4 dark horses + 5 trends: Check out the most profitable live streaming rooms in 2023

Looking back at the whole year of 2023, e-commerce live streaming can be said to be surging. Let us read the article together to see which new anchors and future development trends of live streaming there are!

In 2023, the transformation of live e-commerce has undergone earth-shaking changes. The era of super-heads has ended, the market is still expanding, and new dark horses are emerging frequently.

For example, during last year's "Double 11", the performance of the two super anchors Li Jiaqi and Simba declined slightly, while the top MCNs and anchors were still growing. The battle report released by Jiaogepengyou Company showed that the total GMV on the three platforms of Douyin, Taobao and JD exceeded 2.483 billion, an increase of 178% compared with the same period in 2022.

At the same time, it has become a general trend for anchors to seek development on all platforms : over the past year or so, Luo Yonghao and Jiao Ge Pengyou have expanded from Douyin to platforms such as Taobao and JD.com; Oriental Selection also launched independent APP live broadcast and Taobao live broadcast in 2023.

Which new live streaming rooms have stood out this year? Which brands have made it through the siege? In this article, Kas will take stock and summarize the five trends of live streaming rooms for selling goods in 2024.

1. The new hot live broadcast room is leading the trend

In 2023, the newly emerging dark horse live broadcast rooms have all demonstrated a unique "people, goods and place" combination model, established the recognition and uniqueness of the anchor's IP, and allowed users to have a strong sense of identification and trust in the anchor.

1. Liu Yiyi: Differentiated product selection + slow live broadcast, monthly sales exceeded 350 million

At the beginning of 2023, Douyin anchor @刘一一 sparked heated discussions in the industry. Although the account has only 500,000 followers, it was able to rush to the top of Douyin's daily sales list. According to statistics, in May 2023, the sales of @刘11生活号 and @刘一一 both exceeded 100 million, ranking in the top 10 of Douyin's sales list.

To summarize Liu Yiyi's secret to bringing goods, Kass also wrote an article analyzing 5 factors:

(1) Have a differentiated product selection strategy

Liu Yiyi's selection of products is mostly minimalist clothing in black, white and gray, and the categories are mainly T-shirts, shirts, jackets, etc. The high-end, durable and practical selection has attracted a group of "rich and tasteful" fans . Data shows that the proportion of female fans in Liu Yiyi's live broadcast room is as high as 90%, and the age group of fans is mostly 31-40 years old, and the majority of them are from Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Guangdong and other places.

(2) Have the ability to produce high-quality content and use short videos to promote, test products, and attract traffic

The average number of likes for @刘一一's works is over a thousand, which may be attributed to the "Little Red Book style" presented in his works. In a courtyard full of Zen or an empty wilderness, wearing matching new clothes, walking or sitting, the characters and the scenery are perfectly matched, presenting an atmosphere of peace and tranquility, giving people a strong sense of healing.

@刘一一@刘11Life account Douyin screenshot

(3) The “slow live broadcast” style is unique on the platform

The rhythm of Liu Yiyi's live broadcast is very different from the previously popular "hawking style", "forcing orders" and "script style". Instead, it is a "gentle narrative style". Facing the audience is like facing a friend, sitting on the sofa and telling stories. It doesn't seem like selling goods, but more like recommending goods to friends.

(4) Have a strong team and supply chain

(5) Matrix account layout promoted the continued expansion of business

2. Dong Jie: Star aura + professional content seeding, launching the "Dong Life" IP

Similar to Liu Yiyi, Dong Jie is also a leader in the "slow live broadcast" style.

On January 13, Dong Jie started broadcasting on Xiaohongshu, with a GMV of around 3 million.

On February 24, Dong Jie live-streamed her merchandise on Xiaohongshu for the second time. According to official data from Xiaohongshu, the live broadcast was watched by more than 2.2 million people, topping the popularity list for six consecutive hours, with a cumulative GMV of more than 30 million. In addition, Dong Jie's Xiaohongshu account gained 220,000 followers that week, ranking first on the platform's weekly follower growth list.

At that time, among the more than 200 product links in Dong Jie's live broadcast room, high-priced products abound, such as a cardigan priced at 5,200 yuan and a ballet shoe priced at 4,932 yuan. Later, "Be the manager of your own life" became Dong Jie's live broadcast slogan, and the IP "Dong Life" was completely launched.

Screenshot of Dong Jie's second live broadcast

In a live broadcast at the end of May, Dong Jie's single-event GMV exceeded 73 million, setting a new personal performance record.

Unlike @刘一一, Dong Jie's live broadcast frequency is less frequent, only once a month, and she will spend a lot of time selecting products and showing the selection process. Before the official live broadcast, she will also release a magazine-style fashion street shooting video to show the clothing items that will be on the shelves and the matching possibilities.

The reasons why Dong Jie received such praise include: unique live broadcast style, professional explanation ability, active participation in live broadcast, and high-quality supply chain and after-sales service capabilities.

Looking at the problems that arise when celebrities sell goods through live streaming, there are only two main minefields:

1. The star team did not carefully select products and directly handed them over to the outsourcing company, resulting in consumer dissatisfaction with product quality and after-sales service;
2. The team knew that the products they were selling had defects, but they still took risks and sold fake products for the sake of huge profits.

Judging from the current live broadcasts, Dong Jie's team has obviously avoided these problems, and the lower frequency of live streaming has not yet overly consumed the enthusiasm of existing fans.

In addition, Dong Jie's team's efforts in content are also a highlight that distinguishes her from many celebrity anchors. Before live streaming, Dong Jie had updated the "Dong Life" series of videos on Xiaohongshu for two years, and began to lay the groundwork and warm up a month before the live broadcast, so that fans were mentally prepared and increased their sense of trust.

It is worth noting that Dong Jie’s Xiaohongshu page shows that she has signed a contract with the MCN “Haining One Plus One”, which is a subsidiary of One Heart Entertainment founded by Yang Tianzhen.

3. Zhang Xiaohui: High “quality-price ratio” product selection + emotional value, high potential live broadcast room exceeds 100 million

After Dong Jie’s outstanding sales performance and successful results, Xiaohongshu has produced another new star in selling products.

On May 22, 2023, Hong Kong socialite Gigi Leung started her first live broadcast on Xiaohongshu with her "Rose Live Broadcast Room". Data shows that the live broadcast lasted nearly 6 hours, during which the live broadcast room has been occupying the top spot on Xiaohongshu's live broadcast list, with a total number of viewers approaching one million, more than 1.3 million likes in the live broadcast room, and sales exceeding 50 million.

At 1 a.m. on October 16, 2023, Zhang Xiaohui completed her second live broadcast on Xiaohongshu. The battle report released by the platform showed that the sales of this live broadcast exceeded 100 million yuan, making her the first anchor on Xiaohongshu to exceed 100 million yuan in a single broadcast.

Screenshot of Zhang Xiaohui's second Xiaohongshu live broadcast

After the two live broadcasts, the style of Rose's live broadcast room has been established, that is, the "niche brand + relatively high price" route. For example, a set of high-top shampoo set and two bottles of revitalizing hair mask are priced at more than 600 yuan. In its second live broadcast, the sales of 5 brands exceeded 5 million, including aroseisarose, MY.ORANICS, HAIRMAX, Augustinus Bader, and Sudtana, all of which are international brands and take the mid-to-high-end route.

In addition to the myth of high sales and popularity, Zhang Xiaohui's excellent language expression ability and elegant and calm temperament became the highlight that was repeatedly spread by users after the live broadcast. For example, in the early morning of October 16, before the live broadcast was about to end, Zhang Xiaohui put on a green dress and recited the dialogue from Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice". Her rich emotions and soft tone touched many people.

According to Kas, Gigi Leung had previously tried live streaming to sell goods on platforms such as Douyin, but it did not make much of a splash. This year, she was able to stand out from the crowd on Xiaohongshu. There are many reasons for this, but the core factor is the stability of her personal IP.

Zhang Xiaohui's appearance, temperament, life experience, and explanation style all fit the tone of Xiaohongshu. In addition to the "quality-price ratio" of the products, she also provides users with emotional value and aesthetic experience, which is the core competitiveness of her live broadcast room. A Xiaohongshu user commented, "The most powerful salesperson is the one who can not only convey values, but also change the direction of the topic. She did not solve the problem of whether it is expensive or not, she said you are worth it."

4. Zheng Xiangxiang: 9.9 low price + high speed product passing, creating a visual hammer

During the National Day holiday in 2023, Douyin anchor @郑香香 gained a lot of fans due to her low-priced live streaming. Data shows that during the National Day holiday, the cumulative number of viewers of "郑香香" live streaming exceeded 120 million, and the estimated sales exceeded 50 million yuan. The main products sold were clothing, underwear and daily necessities, with unit prices mainly between 10-30 yuan.

After studying Zheng Xiangxiang's live broadcast room, Kas believes that it has three advantages.

At the anchor level, a good anchor can leverage natural traffic.

During the National Day holiday, Zheng Xiangxiang herself wore the same skirt as the heroine Jin Chen in the summer movie box office champion "All or Nothing", and she was an eye-catching presence when standing in the live broadcast room. In addition, she has rich experience in live broadcasts, speaks very fast, and is emotionally infectious, which easily attracts users to enter the live broadcast room and stay for a while.

@郑香香TikTok video screenshot

The usual scene in Zheng Xiangxiang's live broadcast room is: the female anchor with exquisite makeup opens an orange box and picks up a bath towel to show, "A bath towel that can be worn after taking a bath, 10 yuan", and after quoting the price, she "throws" the box aside, then switches to the next box and picks up the next item, with the price quoted mostly ranging from 9.9 to 29.9. The fast-paced and repetitive way of displaying products makes people dazzled and want to continue watching. Many users mentioned, "Before I could hear clearly, the link was already snapped up."

At the supply chain level, Zheng Xiangxiang's goods mainly come from the Selected Alliance, and the clothing comes from the manufacturer's leftovers. In addition, she has entered the live streaming e-commerce industry since 2017 and has been immersed in it for many years. She has gained some experience and understands user psychology well enough, so she can formulate appropriate product grouping and arrangement strategies.

At the scene level, the live broadcast room uses a large area of ​​"Hermes orange" as the background, coupled with professional lighting, to avoid the cheap feeling brought by low-priced products. In addition, the way the anchor takes out the goods from the exquisitely packaged boxes gives the products an invisible halo. At the same time, Zheng Xiangxiang's quick product display method has also created a visual hammer in the minds of users who have watched the live broadcast, and has differentiated it from other live broadcast rooms.

The above three points do not seem to have particularly strong barriers, but when combined together, they can indeed make a live broadcast room run well and achieve short-term explosive results.

However, Kas has also analyzed and compared live streaming rooms similar to Zheng Xiangxiang's, and found that there are many users willing to pay for the "novel and unique" visual experience, but how long this sense of freshness can last depends on whether the anchor can have multiple layers of charm to attract them to stay.

2. Five trends of live streaming sales in 2024

1. The involution of brand self-broadcasting intensifies, and sentiment becomes the winning formula

2023 is the year when brand live broadcast rooms will show off their talents.

On the one hand, we see that brands such as Zara and Luckin Coffee have chosen the "high-end" route, bringing their products to the catwalk to create eye-catching scenes for users; Coconut Tree has launched a wave of male-oriented marketing with its "masculine fitness" campaign. Both brands have created visual spectacles to increase topics and discussions. (Click here to view: Luckin Coffee "catwalk", Coconut Tree "fitness": live broadcasts are full of male-oriented marketing)

On the other hand, more brands with insufficient budgets and insufficient spending power choose to "keep up with current events". (Click here to view: One flower "falls", and many domestic products "survive")

For example, after the "79 yuan eyebrow pencil" incident triggered public controversy, the Huaxizi brand was attacked. Old domestic brands represented by Fenghua were quick to take advantage of the trend and, relying on memes and crazy literature, took over the wealth created by Huaxizi's "fall."

Another brand, Vitality 28, has become popular again, which is a case of "traffic from heaven" and "rain after a long drought".

On September 13, three days after the "Hua Xizi 79 yuan eyebrow pencil incident", @活力28 clothing cleaning flagship continued to broadcast live as usual. Many fans who wanted to support old domestic products flocked to the live broadcast room. The operating company behind the account urgently grabbed old employees to join the live broadcast room, which also pushed the three elderly anchors to become popular.

@活力28服装洗衣旗舰店TikTok video screenshot

The enthusiasm brought by the sentiment is still continuing. Cloud shareholders are still paying attention to the factory operation of Vitality 28, and the brand side is also very dedicated to choosing regular reports. It seems that the brand and fans are still maintaining a good interaction.

2. The game between big anchors and platforms continues

Since Douyin traffic is distributed based on algorithms, traffic is dispersed, private traffic has not been established, the horse racing mechanism that can be cleared at any time, and the ever-increasing traffic prices have made the top anchors feel insecure. After considering many aspects, the top anchors may choose to jointly deploy on multiple platforms.

When Dongfang Zhenxuan was founded only four months ago, the company launched its own products, and launched its own App in less than half a year. In July 2023, Dongfang Zhenxuan's own App launched live broadcasting business. Sun Dongxu once explained in a live broadcast that Dongfang Zhenxuan APP has three positionings:

1. It is a platform for selecting good products;
2. It continuously provides differentiated services to users through independent APPs. In the future, Dongfang Selection will establish a membership service system to provide premium products to paying members.
3. It is a cultural platform that provides users with good and meaningful content. Read thousands of books and travel thousands of miles.

On the afternoon of July 26, the Douyin live broadcast room @东方甄選 announced that it would suspend operations for three days. Its own product store was also suspended during the same period. The explanation given by 东方甄選 was that "the rules were accidentally triggered and we will actively rectify them."

On August 29, New Oriental founder Yu Minhong and Oriental Selection CEO Sun Xudong (Dongfang Xiaosun) led many Oriental Selection anchors to start a full-day live broadcast on Taobao.

3. Vertical live streaming rooms are growing rapidly

Kas noticed that vertical live broadcast rooms grew rapidly in 2023, and the performance of some accounts exceeded that of comprehensive live broadcast rooms.

For example, on May 27, 2023, @东方甄選美丽生活’s single-day GMV exceeded 80 million. This achievement surpassed the former “TikTok No. 1” - on the same day, Luo Yonghao himself appeared in the live broadcast of “Make Friends”, with an estimated GMV of 10 million to 25 million, which also exceeded the main account of 东方甄選.

At present, the daily sales of @东方选美丽生活 can still be maintained at around 10 million. According to "Bianniushi", the total GMV of the account reached 238 million in December 2023, ranking 16th on Douyin's list of anchors selling goods that month.

In addition, Tmall’s Double 11 public battle report showed that Azhuo Tavern’s live broadcast transaction exceeded 460 million, and Jiuxian Liangge’s live broadcast transaction exceeded 480 million. Among them, Jiuxian Liangge became the first wine anchor on Taobao to exceed 1 billion in transaction.

"Blue Whale Finance" visited the Jingdezhen ceramic industry belt. A brand called "Yuanzi Loves Tea" had sales of more than 60 million in 2023, of which more than 70% of its revenue came from Taobao store live broadcasts.

4. Celebrity live broadcast rooms tend to be professional and vertical

In 2020, more than 500 celebrities and artists entered the live broadcast room to sell goods. Now, the trend of celebrities selling goods has obviously cooled down. Li Xiang, who was once the top celebrity in selling goods, posted a message saying: "I have retired"; Liu Tao, who was once popular and was called "Human Juhuasuan" and "Liu Yidao", has also completely stopped broadcasting.

As of the end of 2023, the celebrities who remain in the live streaming industry all have their own characteristics and highlight their own expertise in certain areas. For example, Yi Nengjing focuses on skin care and home furnishings, Wu Xin's personality is a fashion buyer who only tells the truth, and Chai Biyun has won the favor of many passers-by with her leisurely and unhurried explanation style.

5. JD.com and Xiaohongshu use big moves: the tug-of-war between platforms has a new highlight

In 2023, the live streaming e-commerce industry welcomed the strong entry of platforms such as Xiaohongshu, Bilibili, and JD. Although these platforms launched the live streaming sales function several years ago, a series of initiatives last year showed different significance.

Xiaohongshu has become a rising star, launching benchmark anchors such as Dong Jie, Zhang Xiaohui, Yike KK, and Yi Nengjing; Bilibili has made a name for itself in fashion, beauty and other categories in addition to the home category.

B station UP master @Parrot Pear Live

JD.com invited leading live broadcast MCN organizations such as Jiaogepengyou to join, and at the same time opened a "JD.com Procurement and Sales" live broadcast room during Double 11, shouting out the slogan of "lowest price" to compete with Li Jiaqi. Data released by the platform showed that the total number of viewers of JD.com Procurement and Sales live broadcast exceeded 380 million. On January 3 this year, JD.com Procurement and Sales announced that it would officially enter Xiaohongshu, obviously to continue to operate this IP.

In 2024, e-commerce platforms and short video platforms will still compete in the field of live streaming. Who will succeed in breaking through and improving their ranking? In order to retain users' attention, what new tricks will brands come up with? Kas will continue to pay attention.

Author: Lou Xingchui; WeChat public account: Kas Data