Image source @ Visual China
Wen 丨 Yuan Guobao
At the end of last year, a "tornado" blew up in the live e-commerce industry, and this big wash made everyone in the industry's anchors endanger themselves.
Sydney and Lin Shanshan were brutally banned after being punished for tax evasion and tax evasion, and many anchors such as Li Jiaqi, Luo Yonghao, Lie'er Baobao, Chen Jieki were also named and rectified.
The queen of the goods, Via, was also fined up to 1.341 billion yuan, and the accounts of various platforms were subsequently blocked, which instantly triggered a sensation on the whole network.
This may be a landmark node in the industry, which means that the crazy and barbaric growth era of the e-commerce live broadcasting industry has gone and begun to turn to another new chapter.
However, looking back at this "perfect encounter" that combines live broadcasting and e-commerce, from the overall point of view, it has indeed promoted the diversified development of the entire e-commerce industry.
The earliest player of e-commerce live broadcasting is actually the head e-commerce platform Taobao.
In May 2016, the "Taobao Live Broadcast" function was officially launched, which sounded the first gunshot of live e-commerce shopping.
At that time, Wei Ya and Li Jiaqi just happened to meet the outlet, and they both opened the first live broadcast of their lives in this period.
In the "anchor broadcast for 10 hours continuously" competition hosted by Taobao, Wei Ya set a good record of selling more than 20,000 orders in 1 hour.
At that time, Li Jiaqi in the beauty group was also amazingly powerful, and the image of "lipstick brother" gradually became deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
On the other hand, short video platforms represented by Douyin and Kuaishou have also found business opportunities and began to accelerate the cultivation of the platform's "traffic anchors".
In August 2018, Simba chose to tie deep into the Kuaishou platform and opened the first live broadcast, relying on the strong cost advantage of his own factory, and finally sold 120,000 yuan of cotton password sanitary napkins.
Luo Yonghao, who is saddled with 600 million yuan in debt, brought 110 million yuan of goods in 3 hours on Douyin.
During this period, some MCNs and Internet celebrities with fast vision and fierce eyes have also entered the live e-commerce industry to test the waters, and the track is gradually crowded.
By 2020, live e-commerce will usher in explosive growth in the special epidemic environment, like a god assist.
Live e-commerce began to enter the mainstream selling channels, of course, it was also marked with stereotypes such as "making fast money", "profiteering", and "low price".
During the epidemic, offline consumption methods have been restricted, and consumers have great demand for online shopping itself. On the other hand, physical merchants are forced to survive during the epidemic and have begun to hope that live streaming will save sales.
The live broadcast can allow consumers to "immersive" product display, as well as the anchor's strong sense of substitution, preferential benefits and other advantages, for e-commerce shopping has a natural god assist.
This is also easy for consumers to impulsive consumption, addicted and crazy, to open the inextricable shopping mode.
According to the "Research Report on China's Live E-commerce Industry" released by iResearch, the number of industry anchors has reached 1.234 million by the end of 2020.
Anchors, celebrities, influencers, brand merchants, MCNs, service providers, etc. have entered the market and are ready to do a big job.
The stars themselves bring their own hot spots, and they naturally have advantages in doing live streaming with goods, so they also come to join in the fun. With relevant data, 99.5% of the stars in China's performing arts industry in 2020 have entered the live broadcast room.
Li Xiang, Yang Mi, Liu Tao, Xie Tingfeng, Wang Han and other big-name celebrities personally went to the battlefield and earned enough traffic for each platform. Taobao has also released the "Live Broadcast Star Program", with more than 100 stars stationed on Taobao Live.
With the good image of the corporate brand as an endorsement, the entrepreneur IP also brings its own halo to join in the momentum.
Gree Dong Mingzhu, Baidu Robin Li, Xiaomi Lei Jun are typical examples, drunkenness does not mean to drink, not for sales only for brand exposure, and can trigger public opinion exposure, may be their true intention.
MCN has also gradually penetrated into the back-end supply chain, attacked the live broadcast generation operation, and incubated various private brands.
Under the dividend, all sides will fight and fight fiercely.
Between platforms, there will be a war
With the gradual maturity of live e-commerce, the three major platforms of Taobao, Douyin, and Kuaishou have become a trend, and other platforms such as JD.com, Xiaohongshu, WeChat, B Station, Mushroom Street, Juhuasuan, 1688, Pinduoduo, Baidu and other platforms have also opened the live streaming function.
The competition between platforms is also getting bigger and bigger, and we have begun to cultivate the "master Hua Dan" bound to the platform to compete.
In particular, the head anchors of the platform incubation have their own traffic aura, which can not only sell high sales and carry goods, but also carry out a wave of strong endorsement for the brand, becoming the first choice of brand owners.
For example, as long as they can label their products with labels such as "Wei Ya recommends the same model", "Li Jiaqi recommends the same model", "Luo Yonghao recommends the same model", the brands will not hesitate to invest at a high price, and a "pit position" is difficult to find.
In particular, some new brands want to create explosive models, only after such "authoritative certification", can they quickly accumulate word of mouth, and it is not impossible to become popular overnight.
According to the relevant data of the Phoenix Network E-commerce Research Institute, in 2020, the GMV of Taobao Live Streaming with goods exploded by 300% year-on-year to 430 billion yuan, and the Douyin curve surpassed Kuaishou, and the total GMV reached 134 billion yuan, about 2 times that of Kuaishou, and the GMV of Kuaishou Live E-commerce was 62 billion yuan.
So, these three major industry giants, on the whole, who is better?
Taobao Live is a well-deserved "big brother", and it is also the forerunner who first opened the live e-commerce model that year.
The Taobao ecological live broadcast platform, all belong to Alibaba Group, which is essentially an e-commerce platform with "shopping" as the scene, including Taobao.com, Tmall.com, Alibaba 1668.com, Juhuasuan and other matrices.
On March 31, 2020, the "Online Survey Report on Consumer Satisfaction of Live E-commerce Shopping" released by the China Consumer Association showed that 68.5% of consumers using Taobao live broadcasting reached 68.5%, which is the highest proportion of all live e-commerce platforms.
The advantage of the Tao system live broadcast ecology is that it has a strong passenger flow accumulated over the years, and has a strong consumption purpose and willingness, and the return rate and repurchase rate are also relatively high.
The perfect ecosystem and service system, as well as the huge business resources, also make consumers more trusting of the platform.
However, e-commerce platforms also have their own "short boards", such as being slightly inferior in content marketing, and the traffic is more closed, which is not as interesting as the short video platforms such as Douyin.
In addition to some head anchors, tao tie anchors are more based on building brand live broadcast rooms on the basis of stores, but they will lack the distinct personalization of character IP and high viscosity emotional links with fans.
On the other hand, Douyin and Kuaishou have mixed advantages and disadvantages, and they are essentially short video entertainment platforms that produce content.
Douyin and Kuaishou started by doing short videos, and live e-commerce also belongs to the category of video display, so there is no sense of violation of e-commerce live broadcasting on short video platforms.
From small stores to small yellow cars, the short video platform continues to iterate, quickly building an e-commerce shopping function.
By June 18, 2021, ByteDance has set up an e-commerce first-level business department, officially released the "Douyin e-commerce" brand, and officially banned external links in the Douyin live broadcast room on October 9, opening the e-commerce closed loop.
A series of operations of Douyin have obviously begun to change from "cooperation" to "xenophobia", and the ambition to build its own platform traffic moat has gradually become prominent.
Kuaishou is also constantly moving, launching the Good Thing Alliance, Magnetic Juxing, and also began to pay attention to the distribution of public and private domain traffic.
However, with the wild run of Douyin and Kuaishou in the e-commerce live broadcast track, it has also left many industry criticisms.
The entertainment attributes of Douyin and Kuaishou themselves, although they increase the fun and interactivity of live broadcasting, will also make consumers lack of security and doubt the quality of products.
There is also a contradiction between the platform and advertising marketing, which is a game of interest balance, which is something that Vibrato and Kuaishou anchors need to carefully consider.
Only on the basis of long-term high-quality content output and building trust with fans, they are willing to pay for the anchors to bring goods, and once too much marketing, it will overdraft the trust of fans.
Many small anchors and ordinary people have entered the circle, but their professional ability to carry goods is uneven, and the "overturning" of various anchors has once become the norm.
Rollovers continue, with goods all rely on "flickering"?
Live e-commerce has gradually become a mainstream shopping channel, but the controversy along the way is not small.
If you go too fast, it is indeed easier to plant your head.
Anchors have no scruples over the years, just look at whether sales are rising day by day, whether the bags of tickets are getting more and more drummed, pushing the rapid expansion of live e-commerce, and sealing the gods all the way to the "profiteering industry".
The bubble economy is getting more and more serious, for example, Wu Xiaobo's "600,000 pit fees with 15 cans of milk powder" incident shocked the whole network.
Problems such as high-price pits, false publicity, and induced consumption are frequent, and the shortcomings of live e-commerce are gradually exposed.
For example, the controversial Simba, Kuaishou with a number of goods, before the record of a single game with goods reached 2.039 billion yuan, but the relationship with the Kuaishou platform is increasingly tense.
The bird's nest incident in November 2020 was boiling over, and its bird's nest products with goods were tested to have exaggerated publicity, insufficient bird's nest ingredients, and were banned by the platform.
There is also the "all-rounder" Luo Yonghao, who apologized for the fake cardigan incident on May 13, 2021, and promised triple compensation.
E-commerce live broadcasting usually connects the anchor, brand side, platform, and even the MCN behind it, and the integration of various resources is tied to a boat.
Once there is a mistake in which link, it will inevitably affect the interests and reputation of all parties.
Under the exaggerated marketing atmosphere, the live e-commerce industry has evolved into a replica of "crazy TV shopping".
Some live broadcast rooms are more like playing monkey plays, simple and rude selling, creating tension, picking up big cheap discounts, and the similar atmosphere of the anchors makes consumers gradually weaken.
According to the "Live E-commerce Shopping Consumer Satisfaction Report" released by the China Consumer Association, some anchors exaggerated publicity and guided consumers to trade privately when carrying goods, and some consumers encountered counterfeit and shoddy goods and difficulty in ensuring after-sales service.
Can be fooled once or twice, but it is impossible to deceive for a long time, consumers are getting worse and worse.
When the inertia in some live broadcast rooms has not eased up, consumers have migrated their awareness of rights protection to the e-commerce live broadcast platform by virtue of long-term traditional shopping habits.
Complaints and rights protection at the first word, the wrong goods, poor quality, shoddy charging, exaggerated publicity and other issues have also become high-frequency words for users to complain and protect their rights.
Although the awareness of rights protection has increased, because the live e-commerce industry is after all an emerging product, the rules of the relevant platform are not as mature as traditional e-commerce shopping, and the corresponding laws and regulations have not been introduced in previous years, and "there is a law to follow" has become an urgent need for consumers to rely on when protecting their rights.
The e-commerce live broadcast that once became a profiteering industry by "flickering" is now flickering.
Shuffle acceleration, how to win in the future?
The accelerated reshuffle of the e-commerce live broadcasting industry has also ushered in new changes and policies, which seems to be a "big looting" in which everyone is endangered.
But in the long run, it is a new opportunity for the entire industry.
In the second half, industry supervision will become more and more stringent, facing a severe test for the comprehensive strength of platforms, anchors, brands, MCN service providers, etc.
The era of simple barbaric explosions has passed, and today's industry ecology and consumer satisfaction will be strongly bundled together, not just look at sales figures.
The state intervenes in management, the platform conducts self-examination and self-examination, and relevant laws and policies also come into being.
For example, the China Advertising Association's "Code of Conduct for Online Live Broadcasting Marketing", as well as the State Administration of Radio and Television's "Notice on Strengthening the Management of Online Live Broadcasting and E-commerce Live Broadcasting" and "Administrative Measures for Online Live Broadcasting Marketing (Trial)" and other corresponding policies have been introduced.
And further regulation has been made on these details:
It is required to crack down the use of live streaming with goods, bloggers and Internet celebrities, etc. to brush up on single speculation;
Require the implementation of a real-name system and prohibit minors from giving tips;
Require them to rectify violations of product labels, suspected exaggerated publicity, etc.;
It is required to improve the ability to identify and combat data fraud, and establish a smooth channel for user reporting and complaints;
Protect consumers' reasonable returns, exchanges and refunds...
Finally, the "law can be followed" has been realized, which has effectively protected the legitimate rights and interests of consumers and promoted the benign development of the ecology of the live e-commerce industry.
Live e-commerce is also becoming more and more perfect in terms of complaint channels and methods.
For example, the black cat complaint platform has launched a special area for anchor complaints for e-commerce live broadcasting, which can not only directly complain to the anchor in the live shopping consumer dispute, but also view the red and black list of anchor complaints.
The establishment of the Live E-commerce Alliance, which is a collaborative platform for multi-party self-organization to build, co-govern and share, drives the overall self-discipline of the industry through the strict self-discipline of members.
The People's Daily New Media Research Institute also initiated the establishment of a "live e-commerce research base" to standardize the industry order and jointly help the healthy development of live e-commerce.
Jointly with major e-commerce institutions to launch the "National Live E-commerce Complaint Platform", and equipped with a professional team to follow up the feedback results in a timely manner.
Major platforms have also stepped up efforts to improve relevant rules, such as Kuaishou revised the "Detailed Rules for the Implementation of Breach of Commitments" for the business quality of settled merchants to control merchants to set false return addresses, and once they are discovered and dealt with relevant violations.
At the same time, Taobao Live first rectified the problem of pit fees in the industry, and strictly managed the pit fees, prohibiting the original one-bite pricing, adjusting to today's actual sales linkage, speaking with actual results, and working more.
In the future, some live broadcast methods that attach importance to consumer experience are indeed worth learning, or will become a new trend in the e-commerce live broadcasting industry.
For example, JD.com once invited P&G scientists to do a public welfare live broadcast of "health protection" in the "Science Lab" live broadcast room.
I didn't do too much product promotion, but I didn't expect that the marketing atmosphere that was not strong and the live broadcast method with users as the demand won the favor of consumers.
Not only will it drive the sales of related products, but more importantly, the brand favorability will also play a long-term value and penetrate the hearts of the people.
Live e-commerce has also begun to roll in in terms of user experience, such as the continuous improvement of delivery efficiency.
Nowadays, the addition of offline channel stores, the establishment and distribution of multiple warehouses nearby, and even the "hourly" home service can be achieved.
Short broadcast is also the trend of e-commerce live broadcast in the future, that is, the video in the live broadcast room is edited, and then the corresponding products are paired for a long time.
The current Alibaba 1688 store has tended to improve this function, and other e-commerce platforms may gradually lay out this function.
In this way, the live content that once needed to be watched online in real time can be transmitted twice, without time restrictions, and has become a "cargo artifact" that consumers can experience at any time.
The opportunities left by the entire market for those small anchors, MCN institutions, and defective suppliers who "make quick money" are not many, and inferior players will be eliminated.
On the side of enterprises, brand owners have gradually discovered the huge pit behind expensive pit fees and high commissions.
From the simple reliance on big anchors in the past, to the long-term construction of the brand live broadcast room, I finally understood the hard truth that traffic still has to be firmly in my hands.
Although the traffic and conversion rate in the short term are far less than those of large anchors, in the long run, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.
Gone are the days of the barbaric growth of the chaotic heroes.
I hope that live e-commerce can enter the right track of steady development, and no longer let consumers be trapped in consumer rights protection!
It is also hoped that consumers will bravely defend their rights when they encounter consumption problems and strive for their due interests, which will promote the healthier development of the industry.
Whether it is the platform, the brand side, or the anchors with goods, only by withstanding the test of consumers' word of mouth can they take a real long-term development path.