WeChat releases its rights, video account e-commerce will hand over the most difficult work to third parties

This article describes the adjustment and promotion process of WeChat's video account e-commerce. WeChat has handed over the construction of the video account live e-commerce ecosystem to a large number of third-party partners, so that the video account live e-commerce can achieve more favorable development. This allows us to have a certain understanding of WeChat video account e-commerce and grasp its new developments more quickly. I recommend it to Internet friends for reading.

On May 28, media reported that WeChat issued an internal announcement to adjust the live e-commerce team. The adjustments involved incorporating the video account live e-commerce team into the WeChat Open Platform (mini programs, official accounts, etc.) team. The original WeChat video account live e-commerce team was transferred to the person in charge of the WeChat Open Platform.

WeChat Open Platform refers to a platform provided by WeChat to third-party partners, which allows developers to create website applications, mini-programs, etc., and use various interfaces and capabilities of WeChat. So in layman's terms, this adjustment is to hand over the construction of the video account live e-commerce ecosystem to the majority of third-party partners.

According to people familiar with the matter, this move will help WeChat Video Account's live e-commerce business better integrate into the WeChat ecosystem, allowing Video Account's live e-commerce to achieve more favorable development.

Before the adjustment, the entire system of Video Account belonged to the official WeChat system. For example, the most direct commercial function, Video Account Store, belongs to the official WeChat. The entire link and supporting services of purchasing goods in Video Account Store are completed in WeChat's own system. Orders of Video Account Store can also be viewed directly in WeChat-Me-Orders and Card Packages, which is at the same level as functions such as "Settings". It is similar to the product showcase of Douyin.

At the same time, there is actually another e-commerce system on WeChat - the Mini Program Mall, which is built by a large number of third-party service providers using WeChat interfaces. The entire shopping process and supporting services are basically completed on third-party mini programs outside of WeChat's own system. At present, WeChat's mini program e-commerce ecosystem is very mature, with diverse e-commerce gameplay and functions, which is equivalent to a Taobao built into the WeChat open ecosystem.

In fact, whether from the perspective of micro-merchants or the macro perspective of the entire WeChat ecosystem, these two e-commerce systems have indeed generated a certain degree of competition before, and this adjustment is a good way to solve the problem.

1. Micro: The needs of core merchants

Previously, Taozi (pseudonym), a front-line business person of a third-party mini-program service provider, revealed to us that among the many merchants encountered, some merchants had the demand to "hang the third-party mini-program mall on the homepage of the video account", and for a period of time, such demand could be met.

However, later on, the homepage of the video account could only display the "Video Account Shop". The Video Account Shop is an official function of WeChat, and merchants who have used third-party mini-program malls can only continue to use them before the mini-program contract expires.

In the previous article "Taobao Model VS Douyin Model, WeChat E-commerce Stands at a Crossroads" in "New Standpoint", it was mentioned that the WeChat e-commerce system seems to have a certain degree of competition from a perspective that users cannot see. Different types of merchants have different selection tendencies. According to Taozi's description, we learned that the customers they are now in contact with who have the need for WeChat e-commerce layout are mainly divided into two categories. One is the customers before the video account era, and the other is the customers after the rise of the video account era.

Customers in the post-video account era are basically attracted by the fact that the video account is still in its bonus period. Such customers have often completed their layout on Douyin, and it is a simple matter for them to open a store on the video account. They may be brands or influencers who want to replicate their success on Douyin on the video account.

"This type of customer often directly chooses to open a video account store." The video account store is similar to the Douyin product showcase. Merchants can hang their own video account store on the video account homepage, and influencers can also hang other merchants' product links in the product showcase on the video account homepage. Taozi also said: " Most of these merchants have no private domain e-commerce needs or experience before, so they are still waiting to see more private domain precipitation functions or gameplay. "

The other type of merchants before the video account era often also deployed platforms such as Taobao. The reason for choosing to deploy private domain e-commerce is mostly because the products they sell are suitable for secondary conversion in the private domain, or they want to find new growth channels. In addition, some merchants with heavier service types will not only deploy mini-program malls, but also corporate WeChat.

This type of business has grown up almost together with a number of mini program mall service providers. The biggest highlight of the current mini program mall is the rich distribution gameplay and membership system, which to a large extent also represents the needs of private domain businesses in the pre-video account era. Take the liquor business that Taozi has come into contact with as an example: "All customers who make liquor are attracted by our distribution system."

The distribution and dissemination process often relies on point-to-point, 1V1 dissemination, that is, dissemination in the WeChat chat area. Taozi said: "The product seller can encourage their core customers to forward the mini program mall to interested friends and relatives, and set up exclusive links for these old customers. As long as someone clicks the link to enter the mini program to place an order, a commission will be settled to him." This is a top-down distribution system.

But in comparison, if the business model is simply to sell goods on Douyin or video accounts, without making too many attempts in the private domain, it can be regarded as a bottom-up distribution system. The core is that the influencer needs to have a certain amount of public domain traffic, and then hang the product link on his own product showcase. Users who watch his video and enter the video account homepage will purchase the product through his showcase, and the product party will also settle commissions with the influencer.

Bottom-up means that influencers with public domain traffic will have more say than businesses.

For merchants, this top-down order is written into their business genes and is difficult to change, so "in fact, many distribution customers also want the traffic of video accounts, but overall they still regard video accounts as part of their top-down distribution system, especially now that video accounts cannot hang our (third-party) mini-programs, they may still choose the original model." Taozi said. Not to mention that the third-party mini-program mall has a rich membership system, which is also something that the official function of video accounts cannot do.

In other words, a large number of merchants in the WeChat system before the video account era are somewhat uncomfortable with simply using the video account to sell goods.

Now, this adjustment has incorporated video account live streaming e-commerce into the WeChat open platform, placing it at the same level as third-party mini-program e-commerce in the same system. This has eliminated this problem to a certain extent, thereby expanding the possibility of linkage between the third-party ecosystem and video account e-commerce to meet the needs of these merchants, and helping to better integrate the video account's traffic into the original business processes of these core merchants.

2. Macro: Ecological Game and Construction

As mentioned above, for merchants attracted to the post-video account era, the current exploration of video accounts is basically still at the stage of copying the experience of Douyin to video accounts, and they are still watching the private domain gameplay of WeChat. In fact, this is the current macro-level bottleneck of video account e-commerce - it is difficult to cultivate WeChat's unique private domain mentality for brands or influencers who have experienced the Douyin e-commerce era.

As we all know, WeChat cannot follow the old path of Douyin in building video accounts. Douyin's commercialization path is mainly based on public domain, content and influencer IP. It constantly promotes top influencers and anchors, and also creates the bottom-up sales system mentioned above. Anchors or influencers have more say than merchants. At the same time, Douyin's commercialization does not need private domain gameplay as support.

If the entire commercial system of Video Account is controlled by WeChat , the gameplay of Video Account will not be able to get out of the Douyin model, and it will fall into a zero-sum game of competing with Douyin for anchors. After all, WeChat official functions must be standardized and concise, and cannot be customized for thousands of businesses. Customization can only be done by third-party service providers.

"The business genes of merchants that grew up in the Taobao era, the JD era, and the Douyin era remain unchanged. They still revolve around the first platform that allowed them to grow and develop, even if they also try to deploy on other platforms," ​​said Taozi.

Therefore, every time an e-commerce platform rises, it must have cultivated talents, merchants or product categories that recognize the unique business model of its own platform. WeChat’s unique e-commerce model lies not in content or shelves, but in diversified private domain sedimentation links.

For example, WeChat’s current private domain tools already have a mini-program ecosystem, an enterprise WeChat ecosystem, plus official accounts, Moments, and video accounts. These sections can be combined with each other to form various business models. For example, Moments ads jump to enterprise WeChat, jump to official accounts, jump to video accounts, enterprise WeChat jump to mini-programs, and video accounts jump to mini-programs. Different natures of businesses have different customer sedimentation links.

The core of the platform is to help merchants increase customer stickiness and achieve cost-free multiple repurchases. This is something that other e-commerce platforms cannot do, and it is also the differentiated ecological niche of WeChat Video Account.

On the other hand, the live streaming e-commerce sector of Video Account is actually a sector with heavy investment. It is almost impossible to rely solely on the official WeChat team to support the live streaming services of thousands of merchants. The iteration of Video Account live streaming will also be slower. It is reasonable to entrust the live streaming e-commerce services of Video Account to a third-party ecosystem with more abundant manpower and material resources, more diverse gameplay, and closer to merchants.

In fact, the third-party service providers of various e-commerce platforms have always been a window for observing their commercial ecology. For example, the main third-party service provider of Douyin is of the MCN type, which mainly revolves around the content production and advertising of influencers and brands; the service scope of Taobao's service providers is mainly centered around opening stores, and even includes warehousing and logistics services; and previously, most of the service providers of WeChat e-commerce were mini-program service providers, and their service content was to help merchants configure their own mini-program malls, mainly centered around interface opening and link customization.

The temperament of the three service providers also determines the e-commerce background of the three platforms. These service providers have accumulated a lot of merchant experience on their own platforms and are also good ground-breaking partners for the platforms.

It is impossible for each platform to give up the accumulated experience of third-party ecological partners, so what we mentioned before, "The WeChat e-commerce system seems to be creating a certain degree of competition from a perspective that users cannot see." Now there is a suitable solution.

3. Final Thoughts

With the development of live streaming e-commerce to the present, it is almost impossible for it to evolve further by simply promoting top anchors. For details, you can refer to the path that Xiaohongshu has been trying to promote in the past one or two years, but it has not been smooth sailing.

WeChat has brought a new solution to the entire live streaming e-commerce industry, which is not the evolution of content or algorithms, but the evolution of live streaming related service links.

In the future, we may be able to see that in addition to the live broadcast jumping to the video account product showcase, there are also live broadcast jumping to corporate WeChat, live broadcast jumping to official accounts, live broadcast jumping to third-party mini-programs, etc. The customer Taozi met two years ago tried to hang the corporate WeChat QR code in the live broadcast, "and every interested viewing user has the opportunity to be retained and labeled."

In these private domain accumulation links, different types of merchants will have different choices. WeChat's live e-commerce can also be well connected with other systems and accelerate evolution.

This is inseparable from the private domain e-commerce experience that the third-party ecosystem has already accumulated and the huge amount of energy investment in the future.

Author: New stance

Source: WeChat official account: "New Standpoint Pro (ID: xinlichang66)"