China may have recently had its lockdown lifted, but the stay-at-home message may well have long-term effects – and one phenomenon that’s likely to continue is the huge success of taking clubbing into the living room via livestreaming.

E-commerce giant JD.com is not the first to livestream events, but it’s certainly enjoyed big success by streaming the clubbing experience, and delivering clubbers their favourite brand of booze.

So much so, it says it will continue to run such events until at least May, The Drum reports.

JD.com partnered with Taihe Music Group and a string of big-name international liquor brands, including Budweiser, Rémy Martin, Carlsberg and Pernod Ricard, to deliver a three-hour live show through JD Live. Drink brands can be purchased with a single click during the performances.

JD.com says the project has been a great success, allowing brands to reach consumers, many aged in their 20s, who they had previously reached via live in-person events. Last month JD reported that during one live show, sales of imported liquor from a single partner went up 70% and sales of whisky increased eight times compared to the same time the day before. Another show saw sales of beer up 40% compared to the same period the day before.

General manager of the Liquors Business at JD.com FMCG Jack Chen told The Drum, “Consumption of liquor relies heavily on offline scenarios, such as gift giving, friends gathering, and bars and clubs.

“Since all of these scenarios were impacted during the (COVID-19) epidemic, we wanted to create an online scenario to encourage customers to shop for liquor. We saw that some famous night clubs in China started to do online clubbing through livestreaming and thought we could combine e-commerce and livestream clubbing to benefit both customers and brands.”

JD.com has previously used live streaming for a variety of businesses to drive sales during the COVID-19 outbreak, Chen added, hosting streams for, amongst other things, agricultural products, home appliances, and fashion products.

Last month, JD Live streamed a show for luxury fashion brand Ports. Unlike traditional shows, which only selected guests can join, Chen said all customers could join the event and interact with celebs and fashion editors. He said the nine-hour event was the biggest live stream show Ports had ever hosted.

Sourced from JD.com, The Drum