The old trick of selling goods by posting on the list is "revived" on Douyin

As competition in live streaming e-commerce becomes increasingly fierce, a model of "selling goods by ranking high" has quietly emerged on Douyin. Brands compete for the "number one" position by rewarding influencers in their live streaming rooms to gain traffic and exposure. This model is similar to the reward interaction in live streaming shows, but the goal is to attract traffic and bring goods to the brand. This article will deeply analyze the operating mechanism of this model, the business logic behind it, and the potential risks.

In the 3.0 era of live streaming e-commerce, brands may rush into the live streaming rooms of celebrities to compete for the top spot.

The first business battle of 2025 took place in the live broadcast room of @肥娟零食. In sharp contrast to the plain workroom under the surveillance perspective, there are frequent carnival special effects in the live broadcast room. When you click on the reward list, you will see brands and businesses of all sizes occupying your field of vision.

While the store owner "Fei Juan" and her husband were busy frying French fries, packing turkey noodles and counting money, the audience in the live broadcast room was responsible for explaining the identity of the "number one" brand, calling on people to "pay attention to the number one brother", or provoking other brands to hold a few more carnivals to "topple the number one". For brands that are willing to spend money and put their heart into the list, netizens will sneak into their store live broadcast room to place a few orders.

Different from the conventional model of influencers selling products, this model is more similar to live show broadcasts. Influencers do not have the main function of selling products. Brands use internal PK to turn business into a part of entertainment to gain traffic for themselves.

Looking back at 2024, this form is not uncommon. Similar dramas have been staged in the live broadcast rooms of influencers such as @K总 and @听泉赏宝. Brands such as Dian Guoguo, Lanyuefang, Lengshenling, and Ou Ya have also been able to gain popularity by leveraging the traffic of celebrities.

At a time when the cost of acquiring customers is getting higher and higher, breaking into the live broadcast room of celebrities and becoming the "number one" has become a new way for brands to seek growth. In the popular live broadcast room created by the Douyin algorithm, the celebrities received rewards, the Douyin platform earned a commission, and the brand accumulated new crowd assets. At first glance, it seems like a happy ending, but there are still certain risks in actual operation.

1. Competing for the top spot, brands build team in live broadcast rooms

@肥娟零食is a shoe store called "星奇童鞋". The store is located near a primary school in Suicheng, Zhanjiang, Guangdong. After school, many primary school students would rush into the store, watching TV while waiting for their parents to pick them up. Over time, the shoe store became a well-known "nursery" in the neighborhood. Sometimes when Qiu Zhijuan got up late in the morning, some students would knock on the rolling door and slide into the store when she opened the door.

However, due to the poor business, at the end of November last year, Qiu Zhijuan announced the closure of the shoe store on Douyin. Some netizens suggested that they transform into a snack bar. Under the advice of the "military advisor", she and her husband started to purchase the equipment needed to open the store and began to sell snacks such as fried chicken fillets, French fries, and turkey noodles at extremely low prices.

During this process, the story of "Feijuan Snacks" gradually became popular on Douyin, and the number of online viewers in its live broadcast room also increased to more than 100,000, attracting brands to come one after another.

Hisense undoubtedly grabbed the best advertising space. While the snack bar was still under renovation, Hisense sent an 85-inch TV to replace the old TV in the original shoe store. Fei Juan and his wife installed the TV in the most conspicuous position in the store and even posted a thank-you video. The children shouted "Thank you Hisense" in unison, earning enough traffic for the brand.

Image source: Douyin @肥娟零食

With precedents to follow, other brands that were late to the party followed Hisense’s example and sent their products to Feijuan snack bar, launching a new type of commercial war.

To express their gratitude, Fei Juan and her husband printed the brand names on A4 paper and pasted them on their bodies. They also specially opened up a place in the workshop and brought in stools to place the goods sent by the brands. The rest that could not be placed were piled on the ground. As the traffic in the live broadcast room increased - the most popular live broadcast in the past 30 days had more than 15.27 million viewers - in order to compete for the best stool position, brands began to give gifts crazily, starting a "ranking battle".

In the ordinary live broadcast room, the carnival special effects worth 3,000 yuan have become a symbol of the brand's strength, frequently exploding on the screen. The "number one brother on the list" will receive special treatment and praise, and gifts that are not impressive enough will be discouraged by the barrage, "Go back and budget."

Image source: TikTok

@肥娟零食Douyin comment area has also become a venue for brand team building. After taking the first place, the brand will show off its achievements, "I heard that we were number one for a day?" Many brands also said in the comment area that "the small bench must be taken", and netizens advised "don't brag", first calculate the amount of rewards for the top ten in the live broadcast, and then apply for a budget from the boss.

It is worth noting that under this model, transactions are not completed in the influencer's live broadcast room or window, but are transferred to the brand's own base camp. The brand converts the slot fee for bringing goods into rewards and invests them in the influencer's live broadcast room, which can not only help the brand increase its voice in the live broadcast room with high audience, but also further attract traffic for the store broadcast, which can be said to be a business that does not lose money.

According to incomplete statistics from Kas, the brands that appeared in Fei Juan's live broadcast room include Weilong, Mala Prince, Koukouxiang, Mala Prince, Razer, Charging Wolf, Liby, Dian Guoguo, etc. Because it is an "involution" within the merchants, it can win the favor of users and then turn it into passionate consumption.

In the traffic carnival centered on @肥娟零食, the Yunnan brand @欧亚 became the biggest winner. On December 6, 欧亚 gave away 2,000 loaves of bread and milk, and was featured in the Feijuan snacks advertising space. The number of people online in the live broadcast room immediately exceeded 10,000. On January 8, the brand's sales reached 1 million to 2.5 million, far exceeding its average GMV.

In the live broadcast room, Ou Ya posted a sign that read "Military Advisor, please take a seat, same style as Fei Juan" and started a group live broadcast. At one point, Ou Ya's products were sold out, and due to insufficient production capacity, they opened pre-sales, claiming that they "owed a lot of bread and milk." Although sales fell later, the brand did gain popularity.

Although after January 10, the merchants' products no longer appeared in Fei Juan's live broadcast room, and the popularity of her live broadcast has also declined, brands including Eurasia, Charging Wolf, Liby, etc. are still persisting in making the list.

2. Has the world of live streaming e-commerce changed?

"Rush into the live broadcast room and be number one on the list." This type of e-commerce model is not very new. Upon closer inspection, it may have originated from Kuaishou. That is, after receiving rewards from merchants, Kuaishou anchors will connect with merchants in the live broadcast room, or call for purchases of merchant products. Now it is "making a comeback" on Douyin.

Since last year, Kas has observed that many Douyin celebrities have turned their live broadcast rooms into brand ranking platforms. The most typical example may be @k, who gained tens of millions of fans last year.

Although he was a phenomenal anchor at the time, Mr. K’s sales performance was far inferior to his fan growth rate. Compared with live streaming sales, Mr. K, who was originally an entertainment anchor, was better at making brands a part of his live streaming play in a highly entertaining way, such as complaining about Liby, "Although it is expensive, the quantity is also small" and Lanyuefang Flower Cake was "shot by bullets."

For brands that come to seek cooperation, Mr. K would first ask them to "hold a carnival to test their strength"; in order to enhance the entertainment value of the live broadcast, he also led the brands to compete in PK, which resulted in other anchors competing in PK and calling on big brothers and sisters, while he shouted to the brands, "Where is my brand? Give some gifts" and "Recharge the budget". The top ten of the list in his live broadcast room were all occupied by brands.

Image source: TikTok

The popularity of the celebrity also benefited the brand. Dian Guoguo and Lan Yue Fang were brands that were made popular by him during this period, and then achieved explosive sales with the strategy of big single products. In order to strengthen this white moonlight feeling of "meeting in obscurity", the brand also completed a strong binding with Mr. K. The official account constantly updates Mr. K's slices and live videos. Lan Yue Fang also officially announced him as a "good girlfriend" and launched a co-branded product.

Image source: Lanyuefang

Another person who used the “chart-making” as an opportunity to establish a strong bond with the influencers was Leng Suan Ling. At the end of September this year, Leng Suan Ling “established a connection” with @听泉赏宝 in the form of a reward carnival, and connected with the influencers live. In the early morning of that day, 110,000 people instantly entered Leng Suan Ling’s live broadcast room.

During this live broadcast, the @冷素灵personal care flagship store received 1.35 million views and sales of 500,000 to 750,000 yuan. A Tingquan exclusive set called "door opening mechanism" sold more than 10,000 pieces at a unit price of 39.9 yuan. Subsequently, Lengshenling established a strong bond with the influencer by frequently updating @听泉赏宝 related videos and "ambushing" the live broadcast room, thus becoming the unspoken "sponsor" of the fans of the Tingquan live broadcast room.

As an entertainment anchor, Tingquan Shangbao also led brands to compete. In a live broadcast with @迪士尼在跑公主, @听泉尚宝 said, "Next I will eliminate a brand" and "This is what a real business war is like." Brands such as Lengshenling and Zuoyanyouse sent carnivals to help him win this round of PK, while the opposing anchor was punished by recording a video of brushing his teeth with Lengshenling and shouting, "I only use Zuoyanyouse for cosmetics."

Image source: TikTok

The reason for the rise of this model is that, on the one hand, the benefits of live streaming e-commerce have reached their peak. Traffic is becoming more and more expensive, and the cost of acquiring customers is getting higher and higher. The original model of bringing goods can no longer adapt well to the current consumption environment. Some brands have previously tried to replace the pit fees with traffic fees and cooperate with celebrities. "Selling goods on the list" is just another way to replace the pit fees.

On the other hand, in 2024, compared with popular short videos, Douyin is good at producing popular live broadcast rooms. Highly entertaining live broadcast rooms have the soil for ranking and PK, but may not have too many genes for bringing goods. The participation of brands has reconstructed the e-commerce scene in this content field.

For some brands that are not well-known, this model can undoubtedly help them quickly accumulate popularity. The first batch of those who benefited from the "number one" bonus are actually more low-profile brands or white-label brands such as Dian Guoguo, Lan Yue Fang, and Ou Ya.

Although it seems that platforms, brands, and influencers can all profit from it, it may not be so smooth in practice. After all, its essence is that brands use the traffic of influencers to expand their voice and sales, and compared with regular live streaming, it relies more on the brand's sensitivity, that is, whether it can occupy the position of "white moonlight" first and spend a lot of money to show its presence. After all, the goodwill of netizens also follows the principle of "first come, first served", and the slots left for brands may not be as many as imagined.

It is worth mentioning that under this model, the risk of anchors’ reputation being ruined still exists, and it is easy to have a “collective impact” on brands. Love and hate on the Internet come quickly, and people’s likes and dislikes of celebrities will be deeply reflected in the brands participating in the “ranking”. When the public opinion changes, it is difficult for brands tied to celebrities to remain unscathed.

For example, the "Mingde Incident" in the entertainment industry at the beginning of the year, many brands took advantage of the black and red traffic and launched "Li Mingde's same style". After Li Mingde's live broadcast room was banned, netizens sorted out the brands that supported Li Mingde in the live broadcast room, including Shi Peisi, Wu La Ma, Ugly Things, Cotton Buds and other brands were included in the mine avoidance list.

The most important thing is that the traffic in celebrities’ live broadcast rooms will always decline, and the “first wave of wealth” received by the brand will not last too long. What really tests the brand is the subsequent conversion rate.

After all, spending money to buy traffic is just the first step.