Labubu dolls were very popular during a shopping livestream in London on Tuesday, as Alibaba’s AliExpress brought China’s Singles’ Day shopping event to the UK. This event is part of a global trend for collectible Pop Mart toys, which include the Labubu, Crybaby, and SkullPanda dolls sold in sealed “blind boxes. ” These toys have greatly increased revenue for the Beijing-based Pop Mart, which aims for long-term growth inspired by Disney’s strategies.
To promote the sales, AliExpress enlisted British influencer Anna Williams, who has 1.3 million TikTok followers, to co-host livestreams with another influencer, Mary He. They plan to sell around 10,000 toys by Friday. Sales on AliExpress’s official Pop Mart store in the UK surged by 1,500% in October year-on-year, with overall collectible toy sales rising 300% in the first half of the year.
Livestream shopping, which began in China, is gaining popularity with Western brands, and there have been notable increases in live shopping since TikTok Shop launched in several European countries.
With information from Reuters