"47 million items, 3 billion yuan", single live broadcast sales exceeded 10 million yuan, this small county was changed by traffic

This small county has brought Hanfu into the public eye through live streaming sales. This article uses the live streaming sales of Cao County merchants as an example to analyze why sales of a single item exceeded 10 million yuan.

Behind a commercial plaza, go around to the alley near the residential area, push open the glass door with recruitment information written on it, pass through the piles of clothes waiting to be shipped and an office desk with a desktop computer, follow the sound of "three, two, one, go to the link!" and climb up one floor. Push the door and you will find a Hanfu live broadcast room.

It is called a live broadcast room, but in fact it is converted from a corner of an office. Where the camera is pointed, there are pendants and soft furnishings full of atmosphere, and emotional anchors. Behind the camera, there is a central control that is also creating a "buy, buy, buy" atmosphere, as well as an operation that looks a little tired but is busy posting links.

Such an ordinary live broadcast room is a microcosm of Cao County merchants doing Hanfu live broadcast. The anchors are often new to the industry, but even those who don’t know much about live broadcasting have experienced the rapid consumption brought by the overwhelming traffic last year. In the live broadcast room, it is rare to talk about it in a leisurely manner. The anchors still use quick moves and quick tactics, explaining the selling points of Hanfu as a newer style of women's clothing, planting grass through life-like scenes, and then attracting most of the transactions with the ultimate cost-effectiveness.

In the once high traffic, some people set up a mobile phone, did not need to appear on camera, just walked around the wholesale base, and explained the clothes to get good sales; some people spent a lot of money to equip high-definition cameras and professional lighting to build a live broadcast room, invested millions of yuan but have not yet made a profit.

The rapid development of live-streaming e-commerce has once made Cao County's leading Hanfu brands stand out. Some brands once completed 70% of their orders through live-streaming, and some brands achieved sales of over 40 million yuan in less than half a year. However, this year, as consumer enthusiasm has subsided and competition has become more intense, Cao County merchants are also looking for a more stable way of operation.

1. Changes in the working people’s outfits

During a break at work, Yundou opened her phone and happened to see a familiar Hanfu brand doing a live broadcast. She was on mute at the time, and the host on the screen was explaining the clothes. She didn't pay attention to the host's rapid opening and closing of his mouth, and only left a message in the comment area, "Open the link quickly, I'll take a photo directly, I'm in a hurry to go to work!"

Like many girls who buy clothes in live broadcast rooms, Yundou mostly buys clothes to kill time. Occasionally, she is attracted by familiar anchors and places an order without thinking.

On the one hand, the charm of the live broadcast room does come from the surprises that catch your eye, as well as the low prices that make people feel that "you'll lose out if you don't buy it." Yundou passionately ordered a set of modified Han-style clothing, including suspenders, short modified Song-style pants, and an outer coat, which she thinks is very suitable for wearing to work.

On the other hand, if you turn on the sound, you can hear that the selling point recommended by the anchor is exactly the same as Yundou's idea. Such a suit with the color of Dunhuang murals is only priced at 138 yuan. The anchor sighed, "I bought a whole set of clothes for the price of a short-sleeved T-shirt." Moreover, there is no need to consider matching the set of Han elements. Just wear the suspender shorts as home clothes. If you wear it as an outer coat, you can go downstairs to pick up parcels and take out the garbage, or go out to see the mountains and rivers for good photos.

Yundou is not a person who pays attention to style. Like many consumers who have become fascinated with traditional Chinese style in recent years, she mostly adds style to her daily clothes. In the past two years, the more affordable Hanfu has really changed the outfits of some working people. The retro trend has certainly boosted this wave of consumption, but what makes consumers pay for it on a large scale is still "affordability and wearability".

No one has grasped this kind of consumer psychology better than the merchants in Cao County, which have contracted most of the Hanfu orders. The "cheap Hanfu" in the live broadcast room is no longer blindly selling at low prices, which makes people worry that the counterfeit styles are not the same as the originals, and they can only wait for the pre-sale of popular styles. Some people even leave a message in the comment area, "Can you sell me the sample clothes on the anchor?"

This is a story of Cao County that has been rewritten by traffic. The once-crazy craze for horse-faced skirts brought huge transactions in the live broadcast room. A screen directly connects factories and consumers, and low prices are one of the traffic codes for Cao County Hanfu live broadcasts. The person in charge of a Cao County live broadcast room said that more than 200,000 orders were sold through live broadcasts during the Spring Festival, and it took half a month to a month to complete all the orders.

2. 70% of transactions come from live broadcast rooms

For ordinary businesses, setting up a live broadcast room does not require too high a cost. With a mobile phone, a mobile phone holder, a corner of the office with soft furnishings to create a classical atmosphere, and equipped with operations and central control, a live broadcast can be completed.

Cao County's original Hanfu brand "Guimengling" set up a live broadcast room in a corner of the office. The anchor is not a professional, but has worked as a salesperson in an offline women's clothing store. He did not know much about Hanfu before, but he understands the logic of recommending Hanfu. "In fact, simply explaining clothes is very boring. Instead, we emphasize how easy it is to wear and take care of a set of Hanfu, how beautiful the colors are, how practical the pocket design is, and how the elastic waist accommodates the body shape..."

The Hanfu merchants in Cao County were not the first to do live streaming, but they came at the right time and took advantage of the popularity of the horse-faced skirt to increase live streaming and make their business flourish.

There is a merchant who started making Hanfu in 2023. He only started live streaming in August last year, and a hit product came out one month later. Because the popularity of horse-faced skirts remains high, a hit product can bring huge traffic. They can achieve sales of over one million yuan in a single show after two or three months of live streaming. "If we only make horse-faced skirts, a hit product can sell more than 50,000 pieces, which means that one model can support sales of 10 million yuan." Less than half a year after the brand was established, sales exceeded 40 million yuan.

Most of the Hanfu anchors in Cao County have never been involved in live streaming sales. Some have changed their careers from being hosts. They went from not knowing how to wear a horse-faced skirt to being able to quickly change clothes and explain it, all because of the high-intensity practice in the live broadcast room.

Cao County's leading Hanfu brand "Zuiyuduo" once launched many popular items that consumers rushed to buy. Last year, 70% of their orders came from live broadcasts. The biggest hit in history, "Lu Shen", could support a transaction volume of one million yuan in a single session on its own.

Live streaming allows merchants to have a clearer perception of demand. Every time a product is put on the shelves, the traffic, dwelling time, and number of orders will intuitively tell them whether a piece of clothing has potential.

It is imperative to create originality. A plagiarized Hanfu may spread in the industry immediately, and it is difficult to attract consumers in front of the screen. Even small businesses need to purchase design drafts to make original Hanfu, "because if you don't create originality, you will soon be eliminated by the market." In the live broadcast room, the focus of the explanation has also changed from low prices to the actual effect and wearing experience of wearing clothes, which has forced merchants to pay attention to color matching and version, and put forward higher requirements for craftsmanship and quality of finished garments.

3. From live broadcast base to offline wholesale

In Cao County, you can find shops everywhere that specialize in a certain step, from fabric cutting to machine embroidery. The segmented process has brought lower production costs and more flexible order processing methods. According to statistics, about 100,000 people are involved in the Hanfu industry. In towns such as Daji and Ancailou, which are famous for Hanfu, in addition to the closely knit workshops, there are large Hanfu bases that are incompatible with farmland.

Bai Menghan was one of the first people from Cao County to run a Hanfu base. In 2022, the epidemic was not over yet. He was originally just a construction contractor, but by chance he took over the Hanfu base. In June 2022, the Hanfu base officially started operation in Ancai Building, with more than 2,000 original Hanfu samples. "The idea at the time was to concentrate all the Hanfu in Cao County at the base, which would be convenient for live broadcasting and for consumers to buy." At the same time, the surrounding villagers also came to receive live broadcasting training, ready to start a new sideline business.

However, due to the repeated outbreaks of the COVID-19 epidemic, it was difficult for anchors to maintain a stable live broadcast rhythm, and the traffic was not very good. In August 2022, when the epidemic in Cao County was more serious, in order to provide a cool place for medical staff and police supporting the fight against the epidemic to rest, the unmanned live broadcast Hanfu base was given up. A nurse who sighed at the beauty of Hanfu and a simple sharing video made the onlookers curious about this Hanfu base.

In order to express gratitude to the doctors and police, Bai Menghan and his team organized a public welfare activity called "Let the 'medical white' and 'police blue' wear Cao County Hanfu". 6,000 sets of Hanfu became Cao County specialties as souvenirs and thank-you gifts, and also let more people know about the Hanfu live broadcast base.

After the ban was lifted, a large number of anchors flooded into the base. At peak times, dozens of anchors were broadcasting at the same time. The anchors aimed their cameras at mannequins wearing Hanfu. They did not need to try it on. As long as they patiently explained and showed the details of the clothing, they could have a good turnover. This warehouse-like broadcast format is more wild than the live broadcast room with professional lighting and high-definition cameras. "Occasionally, other anchors' voices are louder, and the audience in your live broadcast room can hear them, and other people may also appear in the camera, but these are not important. What we want is a lively atmosphere. If it is too quiet, there will be no traffic."

In 2023, the horse-faced skirt became the annual product with its unstoppable popularity, but the excitement in the Hanfu live broadcast base was even more abundant.

In Bai Menghan's experience, styles will become popular according to the region. The Hanfu live broadcast base is not only populated by people who broadcast live with their mobile phones, but also by owners of Hanfu halls or photo studios in various places. They bring in a large number of wholesale orders. "Not only for horse-faced skirts, but also for all kinds of Hanfu. When things are going well, we can make 500,000 yuan a day."

Not only Hanfu, but all industries in Cao County have benefited from live streaming in the past two years. It is reported that "in 2023, Cao County's live streaming sales exceeded 3 billion yuan, and the sales of live streaming products exceeded 47 million pieces." This small county has ever-expanding industry data and more intense competition.

Live streaming is indeed booming, but facing the uncertainty of traffic, Bai Menghan also decided to shift his focus to offline wholesale business. The abundant supply and inventory make the live streaming base have the objective conditions to be transformed into an offline wholesale base, and now there is still no shortage of business here.

After the most glorious year of Hanfu live broadcast, the consumption of horse-faced skirts has gradually become rational, but the demand for Hanfu is still there. The people of Cao County, who have experienced the rise and fall of live broadcast, are still exploring a more stable business path, even though they joke that "it is difficult to go from luxury to frugality."

Author: Yi Wanyu

Source: WeChat public account "Seller"