Late-Season Cherry Sales Underscore Rising Role of E-Commerce and Livestreaming

As the Chilean cherry season enters its Chinese New Year phase, recent e-commerce campaign launches and ongoing wholesale livestream activity are underscoring the importance of digital channels in China’s fresh fruit sales ecosystem.

In late January, e-commerce platforms Tmall and Dingdong Maicai launched Chilean Cherry Ice and Snow Festival promotions with a focus on Chinese New Year gifting, combining online sales with high-visibility offline activations in key city hotspots. These campaign launches are helping concentrate consumer attention during the pre-holiday shopping window and reinforcing the role of cherries as a seasonal gifting staple.

Outside of these platform-led initiatives, livestream sales continue to play an active role at the wholesale level. At Guangzhou’s Jiangnonghui Wholesale Market, livestream hosts are broadcasting directly from the market, linking real-time product selection with immediate sales and fulfillment. Owing to the continued availability of high-quality cherries in the market, the popularity of cherries as a Chinese New Year gift and strong demand, e-commerce operators have decided to extend their livestreaming sales into February.

According to a representative from Frutas de Chile, more than 70% of wholesale livestream audiences are based in regional cities, highlighting the effectiveness of this channel for reaching first-time consumers in new markets. Furthermore, recent third-party market research found that 30% of consumers surveyed commonly purchased fruit from comprehensive e-commerce platforms, while 15% commonly purchased from social media and short video apps such as Douyin and RedNote.

Together, the January e-commerce launches and the continued wholesale-market livestreaming illustrate how digital sales models are extending market reach and supporting sell-through, even as the season moves toward its close.

Images: Frutas de Chile