Don’t overestimate the “store broadcast era”

This article will explore the rise of Dianbo and the risks and opportunities it brings, analyze the similarities between Dianbo and Dabo, and evaluate the risks and potential opportunities behind Dianbo. Let’s take a look!

Store live broadcast has become the keyword for this year's Double 11.

As the name suggests, store broadcast refers to the act of brand officials launching live broadcasts to sell goods in their own live broadcast rooms. In the past few years, top anchors such as Li Jiaqi and Wei Ya have been far ahead in terms of their ability to sell goods, and store broadcasts have rarely received attention.

According to media reports, in 2019 and 2020, the proportion of Douyin store broadcasts in live streaming sales was 16-17% and 30% respectively, which is not high.

However, in the past one or two years, as top anchors have successively "crashed", as well as the high cost of purchasing traffic among anchors and the gap in conversion effects, more and more brands have paid attention to store broadcasts.

Official data from Douyin shows that in 2021, Douyin store broadcasts accounted for about 58% of all e-commerce live broadcasts, an increase of nearly 100% year-on-year.

During this year's Double 11, Cheng Daofang, general manager of Taobao's live broadcast business unit, said in a media interview that this year is the first year of the explosion of Taobao store live broadcasts and has become the core business position of merchants.

Taobao's official data shows that as of 0:00 on November 11, Taobao has generated 58 live broadcast rooms with sales exceeding 100 million yuan, of which store broadcasts account for more than 60%. In the past year, Taobao has added more than 300,000 store broadcast rooms, of which more than 27,000 store live broadcast rooms have sales exceeding 1 million yuan, and nearly 4,000 have sales exceeding 10 million yuan. All these data show that the weight of store broadcasts in the Taobao ecosystem is gradually rising.

Since Taobao Tian Group announced its split at the beginning of this year, Taobao Live has received much attention as a star business. It is understood that Taobao Live had set a relatively aggressive goal this year, and judging from the performance of the two major promotions of 618 and Double 11 this year, the goal has been achieved.

As platforms are calling for the "Store Broadcasting Era" to the outside world, will store broadcasting really take over the second half of live broadcast e-commerce? And can store broadcasting, like the big anchor era, create a new peak for live broadcast e-commerce?

1. Dianbo and Dabo are becoming more and more similar

Since the emergence of live streaming with goods, store broadcasts have not been a new thing.

According to official data from Taobao Live, in 2021, the proportion of live broadcasts by major beauty brands has reached 90%, including well-known brands such as DIOR, Valentino, and KENZO. In 2022, during the 618 shopping festival, Taobao Live data showed that brand store transactions increased by more than 100% compared with the same period last year. As of 11 a.m. on June 1 of that year, the number of live broadcast rooms of stores with transactions exceeding 10 million yuan was more than twice that of the same period last year.

However, compared with the traditional store broadcasts in which the host plays the role of a saleswoman or customer service, the current store broadcasts have added content attributes and present some characteristics of expert live broadcasts. At the same time, they have traditional shelves with richer SKUs, as well as the customer service capabilities and brand attributes used by the brand in its private domain.

Taobao Live broadcasts some brand stores

Under such a configuration, store broadcasting is not just about becoming a sales floor, but an interactive space between brands and consumers.

In order to meet this new scenario, store broadcasts have been improved in terms of duration, product selection mechanism, welfare prices, etc.

Behind this also reflects the characteristics of the store broadcast era: longer live broadcast duration, formation of a matrix account strategy, and emphasis on private domain operations.

Among them, FILA, L'Oreal, and Estee Lauder's Taobao store broadcasts have increased their broadcasting time. They are also the brands that broke 100 million yuan the fastest in their respective vertical categories during Double 11. FILA started with a 12-hour daily broadcast, and during the promotion period, it adopted a "sun-sun-sun" broadcast mode of 25 hours in a row.

In order to expand traffic, most brands’ store broadcasts will not be put in one basket. Even on the same platform, there are multiple matrix accounts set up, such as official flagship stores, welfare store stores, and vertical selected stores.

During the big sale, consumers are more sensitive to prices. Many brand store broadcasts have basically achieved the same pricing mechanism as the top live broadcast rooms. Some store broadcasts also encourage consumers to join as members to receive more attention gifts.

For consumers, they can obtain more comprehensive information by interacting with the host through store broadcasts and asking questions.

PROYA has multiple live broadcast matrices on TikTok

The fun of store live streaming is that you don’t have to wait in line to grab goods, there is no sense of urgent anxiety, the host can also display the goods for a longer time, and sometimes there are not many people online, and you can chat with the host.

In addition, store broadcasting also helps brands set their own live broadcast release rhythm and reach fans in the live broadcast room with uninterrupted exposure.

At the same time, store broadcasts are gradually making up for their own shortcomings in content. During the Double Eleven period, many store broadcasts invited anchors, celebrities, and brand managers to join the live broadcast rooms to enhance the content of the live broadcast rooms. Before this, many store broadcasts also played role-playing games, attracting consumers to stay for the fun of the live broadcast rooms through personality shaping.

The support of the platform has also become one of the factors for merchants to increase their layout of store broadcasts and deepen their private domain traffic.

During this year's Double 11, multiple platforms including Taobao, Douyin, and Kuaishou invested funds and traffic to support store broadcasts, which also means that the platforms need to balance the traffic of store broadcasts and data broadcasts.

Cheng Daofang said that Dianbo used to be positioned as a private domain and marketing tool, while Dabo was used to attract users, and there was traffic overflow, and the platform made public domain allocation. However, as the differences between Dianbo and Dabo narrowed, the platform did not allocate according to the ecosystem, but according to indicators, "for Dabo and Dianbo, it is fair competition logic."

On the other hand, "de-heading" of anchors seems to have become a common goal of brands and platforms.

According to iResearch data, the transaction volume of self-broadcasting by enterprises will reach 49.8% in 2023, with live broadcasting by experts accounting for half of the market. In the same period last year, Li Jiaqi's live broadcast sales accounted for nearly one-third of the total sales on "Double 11", but this year the proportion has dropped to about one-quarter.

The popularity of store live streaming represents that live streaming is gradually returning to its essence of e-commerce, and product quality, price, service and other aspects determine consumers' purchasing behavior.

However, the flash sale atmosphere during the big promotion period may not be suitable for the general rhythm of listening to the host's explanation slowly in the live broadcast room of the store . Some consumers still mainly place orders from the shopping cart. How to retain these "buy and go" consumers requires the store broadcast to extend the paths to a richer level.

2. The dangers and opportunities behind store broadcasting

To a certain extent, during the highly purposeful Double Eleven, whether it is a live broadcast or a store live broadcast, the most important thing for consumers when they enter the live broadcast room is to recognize "where is the lowest price".

Therefore, for some brands, giving the "lowest price on the entire network" to big anchors is still a shackle to the further development of store live broadcasts.

After all, the top anchors bring not only traffic and sales, but also the possibility of enhancing brand value. Just like Huaxizi, Winona, Quark and other once unknown domestic brands became famous in Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room, apart from the GMV at the data level, the more important thing is the intangible goodwill.

Screenshot of Li Jiaqi's live broadcast

Of course, as a number of big anchors have failed one after another, the sales data cannot be clearly guaranteed, and there is even a risk of reputation collapse. Brands have chosen to change direction and leave budgets for self-built store broadcast accounts. Improving the self-broadcast system is one of the most long-term and stable sales.

However, the key is that brands may not necessarily personally build their own store live broadcast accounts, which is also an important hidden danger in the development of store live broadcasts.

The vast majority of brands will choose to cooperate with broadcasting companies, which will charge according to the hourly wage rule of "service fee + hourly wage". Usually, on the basis of a monthly service fee of tens of thousands, both parties will stipulate the length of the live broadcast and pay a fee of several hundred to one or two thousand per hour.

In this case, the broadcasting company often uses the brand's account for live broadcasts, and the anchor often appears in the live broadcast room as a shopping guide, making it highly replaceable.

Most of the anchors in most broadcasting companies are part-time and do not have in-depth understanding of brand products. Without standard live broadcast scripts, the quality of the entire show will be directly reduced, which also brings hidden dangers to the brand. There are also anchors who have affected the brand due to their personal remarks.

Anmuxi anchor made inappropriate remarks in the live broadcast room

In August this year, when the Zhejiang Satellite TV program "The Voice of China" attracted national attention, a video of a suspected Anmuxi anchor openly insulting consumers in the live broadcast room went viral online, making Anmuxi quickly become the target of public criticism. Netizens were instantly furious and left messages on the official Weibo account of Anmuxi, expressing their intention to take action to boycott Anmuxi, the sponsor of "The Voice of China".

In response to this, Amul issued an official statement saying that this was not the brand's official live broadcast room, nor was it an official channel account of the brand's dealers, distributors, etc., but netizens did not agree with this statement. After the incident broke out, Yili shares fell 1.37% and its market value shrank by about 2.4 billion yuan.

When Amul was making headlines due to the anchor incident, its competitor Chunzhen was unexpectedly hit by this overwhelming wealth. The popularity of Chunzhen's official live broadcast room, which had always had few visitors, suddenly exceeded 2,000+.

Brand live broadcast rooms have become an important window for brands to reach the Internet. In the past, when public opinion events occurred, netizens would flock to official Weibo, Taobao customer service and other channels to seek contact with brands, but now brand live broadcast rooms that can respond instantly have become the "new favorite", which means that the KPI of brand live broadcast rooms cannot just be selling goods, but an important channel to respond to sudden public opinion and prevent live broadcasts from creating public opinion. After the Huaxizi incident, the performance of domestic live broadcast rooms also illustrates this truth.

Image source: Feigua Data

After the Hua Xizi incident, the number of fans in live broadcast rooms of domestic brands such as Fenghua increased significantly.

The reaction to public opinion may be a "crisis" that a brand store broadcast needs to pay attention to, but it may also be the "huge fortune" that another brand store broadcast has been waiting for. In the era of store broadcast, most brands are more looking forward to the golden opportunity than the big promotion nodes - the conversion of consumer emotional value. Although brands such as Hongxing Erke, Fenghua, and Huoli 28 have waited for such an opportunity and achieved conversion in store broadcasts, such opportunities are still the rarest.
In order to be able to seize the opportunity accurately, the cost of store broadcasts has also risen sharply, triggering a new round of live broadcast competition.

3. A new round of internal competition in the era of store broadcasting

Early store broadcasts were where small brands tried their best.

Small brands can make small steps and make mistakes, and quickly iterate, so they are more sensitive to market reactions and implementation actions. However, large brands have complex organizations and need to report to various levels. Compared with store broadcasts, which require long-term patience and preparation, large brands are more optimistic about finding Li Jiaqi and Wei Ya to create a million GMV explosion, and the battle report data is also better. On the contrary, small brands often have no such high marketing budget, so they can only settle for store broadcasts and private domain traffic.

Now, regardless of whether it is a brand of any size or any e-commerce platform, store live streaming has become the next important bet, which has also invisibly led to brand merchants becoming more and more involved in store live streaming.

For example, the duration of store broadcasts is relatively long. An e-commerce manager of a clothing brand told Yiyuguancha (ID: yiyuguancha) that in the past, brand store broadcasts could be basically set up with just one anchor and a central control and operation staff. However, as store broadcasts become more and more popular, a 12-hour store broadcast requires 2-3 anchors and operations to rotate. The construction of live broadcast rooms has also become more professional, with lights, LED screens, and cameras all targeting the top anchors.

Of course, store live broadcasts can also be further streamlined in costs in the future through the use of AI digital humans. However, how can consumers, who are unwilling to stay in a store live broadcast room for too long and find it difficult to establish an emotional connection, stay in an AI live broadcast room that speaks clichés?

The cost of setting up a live broadcast room is only one aspect. The increased difficulty of store broadcast traffic has also made many merchants complain . "In the past, everyone just started the broadcast. Now the complexity of traffic is no less than that of Taobao's purchase of direct traffic and product sales treasure. These internal problems will ultimately be solved by us merchants ourselves."

A successful store live broadcast room needs to take on the roles of KPI and public opinion, which is a double test for brand merchants. Some unstable factors are inevitably involved in the operation process. If it becomes popular, it may soar like the old domestic live broadcast rooms, but if there is a momentary mistake, it may also be criticized by the entire network.

As consumers become increasingly sensitive to prices, it is understandable that brand merchants will recover funds and build their own channels. Just like after one passionate selling show after another by the top live-streaming anchors, consumers need a calm consumption scenario to think and make decisions. This inevitably goes back to the essence of live-streaming e-commerce - the change in content format, from the initial static images and texts, to the dynamic video details page, and then to the adrenaline-enhancing live-streaming rooms of the top live-streaming anchors, and finally returning to the store broadcast itself.
Because of this, perhaps we should not blindly tout the "store broadcast era". The product strength of brand merchants is the ultimate foundation.

Author: Thick Code

Source: Yiyuguancha (ID: yiyuguancha), the telescope and sonar of the pan-entertainment industry.