman.

Together, let’s accelerate breakthroughs.