The "disappeared" anchors return before Double 11

In fact, the return of big anchors is the result of a compromise among the interests of platforms, anchors, consumers, etc. Consumers need discounts, anchors need exposure and traffic, and platforms need sales.

It’s Double Eleven again this year.

According to official statements, the biggest difference between this year's Double Eleven and previous years is that "it is a critical time window to activate the overall consumer market and enhance the willingness of the entire population to consume." Jia Luo, president of Tmall Business Unit, said at the Double Eleven press conference.

Although Double Eleven has been frequently criticized in recent years, it is undeniable that Double Eleven is still the major promotion event that all platforms, merchants, and anchors attach the most importance to, and it is also the "training ground" for the reform of various platforms.

On the eve of the big sale, many top anchors who were banned and announced their retirement from the Internet also announced their comeback. Kuaishou's "Ximba", "Auntie" Luo Wangyu, Erlu... have recently released videos announcing their return, and their attitudes in the comeback videos are extremely humble.

After all, it is impossible for platforms, merchants and anchors to give up the "hot cake" of Double Eleven. For platforms and merchants, Double Eleven is a golden opportunity to increase sales; for "dishonest" anchors, Double Eleven is an important opportunity to rebuild trust with consumers.

01 Simba's high-profile return

On the 14th, Simba made a high-profile comeback by posting three videos on Kuaishou, announcing the official launch of Xinxuan Double Eleven, and the "Super Double Eleven" live broadcast will start at 10 am on October 19th.

It is not difficult to see that this comeback is to build momentum for the upcoming Double Eleven.

In one of the videos, Simba and three Xinxuan partners knelt on one knee and paid tribute to the users together with all the team members. They also said in the video that "big anchors are in danger, user trust has collapsed, the media is criticizing... Now is the darkest moment for live streaming e-commerce."

Finally, Simba also pleaded with consumers to "once again believe in Simba and the millions of practitioners in this industry" and shouted the slogan "Protect the bottom line of live streaming and rebuild confidence in the industry."

The attitude is extremely sincere. But it is worth noting that Simba has been banned and returned many times, and this is not the first time Simba has "knelt" to return. It can even be said to be Simba's usual routine for returning.

As early as 2020, when Simba was banned and made a comeback after being accused of fraudulent bird's nests, he, together with his wife and all the employees of the company, bowed and apologized to the fans, and shouted in unison the slogan "Welcome all users home."

Before being banned this time, Simba was involved in a controversy over the pricing of hairy crabs with "Crazy Little Brother Yang", which led to a war of words.

Carefully designed sets, lines, shots... Simba is very good at grasping the public's emotions to promote marketing, so much so that every time he fails, Simba can rely on this kind of marketing to get back on track. But how much trust can consumers have in Simba?

In addition to Simba, other top anchors also took the opportunity to make a comeback.

On October 6, the internet celebrity "Luo Wangyu", who announced his retirement from the internet for nearly three months, officially announced his return and announced that the live streaming of Double Eleven will start on October 14. In the video, Luo Wangyu asked fans: "Are you willing to let him serve you again?" His attitude was also very humble.

Previously, Luo Wangyu announced that he would "refund 150 million yuan in sales" and "quit the Internet" because his CSS olive essence product was suspected of false advertising. Luo Wangyu has always been building a persona of a "conscientious blogger", and this "turnaround" has caused considerable damage to his reputation and trust.

Even the internet celebrity "Erlu", who was banned for a year for staged a live broadcast of a scene in which he was threatened with being buried alive, is suspected to have returned to the live broadcast room in September.

In fact, the return of big anchors is the result of a compromise among the interests of platforms, anchors, consumers, etc. Consumers need discounts, anchors need exposure and traffic, and platforms need sales.

However, after returning, the anchors need to strengthen product quality control and improve service levels in order to rebuild their reputation, win the trust of consumers, and go further on the road of e-commerce.

02 Double 11 battle line extended

The earliest Double Eleven in history.

Just after the National Day, major platforms announced that they would enter the Double Eleven promotion, about ten days earlier than last year.

Pinduoduo and Douyin launched Double Eleven on October 8, while Kuaishou launched the Double Eleven pre-sale on October 10. Taobao, JD.com and Vipshop followed closely and launched the Double Eleven promotion on the 14th.

Overall, e-commerce platforms have collectively extended the Double Eleven "battle line". On the one hand, due to the sluggish consumer market, it is difficult to create the "overnight myth" of the past, and on the other hand, the platforms also need time to allocate and integrate resources.

In terms of specific gameplay, it is basically the same as in previous years: discounts on purchases over a certain amount + large consumption coupons.

A relevant person in charge of Taotian Group said that this year is the "largest investment" of the Double 11. On top of the official 15% discount or 50 yuan discount for every 300 yuan spent across stores, Tmall will invest an additional 30 billion yuan in consumer coupons and red envelopes.

In addition, some new ways of playing were introduced this year. 88VIP's 118 points can be exchanged for 800 yuan consumption coupons, which will be issued in advance at 2 pm on the 14th, and you can also grab 88VIP exclusive category coupons; 100 major live broadcast rooms will give out 1 billion red envelopes, and each person can receive up to 1,500 yuan per day; Taobao's 10 billion subsidies will give more than 10,000 big-name products at a minimum 20% discount, and an additional 750 yuan large red envelope will be added.

JD.com launched a cross-store discount campaign, with a 50 yuan discount for every 300 yuan purchase, capped at 40,000 yuan. Users can receive an additional 60 yuan subsidy every day. Kuaishou E-commerce provided 20 billion yuan in traffic subsidies, 2 billion user red envelopes, and 1 billion yuan in product subsidies during the Double Eleven period. Douyin's core preferential measures include a direct official discount of 15% and direct price cuts on individual products.

One very obvious change is that the platforms no longer mention "the lowest price on the entire network", which also means that e-commerce platforms have passed the stage of vicious low-price competition and are gradually returning to the essence of "people, goods and places", paying more attention to "merchant-friendliness" and "consumer experience".

Big brother Taobao stated at the Double 11 press conference that Taobao Tmall will position this year's Double 11 as the "Quality Double 11", emphasizing that this year "will no longer be about blindly offering low prices", but rather rational low prices, focusing on balancing the ecological relationship between consumers and merchants.

Taotian has increased its support for merchants during this Double Eleven, reducing the burden on merchants through methods such as free commissions for big sales and free commissions for store live broadcasts.

Chu Duan, president of Taobao Platform Division, introduced at the Double 11 press conference that since the beginning of this year, Taobao has solved the industry's "three major chronic diseases" by loosening up refunds, upgrading freight insurance, and reshaping price range competitiveness, helping merchants get rid of internal competition and attracting more merchants to join the platform: data shows that the progress of Tmall Double 11 registered merchants and products has exceeded expectations.

On the other hand, on the consumer side, Taotian is also taking multiple measures to optimize the consumer experience, doing "subtraction" in form to make it "easier for consumers to place orders."

On September 27, Taobao announced that it would introduce WeChat payment capabilities, breaking down long-standing payment barriers; at the same time, in terms of price management mechanism, Tmall changed the complicated "arithmetic problem" and only displayed the price before and after the discount.

It is worth noting that this year, e-commerce platforms have set up a special area for government subsidies for old-for-new exchanges on their homepages, and in addition to the government's old-for-new exchange policy, they have launched more preferential activities.

Thanks to the efforts of policies, platforms and other parties, this Double Eleven also had a "good start".

According to statistics from Tmall and JD.com, after the Double 11 shopping festival started at 8 p.m. on October 14, sales of home appliances, beauty products, and apparel categories soared, with sales of many leading brands such as PROYA, L'Oreal, and SkinCeuticals exceeding 100 million yuan; in terms of live streaming channels, the amount of added purchases in the live streaming room of the leading brand Li Jiaqi increased by 20% year-on-year, and the transaction volume of many Taobao live streaming rooms exceeded 100 million yuan at a faster rate than last year.

03 Is the big promotion still attractive?

Since 2019, Double 11 has been on a downward trend. For the past five years, the market has been questioning "how much appeal does Double 11 have left" and "is Double 11 dead".

Judging from the actions of top anchors and e-commerce platforms this year, there seems to be a lot of room for imagination on Double Eleven.

From the perspective of the market, with the implementation of a series of incremental policies, consumer enthusiasm in the domestic consumer market continues to pick up; from the perspective of the platform, e-commerce platforms represented by Taotian seem to be emerging from the pain period of reform, finding a way to compete in the second half, and moving towards the maturity of the industry.

In the tide of consumption downgrade, the three major platforms led by Taobao, JD.com and Pinduoduo have launched rounds of "price wars" one after another, and Chinese e-commerce platforms were once trapped in the vicious circle of "vicious competition at low prices".

But it has been proven that vicious price wars will only lead to the decline of the entire industry. Under the extremely low price indicators, the interests of merchants are squeezed, and they can only reduce product quality to balance costs, which will eventually destroy the ecological balance of the industry and damage the brand image and consumer trust.

Therefore, this year, many e-commerce platforms have announced that they will return to the "GMV logic". The e-commerce price war has finally come to an end.

After the 618 shopping festival, Taotian Group held a closed-door meeting for merchants. At the meeting, it was announced that the weight distribution system based on the core logic of "five-star price power" would be weakened and replaced with distribution based on GMV (gross merchandise volume).

Then, in early July, Douyin Group also adjusted the priority of its business objectives, no longer putting "price power" first, but focusing on pursuing GMV growth.

In early August, Pinduoduo also adjusted its business focus from pursuing commercialization and "absolute low prices" to making GMV growth its first goal.

Under the "GMV" indicator, total sales is the core competitiveness, which also means that e-commerce platforms will pay more attention to the overall business capabilities of merchants and the value creation of goods, rather than simple price competition.

This change indicates that e-commerce platforms will become more "merchant-friendly." After all, merchant experience and user experience are always two sides of the same coin. Only by optimizing the merchant ecosystem can we create a good platform ecosystem and then attract more consumers.

Only by retaining merchants can we retain consumers.

On July 26, Taobao announced that it would optimize its “refund only” strategy, enhance merchants’ autonomy in after-sales service based on the new experience score, and reduce or eliminate after-sales intervention for high-quality stores.

In September, Taobao and Tmall launched the return service, which reduced the return costs for merchants by about 20% to 30%. During the "Double 11" period, Taobao will fully implement commission-free promotions and store broadcasts, and will also unbind shipping insurance for Taobao merchants...

On the other hand, in terms of consumer experience, various platforms are also working hard to "use fewer tricks", reduce "misleading low prices", emphasize "streamlining" of gameplay, and provide "old-fashioned" promotional methods such as official instant discounts and direct price cuts.

It is worth noting that on September 27, Taobao fully integrated with WeChat Pay and interconnected with WeChat; at the same time, JD.com also introduced Alipay and Cainiao, and Taobao Tmall merchants will also be able to choose JD.com Logistics as their carrier in the future.

At this point, several of China's largest Internet platforms have achieved true interconnection.

This also means that the Internet e-commerce industry has entered a more standardized and healthier mature stage, and the interconnection and interoperability of platforms will inevitably bring new growth space to the e-commerce industry.

In 2023, after taking office, Wu Yongming wrote in his first letter to all employees: Alibaba must be more determined to shift to the user perspective and meet user needs in multiple dimensions. User needs take priority above all else. To achieve a better user experience, we must be more open.

After the great waves, the e-commerce industry has gone through the stage of crazy expansion and the stage of vicious competition at low prices. Now, only by returning to consumers and truly putting users first can the essence of e-commerce be found. This is true for both big anchors and big platforms.

Author丨Cheng Cheng Editor丨Jiang Nut