In-depth discussion on 618: Super head is weak, new and old platforms are "fighting"

This year's 618, e-commerce platforms tacitly canceled the pre-sale system, and then the anchors of each platform came out to compete and launched new functions to assist. Even platforms such as Xiaohongshu and Bilibili are actively participating, and the content field and shelf field are ready. How consumers buy is the key to this year's 618.

How should consumers buy? This question has become the key to this year's 618.

Although there is still some time before the 618 promotion, various platforms have frequently "showed their swords": Taobao has re-launched the "web version" to return to consumers; Taobao, JD.com, Kuaishou and other platforms have cancelled the "pre-sale mode" and shipped directly from stock; Xiaohongshu and other platforms aim to sit at this year's 618 table through store broadcasts.

As the e-commerce market becomes increasingly saturated and consumers have more and more choices, how to stand out in this fierce competition has become a problem that major platforms and anchors must face.

As the most important promotion node of the year for e-commerce platforms, 618 is undoubtedly a big test for e-commerce platforms and anchors. When consumers have more choices, anchors and platforms from all sides must come up with practical strategies to stand out in this competition.

1. The anchors are fighting each other, and the battle situation is unclear

As live streaming becomes an important part of e-commerce platforms, competition during this year's 618 shopping festival has become increasingly fierce.

At the same time, the cancellation of pre-sales and the extension of promotion time mean that anchors will face greater pressure.

As a top anchor, Li Jiaqi is undoubtedly at the forefront of this competition. During last year's Double Eleven, affected by the Huaxizi public opinion storm, Li Jiaqi's live broadcast sales fell by more than 50% year-on-year.

Faced with the severe situation of this year's 618, Li Jiaqi said frankly on May 16: "Is the 618 promotion difficult? I think it is difficult, but I like to find breakthroughs in difficulties. I want to see what else we can bring to users." Since then, the term #李佳琪说这年618大促銷是难的# has become a hot search on Weibo.

Image source: Weibo

In order to welcome the arrival of 618, Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room started the preheating mode as early as May 10, by publishing beauty knowledge sharing content and providing consumers with detailed shopping guides from multiple dimensions such as skin quality, price, category, etc. This move not only improved the user's service experience, but also pointed out a clear shopping path for confused consumers.

At 8 pm on May 20, the first hour after Tmall's 618 spot sales started, Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room's transaction volume exceeded 100 million yuan. Mei ONE's "All Girls' Wardrobe" live broadcast room also achieved a transaction volume of more than 200 million yuan on the 19th and 20th, which was basically the same as the total sales during last year's 618.

Image source network

At the same time, another well-known anchor Simba is also trying to adjust his pace. Against the backdrop of tensions with the Kuaishou platform, Simba issued an apology statement through Xinxuan Group, promising to strengthen anchor management, abide by platform rules, and work with the platform to create a good e-commerce environment. After obtaining the unblocking of live broadcast rights, Simba quickly returned to the live broadcast room and continued to bring high-quality shopping experience to fans.

On May 20, Simba’s live broadcast rights were unblocked, and he resumed live broadcasting.

Image source: Kuaishou

The actions of Li Jiaqi and Simba are undoubtedly a microcosm of the fierce competition among top anchors in the field of live e-commerce. As various platforms have implemented the strategy of "supporting the middle and lower levels", the top anchors are facing unprecedented pressure and are trying to "recover blood" through big promotions.

2. New and old players at the 618 poker table

As the 618 Mid-Year Sale approaches, the e-commerce world is once again in turmoil. In addition to traditional e-commerce giants such as JD.com, Tmall, and Pinduoduo, a number of emerging platforms are also emerging.

During the 618 shopping festival last year, when traditional e-commerce platforms were facing growth bottlenecks, Xiaohongshu became a dark horse in the market with its buyers’ live broadcasts. This year, Xiaohongshu is ready to go, and officially launched the 618 promotion at midnight on May 19, focusing on launching two core gameplays: “Treasure Buyers” and store live broadcasts.

In terms of buyers, Xiaohongshu has gathered many well-known buyers including Dong Jie, Zhang Xiaohui, Yi Nengjing, Wu Xin, etc., and has also attracted outstanding merchants such as Little Yellow Banana Hand Hook and Manyi Ceramics to join.

Through the two major activities of "Buyer's Competition" and "Buyer's Sprint Competition", Xiaohongshu not only increased the enthusiasm of buyers, but also brought more choices of high-quality products to consumers.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

In terms of store live broadcasting, Xiaohongshu has upgraded its strategies for store notes, notes and live broadcasting collaboration, and increased its support for store live broadcasting. Although most mature brands currently have a small proportion of store live broadcasting on Xiaohongshu, new consumer brands and independent designer brands have found their own stage here.

According to Xiaohongshu's 618 report, on the first day of 618 this year, Xiaohongshu's e-commerce live streaming orders were 8.2 times that of the same period last year, the first day's live streaming GMV was 6 times that of the same period last year, and the number of users who purchased in the live streaming room was 7.4 times that of the same period last year. The number of store broadcasts on the first day was 3.8 times that of the same period last year, and the store broadcast GMV was 4.2 times that of the same period last year.

In addition to Xiaohongshu, platforms such as Bilibili and Xianyu are also actively participating in the 618 promotion this year to leverage their own e-commerce attributes and maintain their market competitiveness.

Facing the upcoming big promotion, Bilibili, which has been continuously increasing its e-commerce business over the past year, has chosen to cooperate with platforms such as Alibaba, JD.com, Pinduoduo and Vipshop to continue to deepen its "big open loop" strategy.

"On Bilibili, we can achieve the full-link process of seeding products and converting transactions at the same time." In other words, UP hosts can directly link products in their video submissions.

Data shows that in the past year, the average daily number of videos selling goods on Bilibili has increased by nearly 600% year-on-year, and the average daily live broadcasts selling goods have increased by more than 200% year-on-year. @鳥牡梨, @Mr迷角, @大物是也 and many other UP hosts have successfully led the live broadcast sales, once again proving the commercial potential of Bilibili.

Such achievements have undoubtedly brought confidence to Bilibili. Recently, Bilibili launched the "Sales Service Provider Platform". It aims to provide various sales service providers with product capabilities such as "product selection insights", "personnel selection and empowerment", "content analysis", "people-sales connection", and "business diagnosis", and provide official growth support for service providers through the platform to help improve the business scale and efficiency of service providers.

Image source network

As the 618 promotion approaches, the battle for e-commerce promotion is becoming more and more intense. New and old players have shown their weapons to compete for consumers' attention and market share.

3. What does the platform want through 618?

Canceling pre-sales is a key word for this year's 618.

In the short term, pre-sales do provide a certain buffer for e-commerce platforms. By spreading the pressure of express delivery during the promotion period over a longer period of time, the platform can manage logistics resources more effectively and reduce the pressure of delivery in the short term. However, from a long-term perspective, we must deeply analyze the potential impact of the pre-sale model on user experience.

The pre-sale model means that consumers need to go through a longer waiting period, which not only increases the decision-making risk of consumers, but may also lead to the complexity of after-sales service, thus greatly reducing the shopping experience of consumers.

As e-commerce competition becomes increasingly fierce, consumer experience has become a key factor in determining the success of e-commerce platforms. With the continuous increase in the number of major promotion nodes for domestic e-commerce, the pre-sale model has gradually revealed its limitations.

Due to a combination of factors, Taobao and Tmall were the first to cancel pre-sales this year. At the same time, the 618 time node was further advanced this year.

Unlike last year when the event started on May 26, this year Taobao and Tmall took the lead and launched the 618 event on May 20.

The success of the 618 promotion is not accidental. When faced with the challenge of insufficient backup of mid-level anchors, Taobao and Tmall took decisive action by establishing a live e-commerce company to provide "nanny-style" full-hosting operation services for new anchors, celebrities, KOLs, and MCN organizations who are interested in joining Taobao.

Taobao said that the main purpose of establishing the company is to provide six-month services to the anchors who have just joined Taobao. After the "newbie training period", the anchors and agencies can adapt to the platform rules and gameplay, and they can form their own teams or sign contracts with other MCN agencies.

This year, Taobao plans to set up hundreds of celebrity live broadcast rooms for the 618 shopping festival, creating a synergistic effect with Taobao MCN companies. While improving the shopping experience of users, it will also help cultivate more influential and appealing anchors.

Image source: Taobao

Looking back at last year's Double 11, Taobao's store live broadcasts performed particularly well. According to data released by Tmall, during the Double 11 period, 38 brands' live broadcasts achieved sales of over 100 million yuan, and 451 stores' live broadcasts achieved sales of over 10 million yuan. Strong categories such as apparel, beauty products, and home furnishings grew rapidly.

During this year’s 618, the momentum of store live streaming remained unabated, with sales of 67 store live streaming rooms exceeding 10 million, and Apple’s live streaming room even achieving sales of over 1.5 billion in the first hour.

In this fiercely competitive 618, while content e-commerce and shelf e-commerce are merging with each other, the encounter between store broadcasting and data broadcasting also makes this year's 618 particularly lively.

Simpler gameplay, bigger discounts, more rational content... the content field and shelf field are ready. As for who will be the winner of this battle, the market will give the answer in half a month.