Almost no girl can walk out of Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room empty-handed.
A sentence of "OMG buy it", from lipstick, mask to skin care products, Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room, which takes beauty as the core advantage category, has created sales myths many times.
During the March 8 promotion last year, Li Jiaqi "broadcast live for 7 hours and brought 2.825 billion goods", and more than 77 million people watched the screen-brushing network.
However, this year, there are hardly any sales figures released. Some netizens questioned: "Brother with goods" Li Jiaqi can't sell makeup, is this really the case?
01
Beauty ushered in a downgrade in consumption
Just after the New Year, netizen Xiaotao received a call from a skin care brand BA, informing that the brand counter was newly opened in the mall, and there were multiple promotions such as buy one get one free, 300 yuan off over 3,000 yuan, and movie tickets sent by the mall.
Xiao Tao went to take a look, and there were really many users who bought at the counter.
Coupled with the small samples sent by BA enthusiastically, the discount for offline purchases even exceeded online.
Moreover, if you choose to buy at the offline counter, you can also enjoy one-to-one skin care services, and the whole experience process is smooth and pleasant.
Previously, Xiaotao basically chose to buy online, although the price comparison was achieved with the touch of a finger, but it lacked the "sense of atmosphere" in the purchase process.
●Source: L'Oréal Paris Weibo
From the choice of individual users, it seems that the purchase channels of beauty products are becoming diversified.
During the epidemic, users relied on online consumption. As a result, online platforms launched various promotions in order to attract traffic, and the "lowest price on the whole network" once became a necessary marketing method for anchors with goods.
The same brand, the same product, cheaper than whom's, more than whose giveaway. In this comparison, Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room has become a popular spot for many girls to squat on time.
However, with the liberalization of the epidemic and the diversion of other live streaming platforms such as Douyin, users are no longer too dependent on one anchor or focus on one platform.
Li Jiaqi also said in the live broadcast room that users can choose more suitable product purchase channels, and it is not necessary to place orders in his live broadcast room.
●Source: China Newsweek
On the other hand, many brands are no longer obsessed with deeply binding a certain anchor, and more optimize the user experience as much as possible by mobilizing the brand's original sales channels.
At the same time, the total retail sales of the beauty category showed an overall decline.
The latest data shows that the total retail sales of cosmetics fell by 4.5% in 2022, showing the first negative growth since 2000.
In the beauty and personal care track, the high-end beauty business of Estée Lauder and Procter & Gamble, which are mainly high-luxury brands, have been affected.
It is worth mentioning that in the decline of the beauty market, L'Oréal's sales and growth rate in 2022 hit the highest record in nearly a decade, an increase of 18.5% compared with 2021.
●Source: L'Oréal Paris Weibo
Some netizens believe that L'Oreal has won the best performance in nearly a decade, reflecting that the cosmetics industry is ushering in a consumption downgrade.
Perhaps, whether it is the diversification of purchase channels or the consumption downgrade of the general environment, it will affect the beauty sales of Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room to some extent.
02
Live streaming is getting more and more rolled
In 2021, Qi Zhenbo, founder and CEO of Beauty Wrist, said in an interview that before the end of 2018, the beauty business was mainly based on beauty, beauty was the standard, and the public was very sensitive to price. In such a market environment, there is no point in cultivating multiple anchors, so we should only make a big IP and "hit the floor" with the price.
Li Jiaqi is precisely this big IP that "beats the price to the floor".
For girls who love beauty, not going to Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room to shop at a price is not responsible for themselves.
A brand that has worked with Li Jiaqi for a long time said that the brand's sales performance has increased slightly this year, and the ranking has also jumped to the top of the list. However, I also feel that Li Jiaqi's team has more and more requirements for prices, giveaways, etc.
Li Jiaqi himself also said in the live broadcast that now which brand gives a large discount and which brand sells well.
Image source: TopKlout Crowry
Some users found that compared with channels such as duty-free, the price advantage of Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room was no longer obvious enough. In a sense, it also shows that the live streaming industry is becoming more and more volatile.
This volume manifests itself in several ways. First, the relationship between the brand and the streamer.
In the past, brands had to enter Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room, but now, the brand side will urge the product selection team to give a product evaluation response as soon as possible, otherwise other live broadcast rooms will be considered.
That is to say, nowadays, brands will not all bet on a certain anchor or platform, but will pay more attention to global e-commerce.
●Source: Estée Lauder Weibo
Secondly, there is the relationship between the anchor and the platform.
In the era of stock, Li Jiaqi, who has not chosen multi-platform development and still adheres to Taobao, will become more and more difficult to obtain traffic.
According to Alibaba's official data, Taobao has added more than 500,000 new anchors in the past year, and it is said that it will train another 200,000 new anchors in the future.
Moreover, on the eve of Double 11 last year, more than 100 live broadcast agencies settled on Taobao, among which the more well-known ones are Make a Friend, Oriental Selection, and Remote View Technology.
The entry of new institutions and new anchors into Taobao will affect the traffic distribution mechanism of Taobao Live to a certain extent.
●Source: L'Oréal Paris Weibo
Finally, there is the relationship between platforms.
It can be seen from the tens of billions of subsidies launched by Jingdong this year that the competition for users between e-commerce platforms has entered a white-hot stage.
It is not difficult to imagine the urgency and intensity behind the "low-price competition" that can be carried out even at the expense of profits.
The "volume" in many aspects has led to the difficulty of Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room selection, and the popularity is not as good as in the past.
Some netizens commented "Although I love +7, I feel that the selection is not as good as before, many things are expensive, but I will watch it every day"...
03
De-emphasize the "lowest price on the whole network"
Beauty products are not selling as well as before in Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room, and not only because the price advantage has weakened.
According to the data, the proportion of online sales of beauty products increased from 10% in 2012 to 39% in 2021.
With the liberalization of the pandemic, although online channels are still the most important channel in the beauty industry, the opening of some travel, duty-free and high-end shopping malls is affecting online consumption.
On the other hand, as an optional consumer product, the demand for beauty products in the overall market has declined in recent years.
In order to boost performance, big-name beauty has successively adopted price increases in response, such as Estée Lauder, Shiseido and other well-known brands, product prices have increased by about 10%.
●Source: Estée Lauder Weibo
In the retail e-commerce industry, price strategy is the core strategy and the core driving force for the development and progress of the industry.
However, the price increase of big-name beauty can achieve an increase in profit margin in the short term. For the live broadcast room that previously pursued price advantages, it was not a benefit.
Whether it is live streaming or planting, it is a social media communication method that is closer to consumers.
In today's live broadcast room, it has become an industry consensus to de-emphasize the "lowest price on the whole network". This also means that consumer decisions are no longer limited to price factors.
●Source: L'Oréal Paris Weibo
With the change of consumption habits, how to close the distance with users in marketing channels, display rich and accurate promotion forms and selections, and finally find a new way to adapt to market changes.
In a sense, online purchases should be combined with offline integration, emphasizing new selection factors such as services and experiences that can be provided in the live broadcast room.
For example, Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room will prepare a detailed Excel before the start of the promotion to help consumers understand the discount of various products.
When the price advantage online is no longer obvious and there are more and more channels to choose from, fighting services and talking about experience is not a new solution to reuniting popularity in the live broadcast room.