2025, WeChat e-commerce "undercurrent"

In 2025, WeChat e-commerce is quietly gaining momentum, showing unprecedented vitality and potential. This article will explore the innovative gameplay and operational strategies of WeChat e-commerce in multiple dimensions, such as private domain traffic, public domain traffic, live streaming, and customer promotion through practical cases and in-depth analysis by the Dayu team.

This article is a summary of the content I experienced when I was a guest in the "Jianshi" live broadcast room before the New Year.

It includes my views on various dimensions such as WeChat store operations, WeChat open classes, short videos, live broadcast rooms, self-operation and distribution of WeChat stores, private domains, etc.

It also lists some practical cases of incubation and guidance of the Big Fish team in 2024. The following is a summary of my conversation:

01 Master Bai used "hidden coupons" to boost sales in the live broadcast room

Master Bai achieved sales of several million during the live broadcast through the combination of "sending gifts + hidden coupons".

Hidden coupons allow old customers who might have purchased in the private domain to come to the live broadcast room. By leveraging private domain traffic, the live broadcast room traffic is boosted, which also helps boost the interactive atmosphere in the live broadcast room.

Jianshi: You just attended the "2025 WeChat Open Class Pro". What new information and trends were revealed on the spot?

Dayu: I attended two events: the first one was for creators, and the message I received was that “2025 will still bring a lot of dividends for creators, especially grassroots entrepreneurs”;

The second session was a special session for WeChat Stores. The venue was packed and the atmosphere was particularly warm. WeChat Stores in 2025 is indeed worth looking forward to.

The WeChat Store special session repeatedly mentioned "global operations". The core is to use WeChat Store as an atomic component, combining it with live broadcasts, official accounts, video accounts, searches, communities and other links to run through the entire WeChat ecosystem.

The official mentioned at the scene that there are three main roles in the WeChat ecosystem: merchants, influencers (formerly influencers) and service providers.

For businesses, full-domain operations require making full use of live streaming, official accounts, private domain traffic and other methods to attract traffic.

The role of the salesperson has been renamed "WeChat Store Salesperson" from "Video Account Salesperson" this year, which shows that the official focus is more on WeChat stores.

The service provider part also has three key points:

The first is the push function, which is an important tool for achieving distribution fission;

Next is the gift sending function. This function was mentioned repeatedly in the open class. Every lecturer taught everyone how to use it. Although the official said it was a "small function", they actually attached great importance to it.

Finally, there is the integration of mini programs. The official mentioned the connection between SaaS tools and mini programs, and service providers need to use these resources more flexibly.

Jianshi: Next, let’s focus on the specific functions of WeChat stores, starting with “sending gifts”. Please share some good cases and practical experience.

Big Fish: The core of gift giving is to attract new customers. Although it is an online function, it can also be used well in offline stores.

First, offline stores can generate a "gift card" with a QR code through WeChat stores. After customers scan the code and enter the page, they can choose to purchase or send gifts directly, thus attracting new customers.

The second trick is to include a "gift card" in the gift package. You can design an attractive copy on the card, such as "This tea is very healthy and suitable for giving to family or friends."

When customers receive this gift card and scan the QR code, they can purchase the product themselves or give it to others as a gift. Through this design, the user who receives the gift will also become the gift giver, thus achieving fission.

For the online aspect, I would like to share a more useful method called "hidden coupons". The core is to set the discount to be redeemed only through specific links or event times.

For example, one of our clients, “Master Bai”, set up a hidden coupon worth 150 yuan, which can only be obtained through the WeChat group and can only be used in the live broadcast room from 20:00 to 22:00 on the same day.

There are several advantages to playing this way:

Improve interaction and retention: After hidden coupons attract customers into the live broadcast room, they can effectively extend their stay time and promote live broadcast interaction.

Improve conversion rate: The special setting of hidden coupons can stimulate users to place orders in time and achieve efficient transactions.

Improve user experience: After getting the hidden coupons, users pay less money but can give gifts with higher prices, thus satisfying their "face needs".

Jianshi: In Master Bai’s cases, besides hidden coupons, are there any other references?

DaYu: Baishidashi started out on TikTok and later expanded to video accounts. This case is a good example to compare the differences between WeChat and other platforms:

In fact, the essence of WeChat is to move China’s acquaintance relationships online. WeChat is more like a tool, and what matters is product capabilities.

WeChat Stores does not have any specifically targeted policies to encourage merchants, but instead ensures the quality of merchants on the platform through high thresholds and strict review standards.

WeChat does not essentially interfere with the competition among businesses; it simply provides a platform.

This also shows that WeChat Stores do not have a clear "bonus" policy like other platforms. The person in charge of WeChat Stores once publicly stated that success depends entirely on the merchants themselves. If they do well, WeChat will continue to optimize and provide more resources; if they do not do well, WeChat will not provide special support.

This product manager-style thinking means that WeChat’s support for merchants is more of a “permit to survive” state rather than direct “support”.

For merchants, although the WeChat ecosystem may not immediately generate a business boom, in the long run, there is still a chance that it can be sustained for a long time.

Jianshi: Master Bai, was the extension from Douyin to Video Account smooth?

DaYu: Their previous gameplay on Douyin was very fast-paced and they were good at creating various atmospheres. But when they came to WeChat, they needed to adapt to the habits of the video account audience.

We suggested that his first priority should be to do everything possible to legally pull in private domains. After pulling in private domains, user interaction can be stimulated by sending gifts, and the value of order fans will gradually emerge. For example, sending gifts will happen naturally.

The second point is that small stores are more suitable for matrix strategy. We have observed that the traffic of a single small store is not large enough, but the overall basic traffic distribution is relatively friendly. In the future, there may be more "talent factory" logic, incubating a large number of talents and operating them as single-person IPs rather than manufacturer IPs.

For example, in the business logic of Douyin, manufacturers will promote their products themselves and then hire spokespersons, which will generate a large amount of traffic and directly drive sales.

However, in video accounts, they tend to focus on knowledge-based explanations, such as a tea master doing popular science, or a tea-making girl going to the source tea merchants and tea factories to shoot short videos, then going to the private domain to teach users how to make tea, and finally entering the live broadcast room for teaching or direct transactions.

02 WeChat Stores have more than 10 ways to sell goods

WeChat Store is a very flexible platform that almost everyone can use to make money. The key is to choose a channel that suits your products and capabilities.

WeChat stores provide merchants with different "shovels" so that everyone can find their own "gold mine".

Jianshi: What methods do brand merchants use to sell products through WeChat stores?

Dayu: The advantage of WeChat Stores is the diverse sales channels. We have summarized more than ten capabilities to help merchants sell goods, which can be divided into two major modules: self-operation and distribution.

Self-operation is divided into "public domain self-operation" and "private domain self-operation". I suggest that all merchants should do self-operation, because distribution ultimately depends on other people's traffic, and self-operation is the foundation of long-term development.

Public domain self-operation can be carried out through short videos, live broadcasts, etc. The combination of the two is also a very popular way of selling goods. Short videos are a very good way to sell goods. Not only can they sell goods directly, but they can also lead to private domains.

My own approach is to guide the audience to the private domain for all short videos as much as possible. The average number of reposts of my recent short videos is 3,000-10,000. The main reason is that the follow-up rate of private domain audiences is higher.

There are many ways to sell goods through live streaming + private domain. We now mainly serve some merchants that combine public and private domains, such as Master Bai, Longyangxia Salmon, Fengcui Skin Care, and Mykey Women's Clothing, which are all combinations of public and private domains.

Private domain self-operation first refers to the combination of small stores and short videos. Although this method also requires traffic, it makes users trust you more through specific scenarios, such as providing no-reason returns and freight insurance.

Some mini-program tools are now available for free and merchants can use them directly. Private domain self-operation can also be sold through WeChat Moments, social groups or private messages.

Of course, you can also enhance sales by placing advertisements through short video trailers.

This year, we helped some large companies with public domain customer acquisition operations. Usually, they are willing to accept a lower investment-output ratio, such as ROI 1:0.5 to 1:0.3.

This is because the product itself acts as a "hook" for attracting customers. They value the high transaction capacity in the private domain, not just direct sales.

We helped merchants design multiple links to ensure that customers add WeChat after purchase and then convert them into private domain customers. Even if the gross profit of the initial orders is very low, once the customer adds WeChat, they can get high profits through subsequent additional orders.

Let’s look at distribution.

The first is public domain distribution. It mainly involves finding influencers on video accounts to promote products. Although this path is very common, it is not easy to succeed. We know some top influencers. Although they are very influential in the industry, the traffic and sales volume of their individual products are not large.

Therefore, if you choose this method, you must consider cooperating with a large number of influencers, because although the traffic of a single influencer is not large, sales can be increased by aggregating a large number of influencers.

The second way is to distribute through the head of the investment group. This is another massive way. We have a lot of experience in cooperating with influencers and can help merchants promote their products. Although influencers have limited traffic, through a lot of cooperation, we can still achieve good sales results.

The third is private domain distribution. There are two main ways: promoting customers and sending gifts. Although promoting customers is difficult, you can still try. Sending gifts is another way of private domain distribution, which is achieved through the model of social fission. As long as your product is suitable for secondary fission and it is both face-saving and affordable to send it out, it is very easy to produce a fission effect. You can quickly accumulate basic volume through initial promotion and investment, thereby achieving fission growth.

Jianshi: You mentioned that it is difficult to promote customers. What is the difficulty?

DaYu: The logic of Tuike is actually to help sell and distribute. We participated in the internal test last year, but we have no plans to continue. From what I know, this requires a huge supply of goods and huge subsidies, but most merchants cannot meet these two conditions.

First, there are not enough products. You may wonder why there are not enough products when there are millions or tens of millions of products on the platform. In fact, if you really want to be a Tuike, you need a product selection system like Taobao. Taobao has good products from all corners, but in the Tuike ecosystem, such a system has not yet been established.

Second, merchants are unwilling to provide subsidies. WeChat stores are not shelf e-commerce and do not have search weight. Even if the traffic increases, merchants will not choose to provide subsidies, because 90% of store users purchase through private domains, sharing or live broadcasts, not through weight accumulation.

Therefore, it is unlikely for merchants in small shops to get orders at a loss, because they do not have the good inventory mechanism of Taobao Affiliates and it is not easy to promote them.

In addition, can ordinary private domain group leaders or big C users be developed into promoters? I think this model is very risky. Even if there are 5,000 people in the circle of friends, there may be only dozens of people who can actually buy goods.

If your product is not competitive enough, these people will soon leave. Moreover, these promoters can not only not help you attract new customers, but also consume coupons and commissions, and eventually you will not even have the original C-end customers.

The "everyone distributes" model has almost never had any successful cases in practice.

03 Many businesses have already made money through WeChat stores

Why do some people think that WeChat stores are not profitable? It is probably because the feedback is not obvious at the beginning. In fact, many businesses have already made profits from it.

Just like mini programs, people were not optimistic about it in the past, but it has become the infrastructure of the WeChat ecosystem and contributes a lot of revenue to merchants.

Jianshi: There have been many changes in the WeChat ecosystem recently. For example, WeChat's search function is being continuously optimized, and now you can see functions such as product search and price sorting. In light of these changes, what do you think of people's current attention to WeChat stores? How long will it take for merchants to really do this well?

Dayu: There is no problem of "not being able to succeed" in WeChat stores. It is not a centralized platform like Taobao, but an ecosystem, which is more of a tool-based business model. Many businesses have made money through it. The characteristic of WeChat stores is not explosive growth, but a process of accumulation over time. For example, some clothing brands have gradually increased the sales of small stores through live broadcasts, and finally achieved good results.

Recently, the official said that the relationship between mini programs and small stores may be adjusted in the future. Small stores are sufficient for ordinary merchants, but if more advanced data analysis and member marketing are required, they need to be used with mini programs. The official clearly stated that small stores are "basic merchant stores" and are sufficient for ordinary merchants.

Mini Programs will become the "senior assistants" of small stores. Large merchants need to add small stores to Mini Programs to achieve deeper user operations and data management.

For example, one of the salmon merchants we serve just started in April last year and was initially operated by only one person.

But it exploded in the fifth live broadcast, and now the monthly sales are between 1 million and 3 million. Their budget target this year is 36 million, and they plan to invest 6 to 7 million in advertising, which shows that as long as they find the right path, growth is foreseeable.

Jianshi: Now that WeChat stores have come to the center of attention, what do you think of the current video accounts?

Dayu: Video accounts still have huge opportunities. Although it has become the “No. 2 project”, it is still very important.

Don’t underestimate the potential of video accounts. Whether it is short videos or live broadcasts, video accounts may explode every day. Therefore, WeChat store merchants must pay attention to public domain traffic, especially short videos and live broadcasts of video accounts.

Let’s take agricultural products as an example. Regarding the operation of WeChat stores, video accounts are still a very important channel. Shooting short videos or doing live broadcasts, especially for these source manufacturers, are born with such capabilities. Merchants who can do scene-based live broadcasts are more likely to succeed.

I recently saw a merchant selling cabbages, who was pulling and selling cabbages in the fields, and attracted more than 200,000 viewers. As long as you show sincerity and authenticity, keep producing, live broadcast in the right scene, and explain the benefits of the product thoroughly, you will have a chance.

Jianshi: Speaking of short videos, your videos are particularly attractive and keep people watching. Do you have a trick?

Dayu: First of all, it should be clear that private domain forwarding has little impact on the traffic of big hits, and it still depends on the ability of the original video. Secondly, there are two underlying factors:

First, it is important to respect the user's IQ. It can't be too deep or too shallow. An ordinary user doesn't have the energy to study too many things, so your content must be in-depth and understandable to them.

Second, really talk about useful things. If you think a certain sentence is useless, don't say it. If you say it, the data will not be very good.

Jianshi: For more industries and various types of products, are they suitable for WeChat stores at this stage?

Big Fish: The official statement is that "as long as we have the ability, WeChat stores will be open", and there will be no restrictions based on product types. Although sometimes the official has not yet assessed the potential risks, there is generally no reason not to open.

In addition, the launch of WeChat stores is because there are too many cases of poor service and bad experience in the private domain, so transactions must be regulated. If you still want to engage in non-standard operations, it is actually difficult to make a profit.

Jianshi: What else would you like to say to merchants in the WeChat ecosystem?

Big Fish: First, don’t try to operate across the entire region. Instead, choose one or two points and really penetrate them.

Because the official tools provided to you are many, you need to find one or two that you are good at and dig deep into them. Many times, it is not that a certain method is useless, but that he has not found the right way. I think this is a prerequisite.

Second, we still need to develop private domain.

I think if you don’t do private domain, whether you go through distribution or public domain channels, it will be difficult to retain customers. You will be working for the platform and the distribution channels, and the difficulty will not be reduced. If you do your own private domain, after accumulating for a period of time, your business will be relatively stable and will grow, and the entire chassis will become more and more stable.

People standing on the outside will continue to question, but those who have participated have already run out of the growth model. It seems that the inevitable result is that WeChat e-commerce will surge in 2025 amidst the calm.

The above are Dayu’s thoughts on WeChat e-commerce in 2025. I wish you can find the right way, sell more goods, and make more money.

Compiled by Jianshi A Shuang