The best underwear brand on the Internet, with monthly sales of 500 million on Douyin

On the Douyin e-commerce platform, a Chinese brand "Herb Chuse" successfully surpassed many mature brands with its unique marketing strategy and in-depth user insights, becoming the top of Douyin's "clothing and underwear list" and achieving an amazing monthly sales of nearly 500 million yuan. This article will deeply analyze how Herborist became the top of Douyin's clothing track in just 3 months, and explore the inspiration of its successful experience for other brands.

How do you prove that a piece of underwear is worth buying?

Is it to use a large number of experiments and evaluations to emphasize that your underwear is as thin as a cicada's wing, light and will not stuff you sweat; is it to prove that it has the same origin as the big brands, and that the big-brand underwear you bought at a high price is actually also made in China?

Or maybe you can just find a 150-pound "public model" and ask her to test it and tell you if it's tight, covers up your side breasts, or reveals your embarrassing lines?

The above content is not a creative idea made up by Kas, but comes from a domestic brand "Herbal First Color".

This underwear brand, which may be unfamiliar to most users, surpassed mature brands such as YaYa, Romon, and Woodpecker in July and topped the Douyin "Clothing Underwear List". It also became the first underwear brand to top the Douyin sales list, with an estimated GMV of nearly 500 million yuan.

How did an underwear/pants brand with an average customer order of 95.73 yuan become the leader in Douyin's apparel market in just three months? Kas systematically studied its strategy and found a relatively clear high-selling pattern.

1. In one month, over 2 million pairs of underwear were sold. What did Herborist do right?

Enter the brand keyword: Herbal Color in the Douyin search box, what can you see?

Most likely, they are sliced ​​videos from the live broadcast rooms of top influencers. These secondary-edited live broadcast contents, supplemented by communication language that accurately targets user needs, seem to answer from the side the important reason why the brand has "risen suddenly": from live broadcast to short videos, the "value" of influencers, especially top influencers, has been used to the extreme.

From the perspective of marketing strategy, Kass generally classifies the partners of Herbal Primary Color into two categories:

One is the live broadcasting experts, mainly focusing on the head and shoulders. According to Chan Mama data, in July, the expert with the highest GMV for Herbal Primary Color was @Guangdong Couple, with a GMV of 50-75 million. Following them were @Chen Sanfei Sister and Brother, @Guoyue, @Shuchang, @Zhu Guagua, etc., with GMVs exceeding 10 million.

The common features of these influencers are that they have very strong content and sales capabilities, and have built mature slice distribution teams. They can continuously attract users and generate long-tail sales through short video trailers of distribution accounts, live broadcasts supplemented by influencer showcases, etc.

Take @国岳 as an example. After Guoyue and his wife brought 20 million yuan of sales for Herbal First Color, their slice distribution accounts @小娅美妞 and @小娅超市 also took on the overwhelming traffic and brought more than 1 million yuan of sales for Herbal First Color through live broadcasts and video trailers. According to statistics, there were 302 accounts that brought more than 10,000 yuan of sales for Herbal First Color in July, and Guoyue’s associated distribution accounts were 6.

Data source: Chan Mama, compiled by Kas Data

The other category is the tail influencers and KOC. Different from the strategy of cooperating with live broadcast influencers based on the head and shoulders, when cooperating with video influencers, Caocao Chuse is more inclined to cooperate with the tail influencers, KOC, etc. Their characteristics are large number and low cooperation threshold. Although the influence and reach radius are limited, an important value is that they can produce a large amount of grass-planting content for the brand in a short period of time. While contributing to long-tail playback volume and sales, they also undertake the goal of helping brands expand 5A population assets.

According to statistics from Chanmama, throughout July, there were 1,349 influencers associated with Herborist First Color, among which video influencers were twice as many as live broadcast influencers, and more than 80% had less than 10,000 fans. They produced more than 3,000 videos for Herborist First Color in total, but the sales they contributed only accounted for 5% of the total distribution GMV.

The video distribution team of nearly 1,000 people only generates 5% of the GMV of the influencers’ sales?

It sounds a bit incredible, but Kas believes that the real purpose of Herborist is not to drink, but to find out the consumption preferences of users and the pain points that can stimulate their interaction and conversion through the land combat army of experts and KOCs. After the needs are clear, not only can the company optimize its own videos and live broadcast content, but it can also direct the conversion of people who have been attracted by KOC content to the matrix self-broadcast room through targeted delivery.

Throughout July, Herborist First Color set up a total of 10 live broadcast rooms on Douyin to start self-broadcasting. Among them, there are 4 live broadcast rooms with monthly sales exceeding 5 million, namely @HERBALCHUSE Ultra-thin Underwear, @HERBALCHUSE Flagship Store, @HERBALCHUSE Sports Flagship Store, and @HERBALCHUSE Official Flagship Store.

Analyzing these live broadcast rooms, we will find that they all adopt the strategy of "single/explosive product" circular explanation. Whether it is the scene design, selling point design or price range design, there are obvious differences. It can be seen at a glance that they are the work of a team that is well versed in Douyin's e-commerce strategy. Otherwise, it would be difficult to gather the top players and quickly explode in volume in a short period of time.

For example, in the live broadcast room of @HERBAL_CHISE ultra-thin underwear, the hot product is the ice skin underwear at 99 yuan/2 pieces. The main selling point is that it is light, breathable, and does not cause sweat, and is friendly to all breast shapes; and in the live broadcast room of @HERBAL_CHISE sports underwear, the hot product is the anti-gravity underwear set at 99 yuan/2 sets. The core selling point is that the cup will not move or shift, and even if mothers wear it, the breast shape can be lifted and look good. Finally, in the live broadcast room of @HERBAL_CHISE official flagship store, the main products are underwear sets at 79 yuan/3 pieces and 139 yuan/6 pieces.

Differentiated merchandise and selling points also attract users with personalized needs, effectively avoiding the self-coiling caused by the matrix live broadcast room.

The data can prove this. Doudian Compass shows that although both are in the underwear market, @草初色ultra-thin underwear attracts the asset-rich middle class in second-tier cities, with more than 30% of customers preferring to spend between 100 and 200 yuan, while @草初色sports flagship store attracts sophisticated mothers in third-tier cities, with more than 30% of customers preferring to spend between 50 and 100 yuan.

If we say that Herborist First Color has carved out a smooth path in the crowded Douyin apparel track through "single/explosive products + bulk influencer promotion/distribution + matrix self-broadcasting", so that the underwear category finally has a Douyin brand dedicated to Douyin, then at the underlying level, it is due to Herborist First Color's full understanding of the thinking of the Douyin crowd and its high attention to "high-quality content".

How to understand it? In terms of external cooperation, Kas found that although @多余 and Maomaojie were not the ones who brought the most products to Herbal First Color, from the search results, we can see a lot of highlight live streaming content contributed by Maomaojie and Auntie.

Specifically, Maomao Sister invited @刘思尧, a beauty expert from the same organization, to sit in the live broadcast room to endorse the brand in depth; some introduced that the brand was formerly a OEM factory, and had the same origin as international brands such as Victoria's Secret and CK; some also invited aunties to try on the underwear to prove that it is not picky about body shape and can be worn seamlessly; some also used experiments and props to eliminate everyone's doubts about the affordable purchase of underwear. This kind of content that combines visual impact, tactile experience and emotional resonance, coupled with the unexpectedly low price of 99 yuan/3 pieces, can easily get users to place orders quickly after planting grass.

The understanding and emphasis on content is also reflected in the self-operated content of Caocao Chuse. Kas found that the common feature of Caocao Chuse's self-operated videos is that they produce content from the perspective of "users/KOC" rather than "brands", and the threshold for industrialized replication of content is low.

Let’s take a look at the self-operated copywriting of ultra-thin underwear:

"I found this bra that can be worn under a vest! It's really beautiful. The ice silk material is as thin as stockings. You can't see any trace when you wear it under tights. The cup surface is full of breathable mesh, which is very comfortable and cool to the upper body, just like a walking air conditioner. The bottom and sides are made of non-slip jelly strips, so no matter how you run and jump, it won't move. The key is that it doesn't have a steel ring. It's so comfortable that I forgot to take it off when I went to bed..."

A simple 100-word grass-planting note, with analogies, references, and experiences, can dispel possible purchasing doubts in the user's mind, such as whether it is breathable, whether the cup runs, whether it shifts, etc. Once the content and buying points that users are willing to vote for with money and interact are found, Herbal First Color will apply them to other content forms, such as light plots, vlogs, and experimental evaluations. By integrating content penetration in multiple scenarios and content forms, it will ultimately achieve a position in the user's mind.

2. In addition to the hot sales, what other inspirations can Herbal Primary Color provide for brands to explore Douyin e-commerce?

Starting from the crowd, paying attention to and producing content that can stimulate positive and negative feedback from users is the underlying logic that allows Herbal First Color to break through the siege.

However, when deeply analyzing the systematic approach of Herbal Primary Color, Kas also summarized 3 experiences that can be discussed and learned by brands that want to achieve results on Douyin e-commerce.

First, although Herborist has a large number of influencers cooperating with it, 83% of them have less than 10,000 followers, but in fact, the influencers who really bring goods for the brand are still concentrated at the top. The TOP10 influencers contribute more than 70% of the influencer GMV, and the influencers with sales of over 100,000 only account for 7.3% of the number of cooperating influencers.

These facts and data confirm that the "Matthew effect" of Douyin influencer distribution is still further strengthened. Does this mean that the value of cooperative influencer distribution is declining? Of course not! Instead, it reminds our brands that when inviting influencers, especially tail influencers or KOCs to distribute goods, they should pay more attention to the influencer's content ability, or fan stickiness and fan influence, rather than just the ability to contribute stable gross profit or GMV.

Frankly speaking, it is very difficult for brands with limited profit margins to make real gross profits by using influencer distribution on Douyin. Influencer distribution has become a new type of grass-growing tool (or a tool for storing value in the minds of users).

Data source: Chan Mama, compiled by Kas Data

It is worth mentioning that once you find that an influencer produces good content, whether it is live broadcast or short video content, it is necessary to assist with traffic investment so as to get results faster (including GMV results and crowd asset accumulation results) in an uncertain traffic environment.

Second, Douyin e-commerce has almost lost the possibility of "getting (big) results in a single domain". To achieve a leap in GMV, short videos, live broadcasts, and product cards must be done, and they must be done to the extreme, so as to establish real brand potential;

According to Chanmama data statistics, from the perspective of carriers, in July, the GMV sources of Douyin channels were analyzed, and the GMV created by "commodity cards (i.e. non-video, live broadcast channels)" accounted for more than 21% of the total GMV. The reason why commodity cards are so popular can be analyzed from the three factors that affect the distribution of commodity card traffic:

First, from the traffic recommendation rules, high product and store ratings will affect the traffic recommendation of product cards. Obviously, the 4.6-point rating and over 1 million product links of the Herbal First Color official flagship store have laid a good foundation for them to get more traffic in the shelf field.

Secondly, in terms of product card titles, Herbal First Color will optimize around category spike words (words with a relatively fast increase in search volume), blue ocean words (words with many searches but few corresponding products), and long-tail words (words with usage scenarios, styles, and groups) to target users with clear purchasing intentions and ensure that when they search for summer underwear and ultra-thin underwear, they can search for Herbal First Color's stores, product cards, live broadcast rooms, etc. as soon as possible, intercepting and converting them;

Finally, we still need to make good use of influencers and maximize the value of cooperation with top influencers. For example, the product cards of Herbal Primary Color will use the influencer’s portrait and video on the cover, and the influencer’s name will also be used in the title. These product cards marked with XX Recommended and XX Same Style will have a higher exposure-click rate, and the "exposure-click rate" of the product cards will affect traffic distribution and final conversion.

Third, the marketing promotion on Douyin has a traffic spillover effect.

Brands can quickly replicate the potential energy accumulated on Douyin and the grass-roots distribution experience summarized on Douyin to other platforms, achieving a situation of full-area development and mutual achievement.

After the explosive sales on Douyin, Kas discovered that Herborist had quickly copied its experience in influencer distribution to Kuaishou.

On the one hand, it will also attach importance to the slice distribution of influencers, and will synchronize the live broadcast content of @疯狂小杨哥, @国岳, etc. to Kuaishou in the form of trailers. At the same time, relying on its strong influencer development capabilities, Herborist First Color has cooperated with Kuaishou's super influencers @蛋蛋, @周周珍可爱, @超级丹, @大璇, etc. In order to avoid horizontal price comparison between anchors and users between platforms, after entering Kuaishou, Herborist First Color also made adjustments to the product grouping based on the consumption capacity and consumption tendencies of the Kuaishou population.

For example, the hot product in @蛋蛋直播间 is lactic acid underwear priced at 79 yuan/6 pairs (the same underwear, Douyin official flagship price is 79 yuan/3 pairs). In the process of video and live broadcast, compared with Douyin users who pay more attention to the product's "differential buying points (such as 7A antibacterial, containing hyaluronic acid, etc.)", Kuaishou users are more easily impressed by the actual sales data. Therefore, in the process of planting grass, Dandan will work hard to show the brand's sales performance, such as 1 billion+ in sales across the entire network in 2023, and the underwear has sold more than 2 million units on Douyin in the past month. It will even intercept the Douyin sales list and put it in its own live video to strengthen the endorsement of this "brand". After a round of strong planting, various product reports (such as 7A antibacterial, lactic acid bacteria content, etc.) will be displayed to effectively force orders.

If you look further into Xiaohongshu, you can see a large number of UGC evaluation notes/videos.

Kas roughly counted the contents of the first 10 screens of mobile phones and found that most of the comments were negative. Here is a reminder to brands: if your product encounters a bottleneck in the conversion process from A3 to A4 one day, don’t just look for the cause on Douyin, but listen to the real voice of users in the whole world and do detailed promotion. Among them, Xiaohongshu may be an unavoidable site.

three,

Clothing is a product with strong seasonal limitations, while for products such as underwear and pants, the seasonal attributes are relatively not that strong, but summer is definitely the peak sales period.

On the one hand, as it is midsummer, users will have higher requirements for the content of seamless, seamless, pressure-free, no cup movement, no deformation, and breathability. The hot weather will prompt them to plan to change to new underwear/pants; on the other hand, due to the awakening of women's self-awareness, the choice of underwear has also moved away from the previous thinking of "pleasing the opposite sex", and comfort, pleasure, and no sensation have become the main demands of the underwear category.

Herbal First Color is undoubtedly expanding its product categories and creating explosive products after a deep insight into user needs.

In summary, its success is not accidental. At the node suitable for creating explosive products, it made full use of the three key words of Douyin e-commerce: algorithm, content and influencers. At the same time, it entered a category with strong consumer demand. The characteristics of this brand in the Douyin e-commerce stage are unstable head brands, relatively low category concentration and few mental brands. This is also the basis for Herbal First Color to break through.

According to the data from Doudian Compass, the overall transaction volume of Douyin's underwear/pants/socks track was 5-6 billion in July. Herborist alone took nearly 1/10 of the sales share of the market.

The outstanding performance of Herborist First Color confirms that in some extremely niche segments, the dividends of Douyin e-commerce still exist; the outstanding performance of Herborist First Color also means that the underwear segment, especially summer underwear/pants segment, has been strongly replaced by mature brands, so the dividends of this segment have basically disappeared.