With 75 million viewers, how long will the “throwing goods while selling” event be popular?

Double 11 is coming, and the live streaming industry is booming again. In the Douyin live broadcast room, a host's "Guo Pin Live" gameplay attracted many users. With 75 million viewers per show, how many days can this live streaming model last?

Double Eleven is coming, and the live streaming industry for selling goods is "in vogue" again.

On the Douyin platform, there is a live broadcast room where a beautiful host opens an orange box, picks up a bath towel and displays it, saying, "A bath towel that can be worn after taking a bath, 10 yuan." After quoting the price, she "throws" the box aside, then switches to another box, picks up the next item, and quotes the price, and so on. Many users said that before they could hear clearly, the link had been snapped up.

The Douyin account "Zheng Xiangxiang" is "passing the product live"

It was this way of selling goods that many people said they had never seen before, which made the "Zheng Xiangxiang" account's single-game GMV on October 4 reach 50 million to 75 million, with an average number of online people per game reaching 28,700 and an increase of 1.8711 million followers per game.

The sales data of the "Zheng Xiangxiang" account on October 4th

Image source/ Xindou

For a time, the live streaming sales circle exploded, and many peers were wondering, who is this "Zheng Xiangxiang" who has been live streaming for 105 hours? Is this kind of "10 yuan, 8 yuan" live streaming without any introduction really profitable? If a product is displayed in 3 seconds and there is no time to see it clearly, will users place an order?

Just when the popularity of the "Zheng Xiangxiang" account was growing, the anchor suddenly stopped live streaming, contrary to her usual behavior. She used to start broadcasting at 7 a.m. every day, but after the National Day holiday, she only started broadcasting briefly on October 9.

On October 15, Zheng Xiangxiang finally started broadcasting again, but after only one hour, she said her voice was hoarse and stopped broadcasting immediately. The GMV and popularity brought by the short live broadcast were mediocre. The GMV of a single live broadcast was 100,000-250,000, and the average number of online people was 7,228. Currently, the number of fans of the "Zheng Xiangxiang" account is 5.374 million.

During the period when Zheng Xiangxiang was not broadcasting, a large number of similar accounts emerged on Douyin as expected, and there were more and more imitators. So, will the "Guopin Live Broadcast" represented by Zheng Xiangxiang be another "flash in the pan" live broadcast method?

Some analysts say that "Zheng Xiangxiang" and others may have made a good start. This "passing product live broadcast" gameplay is not completely without merit. In addition to the eye-catching form, it represents another form of bringing goods besides mainstream anchors such as Li Jiaqi and Dongfang Zhenxuan - relying on the platform's selected alliance supply and tail goods channels, focusing on low-priced products, and targeting users concentrated in the sinking market.

But in the final analysis, how long this sales model can be popular will ultimately depend on the "people, goods and place" capabilities of "Zheng Xiangxiang" and others.

1. A product is shown every 3 seconds, and 75 million is sold in one show

Zheng Xiangxiang's popular "product live broadcast" only shows products without explaining them, with one product every 3 seconds. However, the average number of online viewers in the live broadcast room is nearly 30,000, which is comparable to the data of the top anchors on Douyin. Why can this live broadcast format both increase fans and sell goods?

"Focus" noticed that Zheng Xiangxiang started live streaming in 2017 and has tried various forms of women's clothing live streaming in the past three years. In the first half of this year, she was still doing "summer clothes clearance live streaming" in the warehouse, and she started "product live streaming" around National Day. If we analyze it from the three dimensions of people, goods and places, we will find that her popularity is not accidental. It seems random, but it is actually "scheming" and "contrast".

First of all, the “field” is differentiated. Zheng Xiangxiang previously broadcast live in a warehouse, which was no different from other anchors and had mediocre results. This time, the “product live broadcast” was set up as a clothing store, with bright lights, high-end scenery, and the boxes for fast product passing were all made of “Hermès orange”. The high-end field and the low-priced items in the 10 yuan price range formed a strong contrast, becoming a “hook” to attract viewers to stay.

The left picture shows Zheng Xiangxiang's current live broadcast of products, and the right picture shows Zheng Xiangxiang's previous live broadcast in the warehouse

As for the anchor herself, whether in terms of image and temperament, or the degree of "hard work", she is beyond the average amateur anchor. At the same time, she also said in the profile of her short video account that she is the source manufacturer, and established a professional "clothing boss lady" persona for herself.

In the live broadcast that made Zheng Xiangxiang famous, she was wearing the same dress that Jin Chen wore in the movie "All or Nothing". It started at 6:58 am on October 4, and she cooperated with the co-anchor and broadcast for 105 hours (more than 4 days) before going offline.

"Douyin Live only rewards the live broadcast room with natural traffic every half an hour this year, which is less than in previous years. If you want to increase the number of people online in the live broadcast room, broadcasting for more than three hours is a prerequisite." Renyu, a live e-commerce operator, said that such "professional boss ladies" do not sell high-quality goods, but clothes that cost 10 yuan a piece. They do not have "321 links", no matching skills, or even too much explanation. They just throw the goods after quoting the price. The whole process is full of contrasts, making users feel that "there is really a bargain to be made."

In the eyes of many users, Zheng Xiangxiang's box-throwing action is similar to the recently popular "Foshan welding guy". The guy's profile is considered to be very similar to Zhang Han. With the magical music and the uniform screw-tightening action, there are many imitators. Zheng Xiangxiang's action of throwing the box back and forth in the live broadcast room is also used by netizens to "de-stress" and "help sleep", "even if they don't buy it, they are willing to stop and watch."

"Foshan Electric Welding" has triggered imitations from netizens from all walks of life on the Internet

In the eyes of industry insiders like Renyu, this model of rapid payment is not only magical and interesting, but also a "careful design" to increase the live broadcast room data.

Renyu introduced that some viewers who are unaware of the truth will ask questions in the comment area, so the interaction rate is high; users who want to place an order will click on the product details page to view the product introduction and reviews, so the stay time is high; plus, the products sold in the live broadcast room are mainly general goods such as clothing, shoes and hats, daily necessities, etc., most of which are low-priced products of 10-25 yuan, so the user decision-making cost is low and GMV is also there.

In Zheng Xiangxiang’s live broadcast on October 4, 751 items were priced below 50 yuan.

Figure/ New Dou Data

According to data from Xin Dou, the average customer spending in Zheng Xiangxiang's live broadcast room is mostly less than 50 yuan, accounting for more than 40%; the top three consumer groups in her live broadcast room are young people from small towns, urban blue-collar workers and middle-aged and elderly people in small towns.

In addition, the UV value (per capita purchase value) of Zheng Xiangxiang's live broadcast room is 0-10, and the conversion rate of the live broadcast room is 5%-10%, which has surpassed many clothing peers. Renyu mentioned that these two data mean that the transaction density of Zheng Xiangxiang's live broadcast room is very high, and intensive transactions are the key factor affecting the platform's push of natural traffic.

In other words, the longer users stay, the more they interact with the anchor, and the higher the transaction density, the more natural traffic the platform will give to Zheng Xiangxiang's live broadcast room, and the lower its investment cost. Whether from the perspective of users or peers, Zheng Xiangxiang's popularity is not accidental.

2. The “Zheng Xiangxiang model” is easy to copy but difficult to sustain

In fact, Zheng Xiangxiang’s “quick product review” live broadcast method is not the first of its kind.

"Dingjiao" found that on Douyin, women's clothing accounts such as "Sijiqing Boss Lady Feifei", "Hangzhou Boss Lady Xiaowei", "YICHEN Clothing", "Hangzhou Li Lili Women's Clothing", and department store accounts such as "Xiao Yangge Dismantles Department Store" and "Xiao Anqi Clears Goods" also use the method of quickly passing products to do live broadcasts to sell goods. The hosts' dressing style and the setting of the live broadcast room are also very similar. Some accounts used this method to sell goods earlier than Zheng Xiangxiang, but Zheng Xiangxiang is the most popular one.

Many accounts on Douyin are playing "quick pass" live broadcasts

As early as last year, a group of accounts using "villa clearance" and "department store blind boxes" as gimmicks also carried out live broadcasts of rapid product promotions, but the scenes were in villas or factory warehouses, with all the leftover goods and clearance goods spread out for display. In some live broadcast rooms, no one even showed their faces, and the users were guided to place orders only by voice-overs and white paper with product prices marked on them.

Xiao Zhu, a businessman who is also engaged in product live streaming and has three accounts, said that the reason why Zheng Xiangxiang became popular this time was that on the one hand, she was more "extreme" than her peers in scene arrangement and product delivery speed, and on the other hand, she had funds involved in paid investment, which boosted the live streaming room.

"In fact, many boss ladies are also using this model. The average number of online users of several thousand is a relatively long-term stable data. The GMV of each account can basically be stabilized at 200,000 to 300,000 per show." Xiao Zhu said. According to the new Douyin data, Zheng Xiangxiang's average sales per live broadcast in the past 90 days was 100,000-250,000, and the average number of online users was 5,801.

Quick payment + low-priced goods + novel and unique scenes. Combined with the statements of many merchants, this model seems easy to copy. However, in fact, it is difficult to achieve the same details as accounts such as Zheng Xiangxiang in a short period of time. At the same time, this model has very high requirements on the host and product selection capabilities.

Most of these live broadcasts do not require a sufficiently in-depth supply chain. They mainly select products from source manufacturers through a selection alliance and drop ship all of them, with a profit of about 10%-15%. The return rate for department stores is 20%-30%, and the return rate for vertical categories such as clothing is even higher. "The track is already relatively transparent, and it's difficult to make big money," Xiao Zhu said.

The profit margin of goods is very low, so the operation team needs to be able to predict potential seasonal hot products and keep up with the pace of new products. Otherwise, users will quickly lose interest and the data in the live broadcast room will also be affected. In order to increase the number of orders, many merchants will even choose to sell products at a low price in the short term in exchange for live broadcast room data, but this is unsustainable in the long run.

In addition, the fast-passing live broadcast track is basically run by amateur anchors, which requires strong traffic acceptance and traffic perception capabilities. The anchor must not only be proficient in announcing the price of each product, but also know how to control the rhythm and create an atmosphere.

Judging from the current situation, Zheng Xiangxiang's imitators are not ready yet, and complaints about Guopin live broadcasts have gradually begun to ferment. These voices are mainly divided into two categories. One is to complain that the product quality is not up to standard and that they cannot be used after buying them because there is no shipping insurance and returns are not cost-effective; the other is to believe that this type of live broadcast is all about tricks. For example, the host promotes a piece of clothing and says that the original price is 100 yuan and the current price is 10 yuan, but in fact only one or two pieces of stock are on the shelves, and those with a large number of stocks are all high-profit products.

As soon as the link was put on the shelf, it showed that it was sold out, but only one piece was actually sold

Xiao Zhu explained to "Dingjiao" that products in the live broadcast room are shown as sold out in seconds but the sales volume is only a few orders. These are products that merchants use to generate data. The more product links that are shown as sold out in the live broadcast room, the more popular the live broadcast room is, and the platform will recommend more natural traffic.

In summary, the advantages and disadvantages of this type of fast-transfer live broadcast room are obvious. The novel people-goods-place can make enough time to stay and undertake high-density transaction conversions. Douyin will recommend natural traffic, but this model seems easy to copy but difficult to last long, because with the influx of a large number of merchants, the people-goods-place is no longer novel, and the users who rely on this type of live broadcast room will also leave.

Mai Zi, a veteran in the live broadcast e-commerce industry, believes that the more low-price live broadcasts are used as selling points, the more likely users are to make impulse purchases, and the more merchants need to control product quality. Once product quality is not good, user trust cannot be established, and the merchant's path will only become narrower and narrower.

3. Live streaming e-commerce is polarized. Where there are Dong Yuhui and Li Jiaqi, there will be Zheng Xiangxiang

For many practitioners in the live e-commerce industry, traffic-generating methods such as "Guopin Live Broadcasting" are no longer surprising.

Looking back over the past few years, there are a number of new ways to attract traffic almost every year, from the quarrel script-style live streaming, emotional gossip-style live streaming, empress drama-style live streaming, and beautiful girl disco-style live streaming in previous years, to the Tiangong-style live streaming, big mouth RAP-style live streaming, silent catwalk-style live streaming, and Xiao Yangge’s violent review-style live streaming in the past two years. In fact, the essence is the same as "Guopin Live Streaming", attracting users' attention, prolonging their stay time, and having enough interaction, so that the system can evaluate the live broadcast room as a high-quality account, thereby pushing more natural traffic.

Now, 2023 is about to pass, and except for a few top anchors who are still active, the once popular live broadcast rooms have gradually cooled down.

"Each 'trend' comes in waves, and we also developed from the earliest blind box gameplay. Then we found that quickly passing the money through the boxes is now the most popular method, so we began to follow up in a timely manner. As various imitators come in, the traffic of this method will also begin to decline continuously. It depends on what model will be popular next." Xiao Zhu also knows that the model of chasing traffic has been changing, but the core remains the people, goods and places.

The live streaming method of "Zheng Xiangxiang" has actually existed for a long time, why has it become popular only recently?

It is undeniable that the development of live streaming e-commerce has now become polarized. Professional players are becoming more and more professional, developing their own supply chain, anchor matrix training and other back-end developments. However, there is still a group of novice players who want to start an account at low cost and enter the market looking for opportunities. They need a live streaming method with a lower threshold, and Guopin live streaming is essentially a live streaming method that does not require a supply chain and studies natural traffic.

In addition, in today's world where cost-effectiveness is important, users, platforms, and clearance manufacturers do not reject these live streaming players who focus on low prices.

From the platform's perspective, this type of live broadcast room can continuously help the platform to attract new e-commerce users and increase daily activity. The platform naturally welcomes merchants to try different traffic methods. Manufacturers have the need to sell goods to clear warehouses, and users also have the need for low prices. This type of live broadcast is a replicable way to bring goods to the sinking market.

"Recently, there have been new 'stars' like Zheng Xiangxiang who sell goods. It is not ruled out that merchants who are clearing out their goods may organize an event and start a special sales event," Maizi introduced.

However, at present, there are not many novice players who actually invest in the market. There are more "experts" who are harvesting under the guise of "teaching you how to learn live streaming without investing", and players with a certain foundation who quietly optimize the details of their live streaming rooms during this boom. To put it another way, in the live streaming e-commerce industry, in recent years, there are very few live streaming rooms that have grown large purely by going through the Selected Alliance (Tik Tok) and Good Goods Alliance (Kuaishou), and the ceiling of "Live Streaming" is limited.

Business matters should be left to business. The real competitiveness of live e-commerce is either to find better goods or more attractive prices. In the second half of live e-commerce, if you want to differentiate yourself in the red ocean competition of top anchors such as Li Jiaqi and Dong Yuhui, Maizi's suggestion is that the operation team of the Guopin live broadcast room can dig out the source factories and merchants, or dig out the exclusive distribution resources of high-profit and high-premium hot products to truly make cost-effective. Renyu said that another way is to continue to attract fans through Guopin live broadcasts and sell higher-priced products step by step.

No matter what, "if a newbie wants to quickly achieve results in the live broadcast room, each stage of the people, goods and market needs time to settle. Either cooperate with an already mature team, or slowly grind. Many people only noticed Zheng Xiangxiang's front-end traffic gameplay, but did not notice the basic skills of the team at the back end," said Renyu.

*At the request of the interviewees, Maizi, Renyu and Xiaozhu are pseudonyms.

Author: Bruce, Editor: Xiang Yuan

Source: Dingjiaoone (ID: dingjiaoone), deeply influencing innovation.