618｜The battle to eliminate “super-head”

With the arrival of the 618 e-commerce promotion season, the field of live streaming has once again become the focus of public attention. However, this year's promotion season seems to show some new changes and trends. Although super anchors still occupy the attention of the media and consumers, their enthusiasm for selling goods seems to have diminished. In this e-commerce feast, the actions of Dong Yuhui of New Oriental are particularly eye-catching. Their actions and remarks provide us with a new perspective to explore the current situation and future trends of the live streaming e-commerce industry. Next, let us go behind this e-commerce promotion and explore the new trends in the live streaming e-commerce industry.

In the wave of e-commerce promotions , super anchors have always been the focus of the media and consumers. However, this year, the discussion about top anchors is still hot, but the enthusiasm for bringing goods seems to have cooled down.

On June 8, Yu Minhong, CEO of New Oriental and Oriental Selection, issued an open letter to apologize to Oriental Selection's customers, shareholders, and investors, and clarified his previous statement that "Oriental Selection is in a mess."

At the same time, when all the anchors were busy with the 618 promotion live broadcast, Dong Yuhui did the opposite. Not only did he not stay in the live broadcast room, but he took time to host the "I Love Me, Awesome" column. In this column, Dong Yuhui said that he was under a lot of pressure and "very painful."

From the current status of Dongfang Zhenxuan and Yuhui Xingxing, we can get a glimpse of some development trends in the live e-commerce industry - tired top anchors and the ever-changing live e-commerce industry. So far, how have the top anchors performed during the 618 shopping festival? What development trends in the live streaming industry can we see from this?

1. Dong Yuhui doesn’t do live broadcasts, but interviews?

Recently, Dong Yuhui's first independent psychological talk show "I Love Me, Great" was officially launched. So far, it has included many short video/live creators such as Wanyan Huide, Deng Jing, and Su Min.

Image source: TikTok

In the interview, Dong Yuhui said frankly that because of the live broadcast, his parents were harassed for a long time. "Often, when there was no hope for suppliers to contact me, I would go to my parents in the countryside, and my parents would often close the door. 'I feel really sorry for them when I say this. I often think, I don't want to do this job (live broadcast) anymore.'" Then the entry #董宇辉说到今天未享受直播工作 became a hot search.

Image source: TikTok

This is not the first time that Dong Yuhui has publicly expressed his conflicting feelings about live streaming. Looking back on Dong Yuhui's career, from a New Oriental teacher to a "knowledge anchor" who broke the stereotype of anchors, to an interviewer and host, he has deliberately slowed down his pace along the way, although consumers, platforms, and merchants do not seem to want him to stop.

As the top anchor of Douyin, Dong Yuhui's influence on the platform is self-evident. In fact, in March this year, he revealed that the Douyin platform had interviewed him, hoping that his live broadcast room could develop faster.

As for the live broadcast room named Yuhuixingxing, which is closely related to Dong Yuhui, Dong Yuhui is an important factor affecting sales. Data shows that during the 618 period, Dong Yuhui's live broadcast for only two hours was able to drive a significant increase in sales in the live broadcast room, which shows his influence.

However, compared to live streaming, "outdoor radio" seems to be one of Dong Yuhui's preferred methods. Talking with creators from different backgrounds not only satisfies Dong Yuhui's content production, but also allows the Douyin platform to retain its own influence and appeal.

Dong Yuhui interviews Andy Lau (Photo source: TikTok)

At present, Dong Yuhui has not given up his plan to live broadcast, but whether he will find a better balance between live broadcast and interviews in the future remains to be seen.

2. The various profiles of the top anchors on 618

On June 18th in 2024, super anchors will still appear in the live broadcast rooms, but their level of involvement varies.

Li Jiaqi, who failed in last year's Double Eleven, started the preheating mode on Taobao as early as May 10; Simba, who had a tense relationship with Kuaishou, quickly returned to live streaming after issuing an apology statement on the eve of the big promotion; Xiao Yangge, who has been frequently involved in controversy recently, reduced the number of live streaming sales in 2024, cooperated with CCTV for live streaming, and continuously shifted his focus to his anchors Qi Laoban and Zhuo Shilin...

However, super anchors are not a panacea for sales. The sales of some top anchors have slightly declined during the 618 shopping festival in recent years.

According to Xinxuan statistics, Simba's first live broadcast on June 18 this year sold more than 8.5 million items, with a total sales of 1.427 billion yuan. Compared with last year's June 18 performance, this year's first live broadcast brought a slight decrease in sales. Brother Yang was invited to participate in CCTV's e-commerce live broadcast event, with sales of nearly 10 million in one hour, topping the Douyin real-time sales list. Zhang Xiaohui's live broadcast transaction amount exceeded 100 million yuan on Xiaohongshu, but she encountered "acclimatization" in her first show on Taobao, with the highest single product sales of only 3,000+.

The GMV of the beauty category of Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room on the first day of the 618 pre-sale exceeded 2.675 billion yuan, which was a year-on-year decrease of 46%, but it was still the most eye-catching among the current anchors. The e-commerce department of a certain brand told Clour that the live broadcast data of various platforms this year is not much different from last year, but the data of Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room is more outstanding.

It is worth noting that as the 618 promotion progresses, the sales of some anchors have fluctuated. The Guangdong couple lagged behind in the early stage, but their sales have been increasing recently, ranking second in the weekly sales list and fourth in the monthly sales list. The sales of the Oriental Selection live broadcast room fell out of the top ten and is currently ranked eleventh in the weekly sales list.

Tik Tok influencers' monthly ranking of best sellers (Photo source: Feigua)

However, when many anchors competed to show their skills in bringing goods, Dong Yuhui chose a different path. According to Feigua data, during the 618 period, Dong Yuhui appeared only a few times in the @与辉同行 live broadcast room, appearing in only 7 special live broadcasts.

Among them, in the Shenzhen Nanshan special on May 28, Feigua data showed that the sales of this live broadcast exceeded 100 million, and the number of viewers reached 22.631 million. According to the data of the Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Commerce, this live broadcast received nearly 10,000 orders within 20 minutes of the start of the broadcast, and the total sales of the whole event reached 600,000 orders, with sales exceeding 120 million yuan, which is currently the best-selling special event of @与辉同行直播室.

As of now, @与辉同行 ranks second in the Douyin live broadcast monthly rankings, second only to @贾乃亮. Although each appearance can significantly increase the sales of the live broadcast room, Dong Yuhui obviously has considerations other than sales volume.

3. Is the bigger the GMV, the better?

The 2024 618 promotion started earlier than in previous years, but the industry did not show new growth momentum as a result. The drastic changes in the performance of super anchors exposed deep-seated problems in the industry.

Higher and higher investment-to-traffic ratios, more and more homogeneous goods, and louder and louder calls for “buy it”… For consumers, as the industry continues to segment, consumers’ personalized consumption needs are growing, and the requirements for live broadcast content are becoming more diverse.

Although the simple "buy it" slogan meets the immediate needs of some consumers, it is not a long-term solution. Faced with the shrinking online space, some businesses have begun to refocus on physical business. The growth story of live e-commerce is not applicable to all industries.

Unlike the current Internet, where text, short videos, long videos and other forms of content are flourishing, the current live streaming industry needs more innovative and high-quality content to meet the needs of people with different content needs.

The withdrawal of top anchors such as Dong Yuhui has limited impact on the industry. What is really needed is the diversified and professional development of the live broadcast industry to provide more styles and content options.

In March 2023, Yu Minhong said that he did not agree with the "buy, buy, buy" cries in online live broadcasts. In his mind, live broadcasts should be a way to calmly explain products and spread knowledge. Later, Oriental Selection became popular because of its "knowledge live broadcast" model.

Although during this year's 618, there was a scene in the Oriental Selection live broadcast room where people shouted "321, link up", diverse live broadcasts should not be erased or belittled.

In addition, when it is increasingly difficult to make money in an industry, on the one hand, it is also pushing the industry towards scale and specialization. Since the existence of live e-commerce, the ever-increasing sales myths of the super heads began to slow down last year. On the one hand, it is because the platform continues to support the mid-level anchors and buyers. On the other hand, it is because of the continuous professionalization of the store broadcast model.

In fact, the interactive power advantage of top influencers is smaller than that of shoulder influencers. A large number of fans is more likely to bring high exposure and interaction to the content, but high-quality content can account for more weight in the data. It is understood that the e-commerce sectors of various content platforms have been increasing their support for mid-level anchors in recent years. As the live broadcast of the platform continues to develop, de-super-head and supporting more mid-level anchors is undoubtedly a more cost-effective choice. This is also the focus of Simba and the Kuaishou platform for many years.

According to Clour, some mid-level anchors do not want to blindly increase GMV, but to control GMV in a fixed range that balances profits and services under long-term exploration. If it is lower than this value, profits are difficult to guarantee. If it is higher than this value, costs and services are difficult to guarantee.

In addition to mid-level anchors, store live broadcasts became the biggest highlight during the Double 11 shopping festival last year. First, 38 store live broadcasts on Taobao exceeded 100 million views, and then JD.com’s live broadcasts on purchasing and sales quickly became popular.

This year, various platforms also support store live broadcasts. Take Xiaohongshu as an example. From May 19 to June 15, adhering to the principle of "more broadcasts, more rewards", the platform will set up four stages: "Store Live Qualifying Competition", "Store Live Rising Star Plan", "Super Store Live Day" and "Store Live Rebate Coupon", covering different types of merchants such as mature merchants, small and medium-sized merchants, and new merchants, encouraging them to conduct live broadcasts and obtain exclusive incentives from them.

Whether it is the rise of mid-level anchors or the platform’s support for store broadcasts, they are essentially new stories for the live streaming industry outside of the “super-head narrative”.

In short, all the signs of the 618 promotion in 2024 indicate that the live streaming e-commerce industry is undergoing changes and transformation. When live streaming is no longer based on "GMV" but focuses more on improving services, prices and low return rates, perhaps this is when the industry will become more mature.

References:

1. Dong Yuhui is getting further and further away from the live broadcast room｜E-commerce Pro

2. The first one is not Dong Yuhui or Xiao Yangge! It’s him! ｜Southern Metropolis Daily

3. After analyzing the 618 strategies of the 6 major platforms, I only understand one thing: price is king｜Morketing618 Special Issue 02｜Morketing

What do you think of the anchors of this year's 618? Feel free to leave a message in the comment section.

Author: Claure

Source: WeChat official account: TopKlout