CBO reporter Li Siyang
The epidemic has led to an unprecedented operational crisis for many airlines, in order to save themselves, more and more airlines are eyeing the business of live e-commerce, and beauty has become the main product.
In the live broadcast room of China Southern Airlines, two flight attendants picked up the "SK-II Immortal Water" and "Aquamarine Mystery Essence Water" respectively, and tried to introduce the characteristics and applicable people of the two products, respectively, recommended to the "oil skin" and "dry skin" audience, the audience also actively replied to the password in the live broadcast room to participate in the lucky bag lottery, and the prize was a bottle of formal security and sunburn.
Big-name beauty products such as "Fairy Water", which cost less than half the price of the official website, opened the purchase channel in the countdown of the flight attendant, and entered a state of inventory tension in just a few minutes.
Under the epidemic, many airlines have suffered a serious blow, in order to save themselves, China Southern Airlines, Hainan Airlines and other airlines opened the live broadcast room to change careers to do "live streaming with goods", flight attendants incarnated as anchors with goods to sell makeup and skin care products.
01
Flight attendants become anchors
Airlines enter the beauty live stream with goods
China Southern Airlines opened two live broadcast rooms on the Douyin platform, "China Southern Airlines Global Purchase" and "China Southern Airlines Cross-border Mall", allowing the company's flight attendants to sit as anchors with goods, and the products sold were not lacking in big-name skin care products and makeup.
According to public data, in the past 30 days, the sales of China Southern Airlines' two live broadcast rooms were 3.877 million yuan and 2.022 million yuan respectively, and it is estimated that the average revenue per live broadcast is 228,000 yuan and 253,000 yuan.
At present, the Douyin account "China Southern Airlines Global Purchase" currently has 130,000 fans, which starts broadcasting at 7:30 every night, and "China Southern Airlines Cross-border Mall" has 166,000 fans, which is broadcast live from 8 am to 8 pm every day.
In the window of the homepage of the "China Southern Airlines Cross-border Mall", there are a total of 268 products, including sunscreen, skin care, washing, makeup and even beauty tools, including all kinds of low-cost samples, as well as SK-II, Estée Lauder, Aquamarine Mystery, Daike and other big names. The account has a word of mouth of 4.80 points and a sales volume of 87,000, and the window of "China Southern Airlines Global Purchase" has 216 products, with a reputation of 4.92 points and a sales volume of 67,000.
It is reported that these goods are not directly operated by China Southern Airlines, but belong to different stores, both overseas flagship stores of brands and various small franchise stores, with sales ranging from single digits to tens of thousands of uneven, and the price is basically lower than the official price of each brand. China Southern Airlines live broadcast room is only responsible for the alternative sales of these products, clicking on the product link will jump to the corresponding store interface, China Southern Airlines does not participate in the shopping delivery process.
02
Big-name products are priced lower than duty-free shops
China Southern Airlines responded to consumers' "fake goods" questions
The "Cosmetics Finance Online" reporter found that the price of 230ml of "Immortal Water" in the live broadcast room of "China Southern Airlines Cross-border Mall" was 649 yuan, which was lower than the duty-free minimum price of 821 yuan of the official APP of "China Exemption Day". The 400ml Lancome powder water costs 194 yuan, less than half the official website price, and most of the products in the live broadcast room do not support 7 days without reason to return and exchange.
The "Immortal Water" products displayed in the live broadcast room came from a Douyin store called Zhuoke ZHUOKE Overseas Flagship Store, which sold more than 2,000 pieces. Many buyers in the product review area questioned the authenticity of the product, believing that the packaging was not plasticized as if it had been opened, and some consumers reacted to the use of the feeling and the domestic counter is not the same.
The store said on its product introduction page that the fairy water sold by the store is an overseas version, so there is no plastic packaging, and the characteristics of packaging, taste, consistency, and capacity are different from the domestic counter version.
In the face of doubts about whether the goods sold are genuine, the "China Southern Airlines Cross-border Mall" introduced in its release video that China Southern Airlines' Douyin Global Purchase brings together sellers who sell overseas goods, and sellers need to pay a deposit of 100,000 to 200,000 yuan, and need an official directional invitation to join.
"Before the goods purchased by global purchase merchants enter the domestic bonded warehouse, they must first provide the bonded warehouse and the customs with the relevant genuine source qualifications, and the bonded warehouse of Douyin is directly operated bonded warehouse through the 24-hour joint supervision of douyin officials and customs, and if there are any quality problems, the goods will be directly seized by the customs." China Southern Airlines released a video to indicate.
At the same time, the video released by China Southern Airlines also mentioned that "the global purchase of goods is a large number of purchases, a large number of transportation, the cost is low, and the goods are directly shipped to the bonded warehouse, without transit, so the warehouse cost is lower." At the same time, cross-border trade taxes will be much lower than general trade taxes, so prices are generally lower. ”
In the face of doubts in the comment area, the "China Southern Airlines Cross-border Mall" said: "Fidelity is correct, false one pays ten".
But even if China Southern Airlines made a detailed response, there are still users who say that even the bonded warehouse may have fakes, although they trust China Southern Airlines, but the products come from different small shops are difficult to trust.
03
Huge losses and bankruptcies under the epidemic
A number of airlines explore live e-commerce
In 2021, China Southern Airlines suffered a huge net profit loss of 12.1 billion yuan. In the same period, the losses of the three major domestic airlines, Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines, all exceeded 10 billion yuan, with a total loss of nearly 41 billion yuan.
Since March this year, the epidemic situation in many parts of the country has been repeated, and due to strict epidemic prevention measures in some areas, the transportation and warehousing industries have been restricted, and the number of domestic flights has dropped sharply. According to the March transport production briefing of Shanghai Airport, the total number of aircraft take-offs and landings in March was 16,000, down 54.89% year-on-year; the passenger throughput was 806,100 passengers, down 76.86% year-on-year. In April, the number of flights nationwide further declined, and the number of flights on the three major airlines from April 1 to 13 fell by 80.9% year-on-year.
The impact of the epidemic has put the overall operation of airlines at a low level, and many flight attendants are unemployed at home or even forced to change careers, with 97,307 flight attendants on duty by 2021, which is more than 10,000 fewer than before the start of the epidemic.
With the blow of the epidemic and the rise of the live broadcasting industry, it is also the general trend that more and more airlines have put down their bodies to invest in live streaming with goods. During the "618" period last year, China United Airlines mobilized the whole family to carry out an online promotion.
As early as 2020, Hainan Airlines entered the live broadcast e-commerce, earlier than China Southern Airlines. Since July 2020, Hainan Airlines has successively launched its debut of e-commerce live broadcasting on major OTA platforms such as Ctrip and Qunar.
On January 29, 2021, HNA officially announced bankruptcy reorganization, shocking the industry. As the core asset of HNA Aviation's main business sector, HNA Holdings, which is in it, has opened the road of self-help under the leadership of the Hainan Provincial HNA Joint Working Group.
Since the first live broadcast of goods was carried out on Douyin on March 18 last year, as of September 15 of that year, Hainan Airlines' official Douyin live broadcast has been carried out 27 times, with 225,000 new official Douyin fans and nearly 500,000 official Douyin fans. Total live product sales (GMV) exceeded 17 million, with an average profit margin of 12%. The highest number of viewers of a single show reached 1 million people, the highest sales of a single game was nearly 2.5 million yuan, and it entered the TOP10 of the list of goods for many times, becoming the anchor account of Douyin at the forefront.
Some voices pointed out that based on consumers' cognition of airport duty-free shops, airlines live streaming big-name beauty with goods does have certain advantages, but if you really want to do a good job of live e-commerce, this alone is not enough, the professionalism of the live broadcast personnel and the supply chain control and after-sales service behind it are the key.