The pre-sale of 618 is cancelled this year. Are the anchors worried?

During the 618 promotion in 2024, e-commerce platforms have cancelled pre-sale models. The author analyzes this change and the coping strategies of various anchors, especially the discussion on whether to cancel pre-sale and the reasons in Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room.

Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room establishes a long-term trust relationship with consumers through actions, becoming a two-way choice for all girls.

As the weather gets hotter, the popularity of the 618 mid-year promotion is also rising. Although there is still some time before the opening, major e-commerce platforms have already geared up and have officially announced this year's gameplay in order to seize the initiative.

This year, an important change in the 618 promotion is the cancellation of the pre-sale model. As early as the end of April, Kuaishou took the lead in announcing the "spot sale". In early May, Taotian Group officially announced that this year's Tmall 618 would cancel the official pre-sale link, and JD.com followed suit. Low price and simplicity directly became the main theme of this year's 618.

The traditional method of pre-sale was once an important magic weapon for platforms and live broadcast rooms to attract customers, but in the long-term development process, consumers have accumulated a lot of dissatisfaction due to the complex mechanism it brought. The cancellation of pre-sale also sends a signal that everyone is returning to users and returning to the essence of consumption.

In this context, many anchors have taken advantage of the situation and updated the gameplay of their live broadcast rooms, mainly promoting spot discounts. However, Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room recently announced that it would reserve one day for pre-sale, and set the first live broadcast of 618 as "beauty + all-category super hot product pre-sale". What are the considerations behind this decision?

1. Has 618 changed this year?

During this year’s 618, Kuaishou became the first e-commerce platform to announce new changes, teasing in advance that it would cancel the much-criticized pre-sale model. Subsequently, Taobao, JD.com, Douyin, etc. followed suit, announcing plans to “simplify the promotion process and give users discounts directly.” This change not only responded to consumers’ demand for instant consumption experience, but also prompted e-commerce platforms and merchants to explore new business models and strategies.

As an important venue for every major promotion, the live broadcast room has also undergone many adjustments and changes this year. From "Li Jiaqi's Small Classroom" to "All Girls' Offers", Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room, which is known as "without a creative ceiling", took the initiative to "refute rumors" about the outside world's speculation about its rhythm on May 11, and officially announced this year's 618 gameplay strategy.

In his explanation, Li Jiaqi highlighted May 19th, announcing that this day was the official start of the Super 618 event in the live broadcast room, and reminded all girls not to get the date wrong. Next, he combined the daily themes to show the audience the promotion calendar for the entire 618 period in the live broadcast room, made reasonable plans based on product types and consumer needs, and presented each node in combination with the official discount mechanism.

He revealed that this year's 618 will still retain Li Jiaqi's small classroom. In addition to the previous how to buy and what to buy sessions, this time a special shopping Q&A class has been added to teach everyone how to buy their favorite products in the live broadcast room at a cheaper price, and to serve as "class representatives" with the assistants to help consumers make better decisions.

(Partial screenshots of the 618 Super Strategy Course)

A netizen on Xiaohongshu said: "Li Jiaqi is so popular that even his mother can't recognize him! There is really no ceiling for the creativity of the live broadcast room. This year, he even had a small class with real objects. He opened the bags directly when he disagreed with them. This display made people feel like they were shopping in a drugstore in Hong Kong or Macau. It was so immersive!"

In response, Mei ONE said that the shelf scene innovation of this small classroom was a clever idea of ​​the team. Its live broadcast room will actively try different live broadcast themes and formats during this year's big promotion. It hopes to change the inherent logic of live broadcast "recommendation" and "planting grass" through scene innovation, reshape the path for consumers to contact different categories and products, and provide a more direct and effective reference for their purchasing decisions.

"When our users open the live broadcast room, it's like walking into a large shopping mall at their doorstep and experiencing a sincere promotion," added Wei Yinghui, partner of Mei ONE.

During the live broadcast, Li Jiaqi mentioned that in addition to striving to obtain the best product offers for everyone, he will also distribute large red envelopes in the live broadcast room to give everyone further surprises and let them experience the feeling of "cheaper and cheaper".

Outside the live broadcast room, Lu Jiu found in the mini program of its all-girls member service center that this year's 618 strategy document has arrived as scheduled, with the date, gifts, discount mechanism, price, etc. all clearly marked. A shopping encyclopedia section for all girls has also been added at the bottom. Users only need to make choices, and the products suitable for them will automatically appear to take care of the needs of different girls. At the same time, after selecting the desired product, you can click the "one-click appointment" live broadcast reminder to reduce unnecessary squatting and waiting time and make precise attacks.

(Partial screenshot of the mini program of the All Girls Member Service Center)

One netizen in the comment section joked: "Old man Li really wants to feed us mouthful by mouthful of rice."

2. Why does Li Jiaqi’s live broadcast room want to do pre-sales?

When the platform cancelled pre-sales on June 18 this year, Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room retained one day of pre-sales. What was the confidence of Mei ONE to do so? After communicating with industry insiders, Lujiu Business Review got some answers.

First, 618 has long been a consumer phenomenon after years of continuation. For many loyal online shopping enthusiasts, it symbolizes an important node for stockpiling and grabbing bargains. For brands and merchants, it is an important moment to test their influence and market competitiveness. Although many people have questioned whether there is still purchasing power for 618 after the normalization of promotions, judging from the feedback on social media, there is still a large base of users looking forward to the arrival of the mid-year carnival.

Secondly, the one-day pre-sale period actually takes into account both the platform and consumer needs. People who often place orders in Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room know that some popular items in the live broadcast room are often sold out in seconds, and you need to wait and buy them. The pre-sale actually gives many consumers time to consider placing orders, helping them lock in inventory in advance and have a greater chance of purchasing their favorite items.

(Screenshot of some netizens’ pre-sale feedback)

Many netizens on Xiaohongshu expressed their discomfort with the cancellation of pre-sales, believing that pre-sales can lock in products in advance to facilitate subsequent order placement and receive the ordered products earlier. On the contrary, if all products are in stock, it is easy to have a situation where the order is placed but the product is out of stock.

Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room chose to strike a balance between the two. Compared with before, it cooperated with the platform to shorten the pre-sale period, while also taking into account consumers' sense of security about pre-sales.

(Screenshot of Li Jiaqi's explanation in the live broadcast room)

In fact, Li Jiaqi himself also gave a clear explanation for retaining pre-sales in the live broadcast room. Based on understanding the rhythm of the platform's promotions and collecting user feedback, one-day pre-sales are a consideration under comprehensive factors.

The live broadcast team learned from the feedback collected that many girls like to slowly accumulate the amount to get the discount. They first use a deposit to lock in the inventory, and then buy all the favorite products at the most favorable price when they pay the final payment. Retaining the pre-sale is actually to give these users more time to accumulate the amount to get the discount.

However, just like a coin has two sides, consumers have different ideas about pre-sales. Li Jiaqi's team reserved a one-day pre-sale period to take care of girls who don't like the pre-sale cycle. They understand that some girls may only want to buy one or two orders and don't want to wait too long for the pre-sale cycle, so they suggested that these girls can place orders in the live broadcast room on the spot date.

In addition, retaining pre-sales is also based on the optimization of the previous 38 promotion gameplay . Li Jiaqi's team found that during this year's 38 Festival event, many girls only used the beauty surprise coupons once in the live broadcast room. When they got new coupons the next day, the order settlement had been completed. The discount mechanism of the live broadcast room generally cannot be repeated, resulting in the coupons being useless.

Therefore, pre-sales allow everyone to complete the deposit payment on the pre-sale day, disperse the use of coupons reasonably, and not settle orders on the same day, avoiding the above situation from happening, and giving everyone more opportunities to get large coupons on the platform.

Finally, he specifically mentioned that the pre-sale period was deliberately shortened to one day so that everyone would not have to wait for a long pre-sale period and could receive their favorite products as soon as possible.

"After 9 years of live streaming, this is the first time our team has launched a gameplay that is different from the platform. We hope to take into account the needs of all girls and allow them to shop happily in the live broadcast room." Li Jiaqi said frankly during the live broadcast.

3. Return to users and focus on consumer experience

"Every big sale is like taking a math test." The nesting doll-style discounts and complicated games have caused a lot of trouble for consumers. The platform has also noticed consumers' complaints and has continuously simplified the big sale gameplay in the past two years to enhance consumers' shopping experience.

The changes in 618 this year were actually already evident as early as last year's Double 11. Everyone has returned to the simple model of offering discounts, retaining users by improving service levels and experience. Judging from the plans announced by major platforms this year, low prices and simplicity have directly become the three key words for this year's 618.

Taking into account consumers' sensitivity to prices, the platform officials and the anchors' live broadcast rooms have begun to personally take part in the event, highlighting key points for users through live broadcasts, text tutorials, short videos, etc., and telling everyone how to buy more cheaply with a sincere attitude. These practices not only help consumers save time and energy, but also make the purchasing process more efficient.

In addition to content innovation, many live broadcast rooms have begun to empower themselves through technology, scenarios, etc. At this year's Li Jiaqi Super 618 Conference, Mei ONE also announced a new move. This year's 618, the "All Girls" live broadcast room will test digital human live broadcasts for the first time. First, it will fill the gaps in real-person live broadcast time and services, and second, it will use AI's powerful data capabilities to provide more timely and accurate user communication and cover user demands as much as possible.

"Digital human live streaming is a new attempt by Mei ONE to keep pace with the times and embrace new technologies. It is also our first step into the field of AIGC. Next, we also hope to build AI intelligent customer service to provide consulting services for the entire link of live streaming, so that users can contact us when they need it," said Wei Yinghui, partner of Mei ONE. In the future, Mei ONE will explore applications in more scenarios, and then gradually empower AI technology to the entire company, deeply integrating it into the entire process of live streaming business.

In the past few years, Mei ONE has strived to provide good user services and guarantees in all aspects, so that everyone can shop happily, safely and worry-free. Lu Jiu noticed such a detail that Li Jiaqi once "called" on the platform during the live broadcast, hoping to cancel the pre-sale of the big promotion, consider consumers' feelings about the long pre-sale cycle, and create a simpler and more direct shopping experience. Today, his "prophecy" has come true, which also indirectly reflects the influence of anchors in the e-commerce ecosystem.

The cancellation of pre-sales reflects, to a certain extent, the platform's active response to consumer demands. Although this change may sacrifice certain short-term interests, from a long-term perspective, by conveying the sincerity of "abandoning routines and returning to the truth", it adapts to market and consumer expectations and better serves users.

The same is true on the anchor's side. Compared with the 321 links that rush to directly promote products, Li Jiaqi's team moves very slowly. They do not simply pursue instantaneous sales performance or engage in routine sales. Instead, they aim to assist consumers in making more informed shopping decisions through detailed product introductions and in-depth shopping guidance, and put "rational consumption, happy shopping" into practice. Through actions, they establish a long-term trust relationship with consumers, making Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room a two-way choice for all girls.

Li Jiaqi said at the Super 618 conference: "618 gives us an opportunity to showcase to users. We will work with platforms and brands to pour in our full sincerity and make the big promotion truly return to users."

Author: Xue Jizhi

Source: Lujiu Finance (ID: liujiucaijing69)