The crystal bracelets that young people are crazy about buying are "inspected item by item" on Douyin.
Written by | Cen Cu
At the beginning of this year, young people's use of AI for fortune - telling further popularized crystal bracelets. Jewelry and jade such as gold, colored gemstones, and jadeite, which were previously considered out - of - date in aesthetics, have now become favorites among young people again.
It's worth noting that, different from traditional purchasing methods, young people are increasingly buying these expensive ornaments online through e - commerce. According to the statistics in the "2024 China Jewelry Industry Development Report" released by the China Jewelry and Jade Jewelry Industry Association in the first half of 2025, the retail sales of jewelry e - commerce reached 298.26 billion yuan in 2024, a year - on - year increase of 16.4%, continuing the high - growth trend. Live - streaming e - commerce has become an important driving force for the industry.
However, there are also many phenomena such as goods not matching the description, fakes passing off as genuine, and certificate forging. Novices often share their experiences of being scammed when buying jewelry and jade online on social media. Some people even publicly ask: Can you buy reliable jewelry and jade in the live - streaming room?
Douyin e - commerce has provided an answer. Recently, Douyin e - commerce held the "Douyin e - commerce Open Day - Quality Inspection Special Session" event in Huolin International, Guangzhou. It publicly introduced the platform's integrated quality inspection, warehousing, and distribution center (hereinafter referred to as QIC) for the first time, that is, a new model of "quality inspection + warehousing + logistics" integration. In fact, as early as when Douyin e - commerce was established in 2020, this service was launched simultaneously to ensure smooth transactions between consumers and merchants.
The "Post - 90s and Post - 00s Research Institute" also participated in this quality inspection special session open day. Next, follow the footsteps of the post - 90s and post - 00s generation to deeply understand how the jewelry and ornaments we purchase in the Douyin live - streaming room are safely delivered to our hands after strict appraisal by the platform.
Douyin e - commerce QIC: The "Fantastic Drift" of a Piece of Jade
In the famous jewelry wholesale market, Huolin International Building C in Guangzhou - where Douyin e - commerce has set up its QIC center, the jewelry and ornaments purchased by users in the live - streaming room start a fantastic "quality inspection drift".
Merchants joining the QIC will send the goods purchased in the live - streaming room to the platform's quality inspection centers located in various places. Douyin e - commerce cooperates with more than 90 authoritative quality inspection institutions across the country. About 280,000 orders of jewelry and ornaments waiting for appraisal flow through the platform's QIC center every day.
The categories of jewelry and jade involved include four sub - categories, such as gold, jadeite, Hetian jade, and diamonds. All ornaments with a unit price higher than 100 yuan are within the scope of quality inspection. Niche categories such as turquoise and agarwood are also included in the platform's detection scope. Taking gold as an example, to protect consumers' legitimate rights and interests, the QIC quality inspection requirement of the Douyin e - commerce platform is "one - item - one - inspection", which is more stringent than the national standard's requirement for sampling inspection.
When we enter the testing laboratory, we can see that the first step of the inspection is to take photos and weigh the goods. The QIC has also innovatively developed an automatic data upload system for photo - taking. This system not only avoids data errors caused by manual input mistakes but also greatly improves the inspection efficiency.
It's worth mentioning that there are many knowledge points in a simple weighing and photo - taking process. For example, the weight must be accurate to two decimal places. If the quality inspection certificate you receive only shows an integer weight, it can basically be identified as a fake certificate. Some gold ornaments come with ropes. To weigh the ornaments more accurately, the QIC center of the platform may cut the ropes for weighing when necessary.
After the basic data is entered through photo - taking, these jewelry and jade start to undergo a "physical examination" by professionals at the quality inspection center. Different types of jewelry and jade use different instruments and appraisal methods, but all the testing processes are thorough, with each step closely linked and rigorous.
If the item being tested is a precious metal such as gold, a gold tester is needed to measure its precious metal elements. Considering the phenomenon of fakes such as gold - plated silver and gold - plated copper in the market, the staff may conduct a destructive inspection on some gold ornaments when necessary. So it's worth reminding everyone that if a merchant promises to conduct a hole - punching test, the probability of buying real gold will be greatly increased.
Wang Duo, the director of the Liwan Laboratory of the Guangdong Jewelry and Jade and Precious Metal Testing Center, explained that if appraising colored gemstones, an infrared spectrometer and a microscope are needed to determine whether it is a natural, treated, or synthetic gemstone. For example, to check if a ruby is filled with lead glass to pass off as a high - quality one. Wang Duo also reminded us that some merchants may dye colored gemstones and jadeite, so an ultraviolet - visible spectrometer is needed to detect if the ornaments we buy are dyed later. When testing southern red agate, the staff will also use an ultraviolet flashlight to observe the fluorescence reaction of the southern red agate to determine its filling degree.
After strict testing by jewelry testers, there will be dedicated staff for review to ensure that all the data and spectra of the ornament testing are uploaded correctly. At the same time, the Douyin e - commerce QIC has also introduced AI machine review to judge whether the test results are consistent with the materials, weights, and test spectra promoted by the merchant.
The "Post - 90s and Post - 00s Research Institute" found during the visit that there are cameras everywhere in the laboratory. Counting them, there are actually fifty cameras installed in a small laboratory. It has to be said that no matter how expensive the jewelry and jade you order in the live - streaming room are, as long as they enter the QIC quality inspection warehouse, you can wait for the inspection with peace of mind.
If the test is passed, the next step is to make and print the quality inspection certificate. The entire quality inspection process generally takes no more than 4 hours. According to the on - site staff, compared with the previous inspection speed of one or two days, completing the inspection in 4 hours is already the limit.
The jewelry and ornaments that have obtained the quality inspection "identity card" will then be sent to the next stop for warehousing and packaging. In the warehousing and packaging process, there are also corresponding staff to carefully check to ensure that there is one certificate for each item. According to the on - site staff, many jewelry and jade are fragile, and there are many irregular - shaped items, so the packaging is extremely difficult and requires the staff to be very careful.
In this way, the goods sent to the quality inspection center will be directly packed and sent away after testing. The merchant will no longer have access to these goods, and consumers don't have to worry about them being swapped.
By now, you must already know that the goods we purchase in the live - streaming room go through a series of strict and meticulous testing processes such as photo - taking, weighing, testing, review, and certificate - making at the platform's QIC, and then are packed and sent to us, completing their "drift".
In fact, as early as when Douyin e - commerce was established in 2020, the platform established the QIC system. Lu Wenle, the quality inspection operation manager of Douyin e - commerce, said that the original intention of establishing the QIC was to build consumer trust. "In the live - streaming scenario, we are facing a large number of non - professional consumers. How can they dare to buy?" Lu Wenle said that by establishing a complete system including pre - appraisal before delivery, 7 - day no - reason return and exchange, and the platform's after - sales mechanism, the platform hopes to fully build consumer trust and enable everyone to "place orders without worry".
Merchants Joining the QIC: Lower Costs, Higher Business
The rise of Douyin e - commerce has made jewelry and jade accessible to ordinary people and significantly increased the business of many small and medium - sized merchants.
A jade merchant on the second floor of Huolin International Jewelry City in Guangzhou revealed the current situation: "The customer flow in offline shopping malls has declined severely. We must do live - streaming e - commerce online to find customers." Live - streaming e - commerce is a very important customer - acquisition channel for offline small and medium - sized merchants and has a great impact on store business.
The "2024 China Jewelry Industry Development Report" released in March 2025 also mentioned that social e - commerce has become the core purchasing channel for young consumers, and short - videos and live - streaming e - commerce have become the key paths for brands to reach users.
Cuiyu Jade is a physical jade store that has been operating in Huolin International, Guangzhou for 10 years. Wu Rongxin, the general manager of the brand, said that around 2021, they started to engage in Douyin live - streaming e - commerce. The GMV of a single live - streaming session of the store has soared from a few thousand yuan to hundreds of thousands of yuan now.
"Previously, people didn't dare to buy, and some even bought fakes. Now, with the extensive channels of e - commerce, our business volume has increased several times in terms of turnover," Wu Rongxin said. When doing physical wholesale in the past, the customers were agents from all over the country, "only dozens of people." But after starting Douyin live - streaming, every customer they meet on Douyin may be a potential customer. "It's like expanding from a small pond to the sea all of a sudden."
The "official support" of Douyin e - commerce QIC also has a positive impact on the brand reputation of the store. In Wu Rongxin's view, the platform's appraisal service of "pre - appraisal before delivery" and "one - item - one - inspection" is a strong endorsement for the store's reputation. "Customers may not trust us. But with QIC, customers know that the products they buy have passed the official quality inspection of Douyin. The anchor doesn't need to repeatedly explain in the live - streaming room whether the products we sell are genuine. Because we have QIC to support us, the labor costs from the customer service end to the after - sales end have been greatly reduced for us," Wu Rongxin said.
In terms of specific data, Liu Xuecheng, the general manager of Yuangan Group, a merchant mainly engaged in jade business, estimated that the average logistics and quality inspection cost per order has been "reduced by at least 50%". Before operating on the e - commerce platform, Yuangan Jade was also a merchant mainly relying on traditional offline stores as the sales channel. But considering the wider coverage of e - commerce, Yuangan Jade switched to online business in 2020 and started selling goods through live - streaming on Douyin. In the first three years, the average annual growth rate of the GMV of Yuangan Jade's Douyin store was about 35%.
In Liu Xuecheng's view, before Douyin e - commerce integrated the quality inspection, warehousing, and distribution services, the time and money costs of quality inspection were relatively high for some small and micro - enterprise merchants. After the integration, both the quality inspection and logistics costs have been greatly reduced.
Yuangan Jade targets the mid - to high - end market with relatively high - priced products. They introduced the platform's quality inspection service early on. "This is a kind of protection for both us merchants and consumers," Liu Xuecheng said. For the goods sold in the live - streaming room, only two or three staff members are needed to handle after - sales and send the goods to the quality inspection base. The rest of the process relies on the QIC service provided by the platform, which provides great convenience for merchants in terms of shipping and quality inspection.
In addition, the operating costs of merchants joining the QIC are also decreasing. Lu Wenle, the quality inspection operation manager of Douyin e - commerce, said that if there were no quality inspection step, the deposit of merchants joining might reach tens of thousands of yuan. But after zero - threshold entry into the QIC, the maximum deposit is only 5,000 yuan, even if you sell millions of yuan worth of goods. Lu Wenle also said that the center also provides warehousing, packaging, and shipping services. Whether a merchant sells 100 orders or 1,000 orders today, the center can complete the shipping on the same day. The packaging process is also monitored in high - definition and full - view throughout. There's no need to worry about damage to the goods, and if any damage occurs, it can be traced, evaluated, and compensated in a timely manner, striving to comprehensively protect the rights and interests of consumers and merchants.