Celebrities and anchors have opened offline stores one after another, so online traffic is no longer good?

When it comes to Internet celebrities, the first thing that comes to mind is videos and live broadcasts. These are basically online. However, recently, many Internet celebrities have opened offline stores. What are the reasons for doing so and what are the benefits? This article will answer your questions.

"I was impulsive and accidentally built a 1,000-square-meter store. I don't know what to do with it..."

In July, Douyin's second-generation rich internet celebrity blogger @王红权星 posted a video on his account, saying that he accidentally sold a store because a friend opened a new store nearby. While slightly tipsy and at the instigation of his friend, he actually bought a nearby store that was recruiting investors. The store had a total of 4 floors and was about 1,200 square meters.

As soon as the video was released, it attracted a lot of heated discussions among the public. It turns out that the store Wang Hongquan selected is not simple. It is located in the China World Trade Center on Xida Wang Road in Beijing. The store is opposite SKP, which is a gathering place for luxury brands such as Hermes and Chanel. It is no exaggeration to say that this area is so expensive that "even the manhole covers can be decorated with gold edges." According to people familiar with the matter, the rent of the street-facing store with an area of ​​more than 1,000 square meters selected by Wang Hongquan is even around 30 million.

Screenshot of Wang Hongquan's video

When Wang Hongquan released a video inviting netizens to give ideas on the business scope and name of his store, a couple on Kuaishou also became a hot topic on the platform because they opened a 1,200-square-meter brand flagship store on the Bund in Shanghai.

This brand is Dai Laixi, which Kas mentioned in previous articles. Its manager is @猫七七姑娘. The main account of Mao Qiqi has nearly 30 million fans on Kuaishou. Dai Laixi is also one of the few domestic white-label beauty brands on Kuaishou with annual sales exceeding 1 billion.

Although it started on Kuaishou, this brand is now a frequent visitor on the beauty sales lists of Douyin and Video Number, thanks to its strong live broadcast operation capabilities, mature supply chain capabilities, a matrix anchor team incubated and cultivated over many years, and skilled communication skills with users in the sinking market.

In addition to Wang Hongquanxing and Mao Qiqi, we have also seen many top anchors opening stores one after another, such as the top anchors @Bao Ge Bao Sao Couple in Video Account and the top anchor @Tao Zi Jia in Kuaishou. With thousands of stores on the platform and extremely luxurious decoration designs, it is hard not to think about this question: Why are celebrities and anchors so obsessed with opening offline stores? Has opening offline stores become a necessary way for celebrities and anchors to fight against online traffic risks and stabilize their business base? Let's take a look.

"Celebrities and anchors are opening offline stores, so online traffic is failing?"

1. The store has not been renovated yet, but it has already become a popular check-in spot

"The store hasn't been renovated yet, but it has already become a check-in spot for internet celebrities." This is a common situation for many internet celebrities and anchors after opening a physical store. What's more, Wang Hongquan, who has his own controversial topics, has been repeatedly bullied and fought online, and has repeatedly publicly clarified.

According to Kas, Wang Hongquanxing released a total of 3 videos regarding opening a store.

The first video tells about how he accidentally bought a 4-story store in Huamao, directly opposite SKP, while being slightly tipsy, and asked fans for suggestions on opening a store and a good name;

The second video shows him carefully reading fans' comments and suggestions. In order to increase the popularity of the content, he also picked out nonsensical comments and gave serious replies;

The third video was after he decided what kind of store to open, he put up a huge poster in front of the door of the physical store. Because the star Wang Hongquan on the poster looked like the popular star Cai Xukun, it became a hot topic again. For this reason, Wang Hongquan also posted a sarcastic video, saying that the photo retoucher went too far and turned "Yang Di into Cai Xukun".

A close look at the three videos reveals that the first video actually has no signs of planning, and is no different from his daily video content, all of which are showing "huge wealth", except that previously he showed jade, jewelry, and bags, and this time he bought a store - for a super rich second-generation Internet celebrity who can spend 300 million to buy a manor, spend 27 million to buy Bahrain girl's red wine as a home ornament, and whose live broadcast background is a cabinet full of million-level luxury bags, it seems reasonable to impulsively buy a store when he is slightly drunk.

Screenshot of Wang Hongquan's video

But it was this video that helped Wang Hongquan find the new traffic password.

The reason is that compared to the previous time when users were mostly watching the life of Wang Hongquanxing, this video gave users an extra sense of participation. Although the opinions provided by users were mostly of no practical value and even contained a sarcastic tone, it turned the comment section into a sea of ​​joy. Data showed that the video received more than 30,000 comments, while the comments on Wang Hongquanxing's previous videos were all less than 10,000.

Wang Hongquanxing, who realized that the traffic gate had been opened, immediately released the second video. In this video, he carefully read the comments of users, and specifically read the nonsensical suggestions. For example, some suggested that he open a 2 yuan store, some suggested that he open a local flavor restaurant, and sell Lanzhou ramen, Shaxian snacks, etc., and some suggested that he take out the jewelry and bags at home and let users play with rings. This video not only further boosted the popularity of the topic, but also made many KOLs in different fields follow suit. Some gave Wang Hongquanxing professional suggestions for opening a store, and some gave fancy suggestions for the store name. The diverse topic discussion not only promoted the topic out of the circle, but also further boosted the enthusiasm of UGC participation - some netizens immediately posted the posters in front of Wang Hongquanxing's store taken on Dawang Road, and many netizens would ask about his store opening progress in the comment area.

This series of seemingly unintentional operations, in Kas's opinion, is a classic example of the online and offline traffic management of celebrities and anchors in recent years. First, the online traffic was successfully diverted to the offline, attracting users to check in and discuss on the spot; then, through the huge billboards standing offline, the traffic was fed back to the online, attracting users to follow Wang Hongquan online, which has certain event marketing significance.

There are discussions about Wang Hongquan's offline store on Xiaohongshu from time to time

Although, after releasing three videos, Wang Hongquanxing did not make any follow-up updates on the opening of the store, some sharp-eyed netizens discovered that the poster in front of his store had been changed. On the new poster, Wang Hongquanxing reported on the progress of the new store, confirmed that the store had been named, and invited everyone to have a cup of milk tea in autumn.

If you shift your focus to Kuaishou, you will find that Mao Qiqi has released a series on the process of opening a store.

From the early site selection to the decoration of the store, to the sharing of design concepts, the reasons for opening the store, the environment around the store, etc., Mao Qiqi has released independent videos to communicate with users, as if the decoration of the entire store was completed under the "supervision" of the users.

Screenshot of the opening ceremony of Maoqiqi

Especially on the opening day of the new store, Maoqiqi invited major raw material manufacturers, brand OEM factories and brand spokesperson Tong Dawei from all over the world to arrive at the scene, transforming the offline opening promotion into an online promotion ceremony.

The couple @宝哥宝嫂 from the video account also performed similar operations to Mao Qiqi.

2. Why are celebrities and anchors flocking to offline stores?

Why are celebrities and anchors entering the offline physical stores? Obviously, compared with Wang Hongquan, the brand flagship store opened by Mao Qiqi in Shanghai Bund has a stronger brand promotion meaning.

Most white-label brands that started on new traffic platforms and focused on "sales rather than marketing" have the desire to upgrade their brands in the mature stage of development. As for Delaisi, with the continuous improvement of its product matrix and the increasing sales volume, Delaisi naturally does not want users to define it as an online brand or channel brand, and even less to interpret it as a fast brand, especially white-label brands.

Therefore, opening offline flagship stores, integrating online and offline, and influencing users through multiple channels have become the key points. Especially for brands born on the Kuaishou platform, opening flagship stores has another meaning, which is to provide users with a real place to communicate closely with the anchors and brands they admire, giving them the opportunity to go offline from online to experience and consume products in physical stores, and further enhance their sense of identity with the anchors and brands, as well as their stickiness to brand consumption.

From the video released by Mao Qiqi, we can see that on the opening day of the new store, many fans went to the event site. And from the store videos released daily, it can be said to be very lively. There are always fans going to the store and bringing gifts to visit Mao Qiqi and the aunt. It seems like a small fan meeting and reception site.

For top influencers like Wang Hongquanxing, the significance of opening offline stores is to increase the IP value anchor and to a certain extent combat the risk of unstable online traffic.

As we all know, Douyin is a platform with constant demand and will introduce new faces. As early as 2020, Kas Data mentioned in a report: More than 80% of celebrities are only popular for no more than 3 months. Even creators with sustained high-quality creative capabilities will see varying degrees of decline in both fan growth and interaction data after 6 months of high fan growth.

At present, it can be seen that this cycle is getting shorter, and this cruel reality has been recognized by the vast majority of creators and has become the driving force for them to work hard to make money during the high fan growth period.

Opening offline stores is another antidote for influencers who want to grow across cycles and continuously improve traffic monetization, in addition to private domains. The difference between the two lies in the different channels for in-depth service to users, but the common point is to increase the purchase and repurchase rate of high-quality users .

Let's look at Wang Hongquanxing. Although he also frequently broadcasts live to sell goods and recommends some good things in the live broadcast room in his videos, if you check his background, you will find that live broadcast is just one of his ways to monetize. His real identity is the founder of Quanxing Jewelry. In his videos, the frequently appearing expensive jade is the basic plate of his business. However, this kind of super high customer order product is not suitable for sales through channels such as Douyin. The offline with real scenes and trading atmosphere is undoubtedly a more suitable conversion carrier.

In Kevin Kelly's book "Out of Control", he mentioned the "1,000 Hardcore Fans Theory". In his opinion, anyone can support themselves with 1,000 hardcore fans. The higher the customer order of an industry, the more it needs the support of hardcore fans.

For Wang Hongquanxing, through continuous content creation and the establishment of a rich IP personality, he has accumulated nearly 8 million fans on the entire network, but how to dig out "true fans" from "general fans" and dig out "iron fans" with extremely high paying ability from true fans also requires a channel to undertake, and offline is an outlet. In addition, offline has another advantage over private domains in that diverting traffic offline cannot be restricted, but diverting traffic to private domains is the "red line" of major public domain platforms and there are clear restrictions.

Of course, another reason why celebrities and anchors are opening physical stores is that they have seen that the offline real economy is gradually recovering, and they want to transfer the influence of IP to both online and offline channels to further expand and consolidate their business.

Kuaishou @Tao Zijia is such a case. Tao Zi and his wife are local physical wholesalers in Linyi. After becoming Kuaishou anchors, they had no time to take care of offline business, so they fully transformed to online business. However, with the high cost of online traffic and the maturity of the matrix anchor system, they began to return to offline business and do physical business at the same time.

Screenshot of Taozi's video

Another anchor who is similar to Tao Zi is the current top anchor of Video Account @宝哥宝嫂夫妻. Because the couple themselves started out in chain supermarkets, opening offline stores during peak traffic hours is also an outlet for in-depth services to fans and providing them with personalized services, which can also strengthen the construction of IP personality from the side.

For platforms that are still pursuing "good content" at the bottom, opening offline stores has a hidden value in that it helps anchors provide a scenario for producing content. In addition, offline sales data can also be fed back to the online platform as soon as possible. Anchors and celebrities can discover potential explosive products based on user purchases and further promote them through online traffic effects.

What do you think about celebrities and anchors opening offline stores? Do you believe that the ultimate monetization channels for celebrities and anchors are not only in private domains, but also offline?

Author: Kas Data

WeChat public account: caasdata (ID: caasdata6)