Businesses are doing business with young people’s emotions. Can’t they get away with losing money by spending 10 yuan?

In recent years, a consumption model has become popular on e-commerce platforms, namely emotional consumption, which to some extent reflects people's potential psychological and emotional demands. So, how does the emotional consumption business on the Internet appear? And what impact will the development of artificial intelligence technology have on the emotional consumption business?

Emotional consumption is a new consumption model that has emerged on e-commerce platforms in recent years. Although this does not mean that people can directly buy happiness or sadness, it just reflects that young people have strong emotional appeals in psychology and social aspects.

Emotional consumption products include both physical objects and virtual products, such as good luck spray, good luck mobile phone cases, and good luck knots, and the latter include tree hole confession services, virtual mosquitoes, and the "lonely frog" that was very popular in the past few years. Consumers place orders for these "emotional" products, on the one hand, to respond to online hot spots and have fun, and on the other hand, to achieve a little spiritual and mental comfort.

1. Can’t you afford a loss with 10 yuan?

"Sweet Words Tree Hole" is one of the e-commerce stores that provides emotional consumption. It has been in business for half a year. It mainly provides services such as tree hole chatting and confession, with monthly sales of more than 30,000 orders. The ordinary store may seem "unknown", but it is actually "crouching tiger, hidden dragon". "We have requirements for the quality, conduct and education of our store employees. For example, the education level is basically above undergraduate level, including overseas students, even doctors and professional psychological counselors." Meng You, the store manager, told the reporter of IT Times.

In the store, merchants have "tailored" service menus, and consumers can choose the type of service according to their different needs. The service methods are divided into "text and voice" and "live broadcast", and the prices are divided into multiple levels according to the different methods, durations, and experience of the store staff. On the menu, the lowest price is 30 minutes of "text and voice" in the form of a blind box, and the highest price is the "highest level" package of "live broadcast" service, which is 20 yuan and 990 yuan respectively.

In terms of "commodities", they mainly include tree hole chatting and confessing, chatting and emotional, marriage and love guidance with a basic price of 10 yuan, and sleep coaxing and confession guidance services with a basic price of 150 yuan.

Meng You introduced that with the popularity of the movie "Gone Girl", the topic of "love brain" has become a hot topic. On social platforms, netizens said that "watching "Gone Girl" cured love brain." The popularity of the topic also gave rise to multiple hot searches such as "I scolded my bestie who had a love brain after placing an order" and "My bestie who had a love brain was scolded by the customer service." In the store, this service has also become a "hot item."

In terms of pricing model, each store is similar, but the prices of the same type of service vary greatly. Taking the "day package" service as an example, one store "Wang Yu Qiu Shui Huan Se" charges up to 800 yuan for the "text" method, and 1,314 yuan for the "live broadcast" method. Another store "Hello, Big Brother" charges up to 480 yuan for the "text" method, and 770 yuan for the "live broadcast" method. Customer service said that fewer people choose the day package service, and more customers buy blind boxes, etc.

Is it really true that you can’t lose out by paying 10 yuan? The reporter of IT Times found that most of these stores offer low prices to attract users. In the store “Hello, Big Brother”, the price of a half-hour “Wenyu” service is 10 yuan, but in reality, you have to pay 20 yuan to get the service. The same is true for “Sweet Talk Tree Hole”.

The reporter observed many explicit or leading comments in some stores. E-commerce insiders also reminded that if consumers really need psychological assistance, then they should not adopt this method. This kind of so-called "emotional consumption" is more like a pure chat service, or has certain relaxation and entertainment attributes, and cannot be regarded as a professional service.

At the same time, consumers should also guard against potential risks such as soft pornography and fraud, and e-commerce platforms should also strengthen supervision of such special products.

2. Merchants and consumers are both happy and worried

Merchants and consumers have both joy and worry.

Most of the employees in the "Sweet Words Tree Hole" store are part-time. Like sales, commissions are calculated based on orders, and each employee receives a commission of 70%. Meng You lives in Beijing and worked part-time in the early stage, and then switched to full-time. In terms of salary, he is currently able to achieve "self-sufficiency".

In the "Hello, Big Brother" store, revenue is divided into peak season and off-season. In the peak season, the number of orders per day is around 14, with daily income of 500 to 600 yuan. In the off-season, the number of orders decreases, with daily orders and daily income being only half of that in the peak season.

Who is actually consuming? It is understood that there are differences in the main consumer groups of different stores. "Sweet Words Tree Hole" is more inclined to people with higher consumption levels, such as corporate white-collar workers and overseas students.

The consumers of "Hello, Big Brother" are mainly between 18 and 40 years old, mostly students and office workers.

Most of the people who place orders with us don't have any close friends, or have nowhere to confide their inner thoughts, so they are willing to talk to strangers. "Hello, big brother," said the customer service.

The purchase behavior of emotional consumption in the "chatting" type occurs between people, not between people and goods. Therefore, for merchants, while enjoying the joy of making money and helping people, problems also come along.

Meng You shared an experience that made him feel helpless: "The potential risk we face is the unpredictability of the quality and motivation of some consumers. Some will ask our store clerks for money, some will ask for a refund after using the service, some have low quality and will insult the store clerks, and some, after failing to vent their anger on the store clerks, will give bad reviews in the store comment section. " Faced with "uncontrollable" and "difficult to control" situations, merchants choose to "save themselves" to reduce losses and negative comments.

Regularly organizing training is one of the plans implemented by "Sweet Words Tree Hole". The relevant training content involves anti-fraud, borrowing money, social etiquette, etc., and if necessary, resolutely refunding rude customers.

Not only merchants, but also consumers experience "hurt" moments. Placing an order for the "Lonely Frog" service for a friend was the first emotional consumption experience for college student Ding Hao (pseudonym). At the time, Ding Hao's mentality was "everyone is playing, I want to play too", and he also wanted to "have fun".

This was his second experience with the Tree Hole service, but it was not a pleasant experience. "After paying, I added the clerk's chat method and started the chat time. But when I sent him my ideas one after another, after 12 minutes, the other party only replied with 'Come on, I believe you can do it! ' To be honest, I think it was perfunctory and unreliable." Having learned from the past, Ding Hao never consumed such virtual products again.

Service quality and privacy are the main issues that consumers are concerned about. "Our chat records with customers are absolutely confidential, and we delete each other immediately after the chat. If you are not satisfied with the chat or are not satisfied within 8 minutes, you can apply for a replacement or a refund." The store customer service told reporters.

3. Will it be replaced by artificial intelligence?

In Meng You's view, the emotional consumption market will become more diversified as people's material life is satisfied and they pursue a rich spiritual life.

Will it form a competitive relationship with practitioners such as psychologists and counselors? Meng You believes that for consumers, they need more companionship and catharsis in terms of emotional value, and the online chats provided by stores are mainly based on their needs and feelings.

Different from the serious atmosphere of communicating with a psychological counselor, the Shudong service focuses on "freedom" and "relaxation". In addition, the store is quite different from the relevant studios in terms of scale, management model and staffing, so it is not a competitive relationship.

At present, artificial intelligence technology is becoming more and more mature, and chatbots represented by ChatGPT have once again made "whether machines will replace humans" a hot topic.

For "Sweet Talk Tree Hole" and other "chatting" emotional consumption services that focus on "people-to-people" communication, it is both an opportunity and a challenge.

Some netizens believe that such services can easily be replaced by AI, as the consumer’s goal is to find a target to “vent”, and AI robots are good at “talking” and may even understand the other person’s heart better than real chatters. On the contrary, the view is that real people’s responses and empathy can better resolve consumers’ real unhappiness, while machines are just making mechanical responses that appear humane.

Reality forces "Meng You and others" to think: What are the differences in communication between people and between people and machines? If people choose to talk to machines in the future, can the current services still be provided?

Author: Sun Yonghui; Editors: Wang Xin, Sun Yan

Source: IT Times (ID: vittimes)