(Yicai Global) Aug. 30 -- Panjiayuan, China’s biggest antiques and used goods market, has been swift to keep with the times and has recently upgraded from online sales to livestreamed e-commerce, shifting CNY3 billion (USD434.6 million) worth of second-hand items on the Chinese version of TikTok so far this year.

There are now 800 merchants working out of its Douyin livestream studio who have received more than 20 million orders already this year, Yicai Global has learned. Most of them also run brick-and-mortar outlets at the market tucked away in the southeast of the capital, but their income from livestreaming now accounts for over 90 percent of their turnover. Monthly sales of the studio's top 10 vendors all top CNY10 million (USD1.4 million).

Panjiayuan antique market, which deals in everything from jewelry, antique furniture to rare books, set up its first online site back in 2010, Shi Junchao, general appraiser at Beijing Panjiayuan International Folk Culture Development, told Yicai Global. Then it joined internet behemoth Alibaba Group’s e-commerce site Taobao in 2018 and formed the Douyin studio in July 2020.

Wang Lin, a jade vendor, runs three livestreaming channels that host events for three to five hours every evening, he told Yicai Global. His wares sell for up to thousands of Chinese yuan, or hundreds of US dollars, each and the monthly turnover at each channel is over CNY100,000 (USD14,457).

“Online sales far outstrip actual sales at the market,” Wang said. “Brick-and-mortar stores can only reach a limited number of consumers, but through the internet we can reach customers all over the country.”

Despite the modernization, Panjiayuan has not lost its roots as a flea market in Beijing during the difficult times at the end of Qing dynasty, when destitute nobility would come to the market under cover of night to flog their family heirlooms to raise cash. Panjiayuan still runs a ‘ghost market’ from 7 p.m. each Friday until 1 a.m. the next day, which has become a popular tourist attraction. The market stalls are laden with treasures and staff members dress up as imperial officials to give a more immersive feel.

Editor: Kim Taylor