Sales of products spotted at the Olympic Games surge online
The Paris Olympics have triggered a buying frenzy on Chinese e-commerce platforms, with merchandise used by medalists selling rapidly. Top-selling items include Turkish shooter Yusuf Dikec's earplugs, badminton player Huang Yaqiong's racket, and table tennis medalist Fan Zhendong's shirt.
Taobao, with over 400 million daily users, launched a campaign featuring products used by medalists.
Observant viewers spot trendy items during the Games, boosting online traffic.
For example, after Chinese shooter Huang Yuting narrowly missed gold in the women's 10m air rifle on July 27, her hair clip became a trending topic on Sina Weibo, garnering over 100 million views and leading to 600,000 sales in three days.
Chinese shooter Huang Yuting competes in the women's 10m air rifle on July 29.
Ling Yeqin, maker of the clip, told news website Yicai.com that their weekly sales skyrocketed from 1,000 to 30,000 units.
Similarly, Chinese diving sensation Quan Hongchan's fish slippers quickly became popular for their cute design.
Quan's fish slippers have become highly coveted for their cute design.
Small items like hair clips and slippers from lesser-known brands dominate the top-selling lists, rather than professional sports gear. These small items are easy to produce and lack brand premiums, making them affordable for people seeking to own the same products as their favorite athletes without spending a lot on professional gear.
But where do these small items come from? Most are from Yiwu City, known as the world's small commodity capital.
The city in east China's Zhejiang Province specializes in highly segmented production. With 26 major categories and over 2.1 million types of products, Yiwu connects over 2.1 million small and medium-sized enterprises nationwide.
Since 2020, when shooter Yang Qian's victory at the Tokyo Olympics popularized a little yellow duck hairpin, Yiwu merchants have closely monitored events to quickly identify and produce trending accessories.
Yiwu quickly reproduced the hairclip wore by Chinese shooter Yang Qian after she claimed gold at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
Speed is crucial. The process from identifying a trending product to communicating with the supply chain can take just a few minutes. Sometimes, industry peers move even faster, turning this commercial machine into an efficient operation.
Expansion depends on experience and intuition, as misjudging trends can lead to stockpiling and financial issues. Despite technical experts and analysts, e-commerce platforms often make phased decisions based on topic popularity and comment discussions, renewing orders in short intervals.
The Olympics have become a major promotional event. From Yang Qian's little yellow duck hairpin to hot-selling jerseys at the Qatar World Cup, the explosive sales of Olympic-themed small commodities represent a coordinated effort among consumers, manufacturers, and platforms.
Young consumers convert their Olympic enthusiasm into purchasing power. Manufacturers use their experience to predict, produce, sell, and adjust based on feedback. Platforms like 1688 introduced "1688 Strict Selection" to ensure supply chain quality.
Search results of the same products used by medalists from several e-commerce platforms.
Major e-commerce platforms have turned the Olympics into a promotional event, competing in speed, price, and content.
The surge in Olympic-inspired small commodity sales highlights the mutual rush between manufacturers aiming to convert production capacity into income and consumers eager to turn their emotions into tangible products. The Olympics signify not only victory in sports but also a mutual pursuit by both production and consumption sides.
