Data Architecture, Governance, and Application Practices at XinXuan Group for Live E‑commerce

Introduction

With the rapid rise of the live‑streaming industry, XinXuan Group’s business has expanded quickly, increasing the volume and importance of data in daily operations. The company faces higher demands for data analysis depth, timeliness, accuracy, and completeness.

1. XinXuan Group Overview

Founded in Guangzhou in 2017, XinXuan Group entered the live‑e‑commerce sector in 2018 and achieved annual sales exceeding 150 billion CNY by 2019, later tripling that figure. The group focuses on a supply‑chain‑centric digital retail model, incubating top‑tier livestreaming influencers and building its own brands and factories.

2. Data Construction Implementation

The data platform aims to turn raw data into actionable business value through three main dimensions:

Cost reduction and efficiency improvement (e.g., online data entry, automated business‑process alerts).

Data services for middle‑ and senior‑level management (diagnosing performance, monitoring cash flow, identifying market opportunities).

Support for commercial decision‑making (user analysis, category scouting, account‑level value‑added services).

Challenges include building the platform from scratch, aligning technical selection with business needs, and ensuring data quality, breadth, and trust across departments.

3. Framework and Methodology

The data architecture combines TOGAF and DAMA principles, adapted to XinXuan’s specific context. A V‑shaped model is used to map business processes to data and application layers, emphasizing:

Business architecture first – fully understanding requirements.

Mapping to data‑application architecture – documenting all logical processes.

Explicit input/output definition – every business step produces data.

Data standardization and governance – using data dictionaries and industry standards.

These steps enable rapid business onboarding, clear data lineage, and effective cross‑functional collaboration.

4. Data Source Identification and Governance

Data sources span internal IT systems, external platforms (Douyin, Taobao, etc.), and manual collection. The process includes:

Cataloguing data sources, regardless of availability.

Collecting and consolidating logical data.

Standardizing, cleaning, and integrating data into a central data‑mid‑platform.

Implementing governance measures (encryption, access control, logging, audit trails) to ensure data security and compliance.

5. Technical Architecture

The solution runs on Alibaba Cloud with 2000 CPU cores, 7000 GB memory, and 150 TB storage for images and videos. It supports cold/hot data storage, real‑time and batch computation, AI‑assisted data enrichment, monitoring, and secure access.

6. Data Analysis System

Two major analysis tracks are provided:

Strategic & commercial analysis – supporting high‑level decision‑making.

Operational analysis – covering finance, business, market, and KPI dashboards.

External market data (e.g., JD, Taobao, Douyin) is integrated to enrich internal insights.

7. Application Cases

Self‑operated product analysis: Standardized templates generate market size, growth trends, brand positioning, sentiment analysis, product positioning, and differentiation strategies for categories such as apparel, home‑care, health, and cosmetics.

Data‑driven influencer recommendation: User, influencer, and product profiling models achieve 70‑85 % recommendation accuracy for top influencers and ~80 % for mid‑tier influencers.

Risk control in product selection: Real‑time shipment monitoring, historical performance checks, and TOGAF‑based indicator mapping identify and mitigate supply‑chain risks.

Data security foundation: Encryption, multi‑factor authentication, permission management, logging, and watermarking protect sensitive data.

Conclusion

The case demonstrates how a systematic data‑first approach—combining robust architecture, governance, and analytics—can empower live‑e‑commerce businesses to achieve cost efficiency, strategic insight, and operational resilience.