In order to escape from low prices and seek profits, merchants are entering the video account on a large scale. "If you don't make money, there's no point in doing this."

This article explores in depth how merchants can find growth and profits on the emerging video account platform, and analyzes the strategies and path choices of merchants of different sizes. From the successful case of the beauty brand Lin Qingxuan to the large-scale migration of industrial belt supply, the article provides rich practical experience and market insights. Reading this article, you will understand how merchants can achieve large-scale growth and maximize profits through video accounts in the fierce market competition. I hope it will help you grasp the new trends in e-commerce.

In mid-April, Sun Laichun, founder of the beauty brand Lin Qingxuan, was in Kunming on business. A message told him that in a few days, there would be a closed-door meeting in Shenzhen on the theme of video accounts. But the bad news was that it would enter a rainy period there and might be hit by a storm.

Sun Laichun knows that compared with the low-price internal circulation storm of e-commerce, this rainstorm is nothing. Consumer expectations have weakened, platforms are competing for low prices, and merchants' profits are getting thinner and thinner. Many even lose money on every order. The top merchants can use their profits to exchange for scale to maintain their business for a while, while small and medium-sized merchants have already been "crying and bleeding all over the city."

A foreign beauty brand told Yibang Power that after the top anchors reduced the frequency of live streaming in 2024, their sales on major platforms have been declining, with traditional e-commerce declining the most. Merchants first compromised on profits and then lost scale, causing anxiety to spread at a visible speed.

In 2023, Lin Qingxuan's GMV on Video Account exceeded 50 million yuan, nearly doubling year-on-year, and began to make a profit. The goal for 2024 is to exceed 100 million yuan in sales. Although it is still small compared with the overall performance of the brand, Sun Laichun decided to go to Shenzhen in person, "I will take the lead first, and hope that everyone will pay attention to it." A few days later, he and his wife appeared in Shenzhen, and also called Lin Qingxuan's CMO and WeChat channel manager.

Sun's emphasis is not surprising. Traditional e-commerce has been slashing both volume and price, prompting merchants to look for growth and profits on new platforms. Ebrun Power learned that although brand merchants still use Douyin and Taobao as their main channels, more and more are beginning to test the waters or increase their investment in video accounts, and a large number of small and medium-sized merchants have migrated on a large scale, especially those with scale but no profit, to video accounts to find growth and profits.

For example, a leading footwear and apparel company, whose three main brands have settled in video accounts, made more than 40 million yuan in 2023, and the goal for 2024 is 150 million yuan; the emerging brand Rasi
(LeShi) only produces video accounts and sold 70 million yuan last year. It has completed last year’s full-year performance in the first four months of this year.

The rapid increase in such merchant cases indicates that the platform and ecosystem have entered a stage where they can support large-scale account creation and volume growth. In 2023, the GMV of goods brought by video accounts will be nearly three times that of the previous year, and will continue to grow rapidly in 2024. This is higher than similar platforms, coupled with high customer unit prices, high repurchase rates and low return rates, allowing all types of players to not only grow, but also have a reasonable profit and sustainability.

It seems that all major platforms and merchants are keeping a close eye on low prices during the 618 shopping festival this year. For example, JD.com offers free shipping for 2 yuan, Pinduoduo offers a price reduction that can increase the weight of products by up to 9 times, and Douyin offers official discounts. Multiple platforms were originally multiple options, but now they have become a gyroscopic cycle, which is by no means a good thing, let alone a normal state. Some merchants can make a profit by entering the video account. Although their size is limited, they have expanded another possibility for development. Maintaining a balance between profit, growth, and sustainability may be the realistic path for most merchants.

1. Behind the large-scale migration: To make profits, leading brands and small and medium-sized businesses have different paths

The rise of new platforms always brings with it a devastating momentum, allowing some people to take off and others to be eliminated. As supply moves from scarcity to perfection, white-label products usually attract users with low prices, and then introduce high-quality products through strict control after the volume increases. Later, brands will come out to reap the benefits, and a big showdown between new and old forces will take place. Small and medium-sized businesses will either stay as cannon fodder or start a new migration.

Video accounts are slightly different. When it began to be commercialized, WeChat had already grown a private ecosystem, accumulating a large number of brands and transaction users. With the support of public domain traffic and public and private domain gameplay, brands can quickly gain volume, such as Estee Lauder, Adopt a Cow, Gloria, Gedi, Bosideng and Mercury Home Textiles.

In 2024, brands testing video accounts can still enjoy the dividends of rapid growth. Chen Xiaobei, the video account operator of several leading apparel brands, said that this year the main categories are apparel, jewelry and food. For example, a leading sports brand had a single store trial transaction volume of 20 million yuan last year. This year, it opened a new store and matrix account, and its performance has doubled so far.

Judging from the lists of several major promotions, brands are breaking the pattern of new and emerging brands and white-label brands occupying an absolute dominant position in advantageous categories. However, the number and activity are relatively low compared with similar platforms. A beauty brand said that their sales on Taobao declined this year, and they also opened a video store, but currently only publish content and put products on the shelves, and have not focused on operations.

Video accounts are still in their growth stage, with high growth but small size, and a low GMV ceiling for a single merchant. Chen Xiaobei said that currently, the monthly sales of top merchants are generally between 10 million and 20 million yuan, the middle and lower ones are between 5 million and 10 million yuan, and the tail ones are about 500,000 to 1 million yuan. If top merchants want to maintain production capacity or intend to increase production capacity, they will trade profits for scale in the short term, and they may focus on operating Taobao and Douyin, which have higher GMV ceilings.

In this case, why do leading merchants continue to enter the video account? According to feedback from many merchants, although the ceiling of the video account is lower, the profit efficiency is not low. With the same investment, the profit in the video account is higher. In addition, it has surging large traffic, private domain ecology and membership system. The outdoor brand Camel is targeting members. Camel General Manager Wan Guangyang said that many platforms are promoting membership, but in the end it is difficult to become a brand member. The video account is a real member.

Most brands’ self-operated teams have not officially launched video accounts. For brands that have grown rapidly, the operators are mostly service providers and distributors. For example, Daphne is a distributor that opens its own store and broadcasts itself. Last year, the transaction volume exceeded 100 million yuan. This year, it has increased investment in traffic and influencer distribution; Anta’s video account live broadcasts are also mostly operated by agents. It is reported that this year, the number of daily broadcast matrix accounts will increase to more than 5.

This is not difficult to understand. Monthly sales of 20 million yuan are insignificant to large merchants, but for small and medium-sized merchants and service providers, it may be the basic plate or the second growth curve. Especially for small and medium-sized merchants who have scale but no profit due to the impact of low prices, the sustainability brought by moderate scale, profit and high repurchase is still quite tempting.

This year, in addition to the above-mentioned brands and behind-the-scenes service providers testing the waters, more small and medium-sized players are also turning to video accounts to find growth and profits, especially emerging brands, high-quality supplies in industrial belts, and small and medium-sized brands from external sites.

Perfume and fragrance is a fast-growing sub-category, which has produced domestic brands such as Wenxian, Shili Chunfeng and Da Nei Mi Tan. However, since last year, their traffic investment costs on Douyin have risen sharply, accounting for more than 60% at one point. This year, they have all entered the video account - Shili Chunfeng opened a flagship store, and a hit single product sold 1.04 million yuan; Wenxian opened a video account store, and before it started broadcasting, 4 single products sold 140,000 yuan; Da Nei Mi Tan, who just opened a new account, live broadcasts to sell in-car fragrances.

Lily & Beauty is more symbolic. It is the leading beauty agent of Taobao and is developing its own brands and external channels. The founder Huang Tao used to live broadcast on Douyin and Xiaohongshu, and later switched to video accounts. Previously, he served as an assistant and promoted the new brand Yurongchu with the video account expert Tan Shisan, with sales of 40,000 yuan and better user fit and interactivity. Huang Tao is said to be very satisfied with this and said that the focus will be on video account live broadcast next.

Those who have tasted the sweetness are increasing their investment this year. For example, the founder of Mujiangnan clothing brand said in an interview with Xinbang that the GMV of video accounts in 2023 will be nearly 300 million yuan, accounting for 65% of the total performance, and the efficiency of making money is not worse than that of Douyin;
(LeShi), All in Video Account, sales of 70 million yuan in 2023, with a very good net profit level, and the performance of the whole year of last year has been completed in the first four months of this year.

Rasi Leshi Video Account’s three major stores have accumulated sales of 213,000

Another major force in large-scale migration is the supply of industrial belts. Jinlei Technology is also the industrial belt service provider of Kuaishou and Video Account. CEO Song Yang said that this year, the trend of merchants shifting from external sites to Video Account is very obvious, including many top merchants, who are most concerned about the investment and growth space after the account is created. Ebang Power verified this, and many merchants said it was true and felt it was significant.

In categories such as clothing and jewelry, industrial belts are still the main suppliers of the platform. This year, new Chinese style and middle-aged and elderly clothing have grown well on video accounts. The GMV growth rate of multiple Hangzhou-style clothing live broadcast rooms served by Jinlei Technology exceeded 200%.

Songyang said that the supply of video accounts is still insufficient, and if merchants in the industrial belt can successfully create an account, they can make money. Yibang Power asked, do you make money as a video account service provider? Songyang raised his voice and said, "Of course I can make money. If I can't make money, I won't do this."

2. The GMV of the special events for influencers is still rising, and the products for bringing goods and investing in traffic have finally made new progress

With more and more merchants, influencers and users, and the rapid update of various tools and capabilities, many people think that Video Account is now very similar to Douyin three years ago. For merchants to grow in volume, at least three core supports must be considered, namely, distribution links, traffic investment capabilities and operational support.

Most of the new merchants rarely do self-broadcasting, such as Shili Chunfeng, Wenxian and Rasi. In addition, those who rely on self-broadcasting to create accounts are also increasing their distribution this year. Ebrun Power learned that Daphne is also looking for influencers to distribute after its self-broadcasting exceeded 100 million. Belle plans to increase the proportion of influencers and distribution to about 45% this year, and Lin Qingxuan hopes to reach two-thirds.

Why do they favor distribution so much? A sportswear distributor said that video live broadcasts have high requirements for IP and content, and the single transaction of self-broadcasts is not high. So even if the government encourages self-broadcasts, they still focus on broadcasting and distribution. This makes the freely growing talent ecosystem one of the main forces. In 2022, the GMV of the video account preferred alliance accounted for 15%, and the order scale in 2023 increased significantly to 45%, and the GMV accounted for 26%.

A group of influencers also took advantage of the opportunity to rise on the video account. Before I went there, when I first interviewed Shunzi Shuocha, he was selling tea and tea utensils on the video account live, with a customer unit price 10 times higher than the platform average, and a monthly transaction volume of several million yuan. Can niche businesses survive on the new platform? A year later, his transaction volume doubled compared to the same period last year, with a monthly peak of more than 10 million yuan, and profits were basically stable.

During last year’s Double 11, 32 live streaming rooms of influencers entered the top 50 of the sales ranking, accounting for 64%, a significant increase from the previous 618. Since then, the promotion has basically maintained this trend, but the number of influencers focusing on video accounts has increased. Now, the sales of top influencers on video accounts are mostly between 5 million and 10 million yuan, while the sales of mid-level influencers are mostly between 1 million and 5 million yuan, which is several times higher than that of Douyin.

Video account experts, in order, are Qiao Jiaozhu, Yan Yi and his wife, and Guo Yiyi

The sales of influencers are still rising. The image and dressing master Qiao’s cross-product sports brand special event had a GMV of nearly 10 million yuan in 6 hours. Guo Yiyi’s special event for Yiting Home Textiles had a customer unit price of over 1,700 yuan and a GMV of 26.7 million yuan in 8 hours. The Yan Yi couple live-streamed on Mother’s Day, with a GMV of over 24 million yuan in 7 hours and a cumulative number of users who made transactions exceeding 470,000.

The official is still introducing external talents with unprecedented strength. In addition to making friends, Oriental Selection and Three Sheep Network, actors Zhu Yongteng, Xiao Han and his wife, Ye Anan yaa, Ningxia Musa, actor Yang Zi and others also came to the video account to live broadcast. Musa is a rural anchor with more than 5 million Douyin fans. In mid-May, he premiered a Liby special show, with a GMV of nearly 2 million yuan in 3 hours. Christy Chung is another S-level talent who has entered the video account and will participate in the 618 live broadcast.

How to balance the interests of new and old influencers will be the focus in the future. In addition to Dabo, the distribution chain of video accounts also includes short video sales, slice sales, comment area trailers and private domain sharing. Most of these are supported by amateur creators and are also highly valued this year, especially the public-private linkage tool that the market has long been looking forward to.

In addition to the distribution link, another major support is traffic investment. Sun Laichun, the founder of Linqingxuan, said that traffic investment is the most important upgrade of the video account capabilities he values. "Finally, there has been new progress, and the granularity of investment has become finer and finer."

The trend observed by Yibang is that around short videos and live streaming, Tencent continues to open up abundant traffic for merchants through various links on Video Accounts. On the eve of 618, Tencent Advertising launched the Video Account Store advertising link, and ads on Video Accounts, Moments, Official Accounts, Mini Programs, and SouYisou can directly jump to the product page of the Video Account Store.

It is reported that Tencent Ads will also launch the ability to jump to the video account live broadcast room from Tencent News, Tencent Video and QQ. In addition to quickly gaining volume, these traffic capabilities and links will provide merchants with tools to accelerate the scale of different types of businesses such as live broadcast sales, short video sales, and video account store direct purchases.

Image: WeChat Advertising Assistant

This year, Video Account has been continuously updating its capabilities to improve the transaction efficiency of merchants. Tencent Advertising is also gradually shortening the jump links of its delivery. Fewer jumps means better conversions.

We learned from Tencent that merchants in multiple industries such as clothing, toys, food, and education have already taken the lead in running cases. Lin Qingxuan once participated in the test of the link between WeChat Moments and video store products. The initial ROI was not high, but after a period of operation, it was able to reach 1:2.5-3 or more. We expect that the new products will initially focus on high-gross-profit categories and merchants, such as tea, seafood, and beauty products.

Danfeng is a service provider of the video account industry belt in Quanzhou. It said that this year, investment in traffic has become a stable choice for merchants. The initial investment can increase the weight, obtain more traffic during the breakthrough period, and increase GMV after the people, goods and places are stable.

However, video account performance advertising, especially the investment in traffic to help increase the volume, requires high content capabilities, including account positioning, topic selection, content creation, and product selling point extraction. Accounts and content with strong IP attributes are more popular on video accounts (than Douyin), especially positive videos that reflect topics such as family, couples, workplace, and social interaction. "Especially women around 45 years old, they really like this." A merchant once told Yibang Power.

It is foreseeable that the consumption of performance advertising may increase during the 618 period this year, but considering the degree of perfection of the supply and user bilateral markets, it may be a continuous process. As one merchant said, video accounts are a long-term thing, not something that can be done overnight. That is unrealistic.

Operation-related supporting facilities and infrastructure are long-term support, but they are also indispensable for increasing volume. Video accounts have added an e-commerce compass to provide merchants with more detailed decision-making data. The newly added order center entrance makes it easier for users to view orders, shopping carts, and coupons, making it more user-friendly for repeat purchases.

Another major change in the operation support is the ability to "create e-commerce festivals". According to Yibang Power statistics, in less than half a year since 2024, Video Account has organized 9 major promotions, covering almost all mainstream categories. Shunzi Tea participated in the Spring Tea Season Live Broadcast, saying that the support for merchants and influencers is actually increasing.

3. Some people take one month, some take three months. Is it really that easy to create an account and explode in popularity?

618 is here, and the fight is even more fierce. Some merchants have quietly taken a detour, trying to find stable profits on video accounts and enjoy the dividends brought by the high growth, high customer unit price and low return rate of the new platform.

But it is not easy to successfully create an account and scale up. Many merchants told Yibang Power that their transaction conversion after entering the market was not ideal and they are still running the commercial model. Song Yang, CEO of Jinlei Technology, said that this year the consumer groups and categories are expanding. Regarding the successful creation of an account, he said that some people need one month, while others need two or three months.

Previously, Yibang Power had disclosed several typical ways to create an account, such as establishing a persona through short videos, public-private domain linkage, popular products, and public domain traffic.
(Reference: "Breaking News! Video Live Streaming Recommendations and Traffic Rules Revealed"
) A year has passed, some are still popular, while others have gradually changed due to changes in platform traffic and population.

Strong IP personality is used to position the account, high-quality short videos attract fans, and gradually improve the matching of people, goods and places, which is still the mainstream way to create an account. For example, Messi brand men's shoes, the anchor is Chen Zichen, the owner of a shoe factory in Wenzhou. He previously released a large number of shoe factory production lines and entrepreneurial short videos to his fans, and this year he started live streaming to sell shoes; Lily is a social Latin dance teacher in Dalian. Previously, her short videos recorded teaching, dance parties and lifestyle content. Recently, she started to sell goods and was just invited to participate in the official product selection meeting.

Messi brand men's shoes, strong IP personality, high-quality content attracts fans, customer unit price 100-150 yuan, sales volume 44,000

Public-private domain linkage refers to merchants and influencers bringing private domain users into live broadcast rooms and video accounts to leverage the platform's traffic ratio. It was a very important way to create accounts before, and it has spawned a group of merchants and influencers with strong private domain attributes. However, since this year, with the increase in the weight of platform algorithm recommendations and the decrease in the public-private domain linkage ratio, the attractiveness of this way of creating accounts has declined.

Hot-selling products and public domain traffic are the mainstream ways for brands and traders to start their accounts. They attract attention by relying on product cost-effectiveness and brand influence, and then use innovative live broadcasting methods to increase data, coupled with traffic amplification. It is said that a sports brand quickly increased its volume through this method, with short video traffic, live broadcast room order retention and interaction, and 24-hour rolling live broadcast, and finally achieved daily sales of one million yuan.

Chen Xiaobei said that the current mainstream operating model is to combine short videos, public domain live broadcasts and private domain linkage, build matching products based on crowd attributes, plan short video content based on crowds and products, and build live broadcast room gameplay. Brand companies can also build private domain capabilities and membership systems based on this.

(Reference: "Heavy Exposure! Content of Tencent's Closed-Door Meeting Leaked in 2024, Private Domain Takes the Video Number Express")

Although the upper limit of GMV of a single account is low, the profit efficiency is not low, so the best choice is to create a matrix account and break the whole into parts. This year, it is almost a consensus to create a matrix account on the video account. Almost most of the video account influencers are still small teams such as studios and couples. There is still room for improvement in professional ability and manpower. Live broadcasts with the participation of brands will have better transaction results.

As mentioned before, it is not easy to increase the volume of new accounts. In order to reduce the cost of matrix accounts, Yili, Oshiman and others adopt the KOS model, which is to incubate influencers (authorized employee accounts) from within the company, who can publish promotional messages and serve private customers to promote transactions. This model is more popular on Xiaohongshu, but there seem to be only a few cases on video accounts.

What did those merchants and influencers who quickly gained popularity in the public domain do right? What do they have in common? Previous analysis shows that the core logic behind hot products is good content + good products. Only those that users recognize are good content and good products.

When doing live streaming on Video Accounts, you cannot just copy the experience of other platforms, but must match the products and live streaming strategies according to the platform’s audience. For example, for the same pair of leather shoes, Video Account users pay more attention to its genuine leather material, while Douyin users pay more attention to its functions, such as anti-slip and height increase; for the same skin care product, Video Account users prefer a leisurely explanation, while Douyin users are used to shouting live streaming.

According to data disclosed in the 2024 WeChat Open Course, consumers in first-tier, new first-tier and second-tier cities account for more than 60%, and people aged 30-50 contribute 40% of the increase in video accounts. They are regarded as the treasure group of China's e-commerce, with characteristics such as long stay time, low scale rate and high repurchase rate. They have money and free time, and the most common purchases are clothing, beauty products and food.

Shunzi said that more than 180 users spent more than 100,000 yuan in his live broadcast room, and some even spent more than 7 million yuan in total. He stayed in the live broadcast room for no more than 10 minutes each time, picked tea, placed an order, and left. Although there are private domain communities, these users are rarely disturbed. He said that two colleagues are responsible for private domain operations and only do after-sales work, and never promote sales.

Screenshot of Shunzi's live broadcast of tea. From left to right, they are the second anniversary live broadcast, the British Museum live broadcast, and the live broadcast of tea sales exceeding 1.1 million yuan.

He said that the video account is friendly to content creators. The reason why Shunzi Says Tea was selected as an official benchmark case is not GMV, but the content of live broadcast. Since its premiere on April 6, 2022, Shunzi Says Tea has done 116 pure content live broadcasts on the video account, allowing users to walk through the production areas of famous tea and beautiful utensils through live broadcasts and visit 21 museums. The first 100 users stayed for more than 2 hours each time. Such user stickiness is unattainable on other similar platforms.

He believes that 2024 may be the year when video accounts really explode, and it may also be the last chance to create new accounts. Song Yang, CEO of Jinlei Technology, has a similar feeling, saying that everyone is scrambling for traffic this year. "I personally think there will definitely be some changes this year, but it's hard to say at what point."

Yibang Power once disclosed that the video account live e-commerce product has been incorporated into the WeChat open platform and integrated with transaction-related teams such as mini-programs to facilitate improving transaction efficiency and exploring new models.

In the long run, the adjustment deserves the merchants’ attention. Zero One Digital CEO Jian Feng believes that the WeChat management team, which took over the open platform of the video account e-commerce this time, is also the team that previously created the official account and mini program. It may hope to drive the sales of platform products through the personality and professional content of the anchors, rather than copying similar platforms such as Douyin.

In mid-May, although there was still more than half a month to go before 618, Shunzi said that he told Yibang Power that they had arranged all the major live broadcasts for 618, including 36 special broadcasts in 18 days. They were prepared to invest twice as much as last year in promotion, determine the schedule in advance, prepare welfare products and make good content. "I think this is the first real 618 for the e-commerce of video accounts," he said.

Author: Dong Jinpeng