What Product Categories are Suitable for Digital Human Live Streaming in Chinese E-Commerce?

Overview of Digital Human Live Streaming Applications in China's E-commerce Retail Industry

Digital human live streaming has become a standard capability in China's e-commerce retail industry, showing a trend of large-scale popularization and growth, and has deeply penetrated into merchants of all sizes and mainstream categories, becoming a new engine driving industry growth.

Platform application scale

In Q1 2026, JD Digital Humans served over 70,000 merchants, driving GMV of over 10 billion yuan throughout 2025.

Platform application growth

In Q1 2026, the number of live streams featuring JD.com's digital human characters surged tenfold year-on-year.

Platform merchant live streaming rate

In Q1 2026, 80% of JD.com's top merchants started live streaming with digital avatars, making digital avatars a standard feature of leading brands' routine operations.

Which products are suitable for e-commerce digital human live streaming?

Categories with high standardization and clear explanation logic include cosmetics, apparel and footwear, food and beverages, baby and maternity products, 3C digital products, and home appliances. These product categories have well-defined parameters, making them suitable for standardized 24/7 explanations by digital personalities, and they offer stable conversion rates.

Digital Human Live Streaming Applications by Merchants of Different Sizes

Leading vendors: Deep application, human-machine collaboration

During the 2025 618 shopping festival, more than 50% of leading brands have achieved 72 hours of continuous live streaming.

The typical model is "real people on duty during prime time + digital humans on duty at night/off-peak hours".

Digital human IPs of executives have become a new highlight in marketing.

Mid-tier retailers: the main force in scaling up operations, reducing costs and increasing efficiency.

Digital humans enable 24/7 uninterrupted live streaming, replacing some real people.

Leveraging a digital human matrix to cover multiple product categories and time periods allows us to capture long-tail traffic.

Small and medium-sized businesses: Inclusive technology, low barriers to entry

The price of entry-level digital human products has dropped from millions to hundreds of yuan.

Help small and medium-sized businesses start live streaming at extremely low cost and capture "long-tail traffic" such as nighttime hours.

Leading retailers' demand for digital human live streaming

Leading merchants prioritize brand value enhancement, with core demands including creative IP development, off-peak supplementation, and deep interaction, placing high demands on technology and brand compatibility . They view digital avatars as "digital assets" embodying brand identity, creating exclusive IPs (such as AI CEO welfare officers) to generate scarcity and trust endorsement. Simultaneously, they leverage off-peak livestreaming to achieve "24/7 brand presence," forming a 24-hour livestreaming loop of "off-peak traffic accumulation and peak conversion." In actual operation, they employ a human-machine collaboration model of "digital avatars covering efficiency and real people cultivating emotional connection," with digital avatars handling low-conversion periods and creative interactions, while real people focus on peak traffic and deep emotional engagement.

• Create a personalized digital avatar based on a real person from the brand (such as the CEO), which combines authority with approachability.

• During major promotions such as launches and anniversary celebrations, he will make surprise appearances in the live stream, distributing limited-time benefits, autographed gifts, and exclusive discount codes in his "CEO" capacity.

• Design fixed segments such as "CEO giving out benefits" to enhance participation.

• Live streaming focuses on the peak hours from 8 PM to 12 AM; other times are entirely handled by digital humans.

• Brand image output + basic explanation + benefits reminders + automatic consultation and product recommendation + coupon issuance.

Mid-tier retailers' demand for digital human live streaming

Mid-tier merchants aim to reduce costs and boost efficiency, prioritizing real-time interaction, diverse templates, ease of broadcasting, and AI-generated scripts while balancing performance and cost. They leverage digital avatars to overcome the challenges of high host costs and poor audience retention; ensure conversion efficiency through real-time interaction; rapidly adapt to multi-category operations using extensive template libraries; maximize the productivity of limited staff with streamlined broadcasting workflows; and address content homogenization by utilizing AI script generation.

Digital Human Live Streaming Demand from Small and Medium-Sized Retailers

Small and medium-sized businesses aim for zero-barrier monetization, with core demands including one-click live streaming, continuous operation, and low-cost coverage, focusing on tapping into long-tail traffic. They address the "products but no one to stream" dilemma with digital avatars, achieving zero-barrier entry through one-click live streaming—no professional team or green screen studio required, just a few minutes of video footage to generate a digital avatar; 24/7 continuous live streaming ensures all-day traffic coverage, exchanging exposure and sales for extended streaming time; and high-cost-performance operation is achieved at extremely low marginal costs, lowering the barrier to entry for trial and error.