Recently, a small decorative light from China has become popular overseas.

No high-tech support, no big brand endorsement, just an ordinary little ambient lamp. Yet, it broke through in the Tuke German market, selling 26,500 units in five months, with sales reaching €131,600 (about RMB 1.08 million), helping a new store jump straight to the Top 3 in its category.

You might wonder: Isn't it just a lamp? Why are Germans so obsessed with it?

Don't worry, today let's dig deeper into this topic.

 

Image source:echotik

How did a small decorative lamp “hard control” Germans?

The USB decorative lamp that went viral on Tuke Germany comes from a cross-border lighting store called LihangStar Lighting Store on German Tuke..

 

Image source:echotik

Currently, 454 influencers have promoted this ambient lamp, with more than 590 videos published. The best-selling videos mostly have similar structures: either the influencer appears to explain, or directly shows the lamp’s lighting effect. Simple and intuitive visual presentation perfectly fits the Tuke short video platform’s communication logic.

Among them, the highest-selling video comes from influencer Armin Eagle, with a single video selling 3,200 units!

 

Image source:Tuke

Speaking of this small decorative lamp, its principle is actually very simple: it relies on built-in infrared sensing, lights up when people approach, turns off when people leave, can switch between seven colors, and works after charging.

For Germans who value safety and cleanliness, this kind of “zero-burden” product is exactly what they want.

Most importantly, this lamp sells for less than €5, only half the price of similar offline products in Germany. This super high cost-performance ratio allows consumers to make a purchase decision almost without hesitation.

 

Image source:echotik

Some may think that selling RMB 1.08 million in five months on Tuke is not much compared to the millions sold in the US or Southeast Asia.

But that's not the right way to look at it. For a new Tuke Germany site in its growth phase, this small decorative lamp is undoubtedly a bright signal.

It proves that as long as you choose the right product and hit the pain point, new players have every chance to stand out quickly.

 

Image source:echotik

Lighting up Germany’s winter with “warm coziness”

What are you really choosing when you select a product? Ultimately, it’s not the item itself, but the consumer behind it.

You have to understand what people in a place care about deep down, and what they’re used to in daily life. Once you get this, you’ve unlocked half the secret to a hit product.

This small decorative lamp’s popularity in Germany is a great example.

It precisely hits the lifestyle concept that Germans value highly—“Gemütlichkeit”. This word is hard to translate directly, but you can understand it as a kind of “warm and cozy atmosphere”.

At this moment, light is far more than just a tool for illumination in their eyes—it’s the soul of creating a family atmosphere.

 

Image source:Tuke

At the same time, cultural habits directly influence their consumption behavior.

Starting from the end of October, Germans begin preparing for Christmas. Street lights, candlelight at home, warm-colored light strings in shop windows—the whole country gradually lights up.

Therefore, all kinds of “ambient lamps” become one of the best-selling products in Germany before Christmas. This USB decorative lamp happens to hit all these points and became a hot item.

 

Image source:Amazon

From point to surface: The global wave of emotional value consumption

The hot sales of decorative lamps actually reflect a bigger consumption trend in the lighting industry: consumers are shifting from functional consumption to emotional consumption.

According to data, the global ambient lighting market is growing rapidly, valued at over $70 billion in 2023 and expected to reach about $150 billion by 2032, with a compound annual growth rate of about 9%.

This growth rate is significantly higher than the traditional lighting market, showing that people no longer buy lamps just to “see clearly”, but care more about how they feel.

 

Image source:gminsights

If we look at broader markets, we’ll find similar “emotional value” products are becoming popular worldwide.

In the US, ripple projection lamps and sunset ambient lamps have also set single-store sales records of hundreds of thousands of units; a cleverly designed plastic snowman, thanks to its festive ritual feeling, achieved a single-day sales explosion of over 3,000 units during Christmas season.

They all confirm the trend of emotional consumption—moving from rational to emotional buying.

 

Image source:Tuke

Conclusion

From the story of this small decorative lamp, we can clearly see that today’s cross-border e-commerce competition has entered a new stage.

China’s supply chain is so strong that any product can quickly be copied. When everyone’s functions and appearance are similar, how do you win? By lowering prices? That only leads to endless internal competition.

So perhaps the better way forward is to deeply bind emotional value with products, providing consumers with a brand warmth that cannot be copied.

What do you think?