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Liu Hailang's restaurant in downtown Nanchang, capital of east China's Jiangxi Province, sees no waiting lines this year, but the kitchen is still busy.
Chuanshan Road, where Liu's store is located, is a well-known dining spot in the city, clustered with over 100 restaurants, and nearly 70 of them open until midnight. The road is often packed with customers during mealtime.
This year, however, the novel coronavirus has dealt a blow to local businesses, but many restaurants, like Liu's, are using livestreaming to keep customers engaged and business afloat.
At 4 p.m. each afternoon, Liu opens his restaurants as usual. After having body temperatures taken, his employees put on protective clothes and spray disinfectant around the store.
In the kitchen, a phone sits on a stand next to the stove, where the chef stirs the steaming food. The whole process of making the restaurant's specialties is broadcast live online.
"The phone stand has now become standard kitchen gear," said Liu. "Customers are also more reassured of food safety as they see how it's made."
During the broadcast, customers can interact with the chef to make small adjustments to the dish tailored to their own liking, and place orders through online delivery applications.
Online sales nearly doubled in the restaurant to reach around 8,000 yuan (1,150 U.S. dollars) each day after the new method is adopted, Liu said, adding the restaurant is only offering take-out options now.
The restaurant attaches a card with the name and health condition of the cook on the take-out bags for customers to feel more reassured.
Like restaurants, furniture stores in the city of Ganzhou in Jiangxi have tapped into the business opportunities in livestreaming.
Panfeng Furniture Co., Ltd., which used to sell its products through some 800 brick-and-mortar stores and distributors, is one of many stores that have tested waters in livestreaming marketing in a local industrial park recently.
In an open ground in the park, salespersons hold phones while introducing their furniture products to draw online viewers.
"We thought it would just be a temporary method, but unexpectedly, there's chemistry there," said Pan Feng, general manager of the company. In three days, the company attracted more than 1,000 followers.
In the industrial park, only less than 50 enterprises had used livestreaming for selling products before the coronavirus outbreak, but by late February, 290 businesses had used the new model, according to Chen Xiaohong, an official with the park management.
Those stores have received nearly 800,000 orders on e-commerce platforms worth over 2 billion yuan. The number of online orders surged 50 percent year on year, Chen said.
Customers have also shown greater interest in fitness livestreaming amid the outbreak. As of late February, many fitness apps have rolled out livestreaming shows that boosted their popularity.
Leke, a Hangzhou-based sports and fitness company, gained over 10 million views on its livestreaming sessions posted on a short video platform.
"We can expect consumption to rebound after the outbreak," said Zhao Ying, operation manager of Alisports, Alibaba's sports arm. "Apart from offline products, sports and fitness companies should seek breakthroughs on online products."
