The number of Yiwu e-commerce entities exceeded 600,000 in 2023, one-third of Zhejiang's provincial total, generating 442.3 billion yuan ($61.83 billion) in transactions, a year-on-year increase of 13.22 percent.

The cross-border e-commerce transactions were valued at 121.16 billion yuan, up 11.8 percent year-on-year and accounting for 27.3 percent of total e-commerce transactions.

Yiwu's sales via livestreaming also hit a record high, generating 49.08 billion yuan in retail sales, up 26.75 percent year-on-year.

According to statistics, the city boasts a thriving livestreaming industry with over 70 service agencies, a host of more than 12,000 anchors, over 3,000 online celebrities, over 80,000 livestreamers, and 20 dedicated livestreaming e-commerce bases.

Yang Jianyu, the creator of NEO Creation, a livesreaming base mainly selling high-value-added jewelry, has been doing e-commerce livestreams since 2019.

"We hold about 20 livestreams every day. We mainly sell popular accessories, pearls and jade, and our consumers are mostly female. Our gross merchandise value can reach 7 million yuan per session," said Yang.

He added that as a new form of digital trade, e-commerce livestreaming has achieved explosive growth, changed consumers' shopping patterns, and brought new opportunities to enterprises and brands.

An anchor sells jewelry during a livestream. [Photo/ywcity.cn]