According to data released by the Ministry of Commerce not long ago, online retail sales in 2023 will be 1542 trillion yuan, an increase of 11%. From January to October, live broadcast sales exceeded 22 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 589%, accounting for 181%。
Indeed, in the past 2023, we are no stranger to the term live e-commerce. After entering the e-commerce market, the original content-based ** platform has vigorously developed the live streaming model and achieved rapid growth.
Traditional e-commerce platforms are also "seeking change", adding content to maintain user stickiness and recruiting online celebrity anchors to cope with the competition.
As of the end of December 2023, the MAU (monthly active users) of the seven leading internet platforms of Douyin, **Kuaishou, JD.com, Xiaohongshu, Pinduoduo and Bilibili (also known as Bilibili) reached 76 respectively4.7 billion, 74.5 billion, 39.1 billion, 36.9 billion, 34.1 billion, 30.2 billion and 26.1 billion.
Under such traffic, the road to live streaming has become a new "highland" for "new and old" e-commerce platforms. Seven Finance also chatted with a number of consumers of different genders, ages, and jobs to see how much money they will spend on live e-commerce in 2023 and what problems they encounter.
01 New e-commerce platforms are favored
In the Douyin live broadcast room, two male anchors used extremely exaggerated movements and funny language performances to "reverse" bring down jackets, "Let's cut open this dress and see what's inside", but it turned out that it was not white duck down but stenching chicken feathers.
Originally, it was to bring goods, but it was "slapped in the face" by the quality, this reversal and plot interpretation of the way to bring goods attracted the attention of a large number of netizens, and the above two anchors are the founder of the Three Sheep Group, the "Crazy Brother Yang" with more than 100 million fans on Douyin.
According to Douyin's public data, as of the end of December 2023, the number of followers of the "Crazy Little Brother Yang" Douyin account ranks third on the platform, second only to People** and CCTV News.
Generation Z girl Yu Ran (pseudonym) is one of Xiao Yang's loyal fans. In 2023, she has spent nearly 3,000 yuan in the Douyin live broadcast room, of which the consumption frequency in Xiao Yang's live broadcast room (including **slice) is the highest.
In the case of internal friction, take a look at the exaggerated tricks of Crazy Brother Yang**, and you will relax mentally. Yu Ran said that in addition to bringing pleasure, "there are many daily necessities and ** are really cheap", which is also an important reason why she chose Brother Xiaoyang.
Meng Ke (pseudonym), who was born after 85, also occasionally buys goods in Xiao Yang's live broadcast room, and the 4 bottles he bought last year were 1A 25L fruit orange (cola) costs only 268 yuan, "cost-effective" is the first choice for Meng Ke to place an order.
Through communication with people of different ages and incomes, Seven Finance found that most people, like Meng Ke and Yu Ran, are not limited to a certain anchor or live broadcast room, but only enter the live broadcast room through the platform recommendation when brushing **, "If there is a need for the product and it is suitable, they will buy it directly."
In addition to Douyin, Kuaishou live streaming is also in full swing. Zhu Lin (pseudonym) usually spends nearly 600 yuan on Kuaishou in 2023, "I mainly buy daily necessities in Simba's live broadcast room, and I bought some cosmetics in Zhao Mengche's live broadcast room." ”
According to the data of the new list, Kuaishou Live's first brother "Simba" and his apprentice "Dandan" will continue to be the TOP3 in 2023, and the two have brought a total of nearly 30 billion yuan.
Talking about why they chose to place orders in the live broadcast rooms of these platforms, Zhu Lin and others said that compared with traditional self-selected shopping, the live broadcast room can always use a great "discount" to prompt people with consumer needs to place orders with passion, and some anchors speak very well and can also provide some emotional value when buying.
Qi Finance also noticed that in addition to the short ** platform Doukuai, the two-dimensional content platform Station B and the grass planting platform Xiaohongshu will also have in-depth layout of live broadcast e-commerce in 2023.
As a "delicate pig girl", Yu Ran can't help but open Xiaohongshu to search when she encounters cosmetics or luxury brands that she doesn't know much about. "Last year, I spent about 1,000 yuan on Xiaohongshu, mainly bought 2 pieces of clothes in Dong Jie's live broadcast room, and also bought a pair of earplugs on the recommendation of other bloggers. ”
According to public information, in January 2023, star Dong Jie will make her live broadcast debut on Xiaohongshu. In February, Dong Jie broadcast live again and topped the list of goods, with an estimated GMV of 30 million yuan.
The two-dimensional obsession Wang Fan (pseudonym) prefers to place orders and shopping on Bilibili (also known as station B), and in 2023, he will follow the up master "Parrot Pear" on the platform to buy about 4,000 yuan, "The orders are all clothes, I bought 12 pieces, and returned 3 pieces." ”
According to the data, as of the end of 2023, the top three live broadcast UP masters of station B are "Parrot Pear", "Xu Jingyu" and "Baojian Sister-in-law". In addition, according to the data released by Station B, during the "Double 11" period, its first-class GMV with goods increased by 376% year-on-year, and the GMV of live streaming also increased by 186% year-on-year.
02 Traditional e-commerce platforms are not willing to lag behind
However, in addition to the above-mentioned new e-commerce, Seven Finance noticed that the traditional e-commerce platforms JD.com, ** and Pinduoduo are still the main consumption platforms for many consumers. In 2023, Li Da (pseudonym) will spend more than 10,000 yuan in the Jingdong live broadcast room.
Among them, during the Double 11 period, Li Da purchased wall-breaking machines, beauty instruments, monitors, etc. in Jingdong's exclusive procurement and sales live broadcast room, with a total consumption of about 150,000 yuan, "large goods still have to look at Jingdong, fast logistics, and the insurance time is up to 30 days."
Yu Ran and Meng Ke mostly buy some skin care products and fruits on JD.com, "and the annual consumption is only about 1,000 yuan," the two said.
In fact, as early as June 2023, Jingdong invited Luo Yonghao to settle in and set up an exclusive live broadcast room, and then created the group's exclusive procurement and sales IP during the Double 11 period.
And Pinduoduo, which is out of the circle at a low price, is also opening a live broadcast model. However, in last year's Pinduoduo live broadcast, most of them were self-broadcasts by merchants, and there were not many Internet celebrities or celebrities on the platform. However, Seven Finance noticed that when searching for the goods you want to buy on the Pinduoduo page, most of the products have already been recorded and broadcasted.
In order to retain consumers, Pinduoduo will be low-key in 2020 to embed Duoduo**, benchmarking short ** platforms such as Doukuai. After 3 years of development, Duoduo** has been in the second column at the bottom of the Pinduoduo homepage, and *** has the opportunity to receive a 20 yuan red envelope when doing tasks.
In addition to the above two platforms, ** is also one of the most chosen by consumers. Wang Fan (pseudonym) has been watching Li Jiaqi's live broadcast before, "Skin care products and makeup are all placed in his live broadcast room, and a total of about 5,000 yuan will be spent in 2023." ”
As for the overturning of Li Jiaqi's live broadcast of "Huaxizi" in 2023, Wang Fan reduced the number of times he "squatted" Li Jiaqi, "I will only watch it if I really want to buy it, and I usually don't want to pay attention to it."
Zhu Lin has a disagreement attitude towards Wang Fan, she is not a fan of Li Jiaqi, and only occasionally places orders for the products she brings, "The anchor's price control can only be said to be a commercial interest, and it is not excluded that Li Jiaqi is indeed 'floating' (offending fans), but if the product wants to take the high-end route, it cannot be confused with the price." ”
Zhu Lin also cited the example of luxury goods, "If you look at brands such as LV and Gucci, their premiums are even more than 100 times, and the cost and selling price cannot be linked at all." ”
In addition, Li Da (pseudonym) believes that the lowest price on many platforms is a marketing gimmick, he bought a pot in an anchor's live broadcast room before, and after a while, he inadvertently went to other platforms to compare prices, and found that ** was exactly the same. "Don't be superstitious about the gimmick of the lowest price, if you need to place an order on any platform, it's almost the same, just buy it directly."
03 "Content live streaming" is the trend of the times
Seven Finance noticed that at present, most consumers are not limited to one platform to shop, and platform diversification and shopping labeling are the online consumption choices of most people in 2023.
Platform diversification refers to the fact that consumers can not only search for goods on the platform through traditional e-commerce, and then compare prices and purchase, but also purchase products in other open Internet live broadcast rooms.
The shopping label is, for example, if you want to ensure quality, pursue express delivery timeliness, and large goods, most consumers will choose JD.com; If you want to be cost-effective and have low requirements for timeliness, many consumers will blindly choose Pinduoduo; If you want to see "Guangzhou Thirteen Lines" and other ** wholesalers, Douyin will appear in your mind.
This impression, which resembles labeling, becomes the key to which platform consumers choose to shop. On this basis, since the concept of live broadcast e-commerce came out of the circle, more and more Internet head platforms that originally gathered content and traffic have begun to get involved in e-commerce, and have completed another commercial closed loop of the platform by creating their own KOLs for live broadcasting.
And in 2023, the competition for e-commerce live streaming on Internet giant platforms has entered a white heat. Following Douyin, Kuaishou, etc., Station B, Xiaohongshu, etc., have successively laid out live broadcast e-commerce; It has the most 12The WeChat platform, which has 6.9 billion daily active people, has achieved good results in 2023 in the first number of e-commerce, and Ma Huateng said at the annual meeting that in 2024, it will make every effort to develop the first number of live broadcast e-commerce.
Traditional e-commerce platforms**, JD.com and Pinduoduo are no longer limited to simply selling goods, and the form of "content live broadcast" has gradually taken shape and is favored by consumers.
However, when the new platform entered the game, problems such as after-sales difficulties and long pre-sale periods also appeared. In March 2023, Zhu Lin tried to buy clothing on a well-known platform for the first time, "The clothes promoted in the live broadcast room are impeccable in terms of quality and version."
But after watching several live broadcast rooms, Yu Ran found that these clothes were all paid in advance, which took 30 days for the long and 14 working days for the short. In the end, she placed an order for a **178 yuan (discounted) sundress. After waiting for a long 20 days for the arrival of the goods, Yu Ran found that the actual product was quite different from the live broadcast.
It's similar to the 50 yuan 'stall' on the street, the main pre-sale period is still so long, and I found that the color and version are not right, and I am really angry. Yu Ran said. Fortunately, Yu Ran immediately applied for a refund on the platform, and the merchant accepted the application as soon as possible.
According to the effective complaints of users in the field of social e-commerce in digital retail accepted by "Diansubao" (ranked according to the number of complaints), from January to September 2023, Xiaohongshu ranked first, and the latest rating is "not recommended to place an order".
All in all, when live streaming e-commerce platforms are fighting, both new entrants and "old platforms" need to focus on consumers. Doing a good job in content and ensuring quality is the premise, and when relying on its own huge traffic for commercial realization, you also need to be careful not to be "carried away" by traffic.