40+ sisters, mass-produced women's clothing live broadcast room with GMV exceeding 100 million

As the live streaming industry is developing rapidly, how can we conduct in-depth research on users and find the right positioning and methods to open up new growth dividends? Today, let’s take a look at the live streaming room of 40+ sisters.

In November 2021, Sanma, the founder of women's clothing brand RuienCo, joined Douyin and opened an account called "I am Capricorn" to showcase RuienCo's women's clothing as a host.

A year and a half later, according to statistics from Xinbang's Douyin data tool Xindou, the cumulative estimated GMV of "I am Capricorn" in the past 90 days is between 250 million and 500 million yuan, and the highest estimated sales for a single game is 10 million to 25 million yuan.

Currently, "I am Capricorn" has 970,000 fans, of which 79.76% are female users and 71.59% are over 40 years old. In other words, a group of 40+ women support the RuienCo brand.

Portrait of Douyin fans of "I am Capricorn". Source: New Douyin

Jamie, the eldest daughter of Sanma who started the business with her mother, described it this way: “RuienCo’s users are a group of older sisters who have time, high standards for quality of life, and a pursuit of beauty.”

Since the beginning of this year, many live broadcast cases focusing on the middle-aged and elderly track have emerged in the market. RuienCo, which has become the leader in the women's clothing category on Douyin by relying on 40+ women, is one of the typical cases.

Recently, the editorial department of Xinbang interviewed Jamie, the business manager of RuienCo, as well as players in the middle-aged and elderly track such as MCN agency Yunxinghui, hoping to discuss the commercial monetization of the middle-aged and elderly track.

1. From a housewife to a live streamer with over 100 million GMV

In 2018, Sanma, who was originally a housewife, started traveling around the world because her three daughters grew up and she had more time for herself. She also shared her life on Weibo, Xiaohongshu and other platforms. Soon, Sanma, who had a very personal style of dressing, attracted more and more fans. Sanma gradually went from sharing her outfits to opening a Taobao store, and then to joining the clothing industry and establishing her own women's clothing brand RuienCo.

The first note that Sanma published on Xiaohongshu

Why can RuienCo capture a group of 40+ women?

Jamie revealed a detail that "I am Capricorn" currently broadcasts live 4 days a week, and Sanma is required to be present in almost most of the broadcasts. "Sanma plays a very important role in connecting users in the live broadcast room. Women over 40 generally yearn for a different self, but don't know how to change themselves.

Sanma is the one who helps and guides them to become beautiful.”

By observing the Douyin account of "I am Capricorn", you can find that the videos are not just showing clothes, but through high-frequency and short life clips, they restore a leisure, relaxed and elegant life atmosphere.

The editorial department of Xinbang believes that Sanma, who has a harmonious family, a comfortable life and a fulfilling work, has shown RuienCo users a life state that they recognize. It is understood that the core users of "I am Capricorn" are women aged 50-60, who are basically the same age as Sanma.

When talking about the original intention of establishing RuienCo, Sanma once said in an interview with "Ten Points Reading" that many middle-aged women have spent half their lives without thinking about what they want or what they want to wear. The RuienCo brand will cultivate the experience of beauty among middle-aged women while sharing outfits and clothing.

“Many customers said that they never wore pink or sleeveless clothes before, but after wearing our clothes, they found that they looked good in this way,” Jamie added.

The pursuit of youth and the yearning for refinement are the two core demands of these 40+ women.

Different from traditional "auntie clothes", RuienCo's clothing colors are softer and more advanced, making people aged 40-60 look like 30-40 years old. In addition, RuienCo is very heavy-duty, using a lot of embroidery, hollowing and other designs, as well as materials such as silk and wool. At the same time, RuienCo's original designs account for more than 95%, with a unified design system and design language. This allows RuienCo to be distinguished from the common products on the market.

Jamie analyzed that the core users of "I am Capricorn" are mainly senior middle-class people. "They have requirements for good things and pay more attention to details and quality. We will also take into account their ideas and feedback in terms of product quality and design."

According to Xindou data, the price range of "I am Capricorn" products is between 300-1000 yuan, and the two products with the highest sales are windbreakers with a unit price of 638 yuan and dresses with a unit price of 1360 yuan. The Xinbang editorial department observed the user sharing of the "I am Capricorn" fan group and found that most users who bought RuienCo pursued quality life.

Image source: New Dou

Of course, having requirements does not mean being insensitive to price. Jamie said: "The characteristics of our clothes are good quality and low price, and the burden is not particularly heavy to buy. Some users joked that we are a 378 yuan store because our best-selling products are priced at 368 yuan and 378 yuan."

To this end, RuienCo has kept the product markup ratio (markup ratio refers to the multiple of the retail price of a product divided by the cost price) to a very low level. "RuienCo is like Uniqlo with a personal style."

In addition to products, RuienCo has also put a lot of effort into live streaming.

Jamie believes that women over 40 do not have many clear dressing needs like young people, such as commuting and socializing, and are not prone to impulsive orders. "The most important thing is to share more authentically. For example, the anchor needs to be very familiar with the fabric and style of the clothes, and explain clearly what is good about the clothes."

In order to increase the understanding of the market and users, "I am Capricorn" did not hire a live broadcast agent. At the beginning, Sanma and Jamie slowly explored and gradually improved the team. Jamie believes: "You still have to broadcast it yourself every day. Only by feeling the user's thoughts personally can you think from their perspective."

In addition to shopping, many users will use the "I am Capricorn" live broadcast room as a tree hole to share their own stories.

Sanma once mentioned in an interview with "Ten Points Reading" that a user in the live broadcast room complained that she had been doing housework at home but was not recognized by her husband. Sanma said to her as a peer: "Women must first learn to love themselves, love beauty and love life." It was also in such continuous communication that this user gradually became happy, and later shared details of her life such as traveling or buying things she liked.

Many fans will share in RuienCo's fan group

"I am Capricorn" is like an exclusive community for a group of 40+ women to share their lives and exchange feelings. Jamie believes that RuienCo's users really need someone to communicate with them spiritually. "Before, they may have watched more TV series, but now they watch Sanma's live broadcasts, and some even watch it from beginning to end."

To some extent, for women over 40, the "I am Capricorn" live broadcast room is not just about selling clothes, but also about sharing a lifestyle and attitude towards life. RuienCo is one of the ways to practice this kind of life.

It is worth noting that in the first half of this year, RuienCo also opened a store account "I am Capricorn's Deputy Broadcast Account". According to Xin Dou data statistics, the cumulative estimated GMV of "I am Capricorn's Deputy Broadcast Account" in the past 90 days is between 100 million and 250 million yuan.

2. Fashion consultant for 40+ sisters

If RuienCo relies on the example of Sanma, the confidence of MCN agency Yunxinghui in attracting 40+ women comes from expert consultants. Mu Zi, the business director of Yunxinghui, said that the core logic of Yunxinghui is to find and incubate experts in various fields such as dressing, aesthetics, and body shape, and attract users' attention by exporting professional knowledge.

Take the video account expert "Meitong Image Aesthetics" under Yunxinghui as an example. As a senior image management expert, "Meitong Image Aesthetics" has not only accumulated rich dressing experience, but also formed its own set of image aesthetics theory. Muzi believes that many 40+ women lack dressing knowledge and are not sure how to become beautiful. "Meitong Image Aesthetics" is positioned as a dressing consultant for 40+ women, hoping to provide users with professional image aesthetics knowledge.

Observing the live broadcast of "Meitong Image Aesthetics", we can find that unlike the common hawking live broadcast, her live broadcast has a slower pace. Compared with promotional words such as price discounts, she often talks about dressing knowledge such as "how to match shoes with skirts in summer". Compared with selling goods, "Meitong Image Aesthetics" is more like a class, teaching the audience in the live broadcast room how to be beautiful.

In terms of short videos, although she is not yet 40 years old, the image of "Meitong Image Aesthetics" tends to be more elegant and intellectual, which is completely different from the lively and fashionable style of fashion bloggers targeting young girls; "Meitong Image Aesthetics" mostly shares topics such as "How middle-aged women can get rid of the feeling of being an aunt" and "Age-reducing outfits for 50+ women".

The dressing consultant who is more in line with the preferences of 40+ women has made "Meitong Image Aesthetics" gain the trust of users. Muzi revealed that since the first video was released on the video account on September 14, 2022, and live streaming with goods officially started in October, "Meitong Image Aesthetics" currently has only 100,000 fans, but the average monthly GMV exceeds 20 million yuan.

In terms of fan portrait, the backend data of the video account shows that among the fans of "Meitong Image Aesthetics", female fans account for 92.05%, 40+ users account for 67.08%, and the average customer price of products is between 300-1000 yuan.

"Meitong Image Aesthetics" video account background data

Muzi believes that as a fashion consultant for women over 40, "Meitong Image Aesthetics" has achieved a kind of follow-up shopping. "We will arrange customer service to have one-on-one private chats with users as Meitong's assistant, ask about their shopping experience, and help them solve their fashion problems." In Muzi's view, "Meitong Image Aesthetics" relies not only on goods but also on service to sell.

Thanks to this gameplay, Yunxinghui has currently deployed more than 30 expert accounts on the video platform. From "Meitong Image Aesthetics" focusing on dressing, to "Qianyi Body Etiquette" focusing on body shape, to "Wenlan Fashion Aesthetics" focusing on beauty and skin care, the core users of Yunxinghui's accounts are mostly women aged 40-60. Muzi revealed: "They are basically middle-class mothers and retirees in second- and third-tier cities."

Previously, the editorial department of Xinbang mentioned in the article "Is it time for video accounts to make money? Some people have a monthly GMV of 30 million, while others don't understand and want to give up" that some practitioners believe that the core users of video accounts are mainly middle-aged and elderly people, and the commercial value is relatively low. This is an important reason why they are cautious about entering the video account market.

But both RuienCo and "Meitong Image Aesthetics" have proved that middle-aged and elderly people may not be unable to tap into sufficient commercial value. The key lies in whether the right method is found.

In fact, from Douyin to Video Account, there are more and more cases of successfully tapping the commercial value of middle-aged and elderly people.

On Douyin, in addition to "I am Capricorn", the cumulative GMV of "Liu Chun Clothing" in the past 90 days was 250 million to 500 million yuan, and fans over 40 years old accounted for 61.8% of the 1.5 million fans; the cumulative GMV of "Sui Xin" in the past 90 days was 500 million to 750 million yuan, and fans over 40 years old accounted for 50.65% of the 5.96 million fans.

In the video account, in addition to "Meitong Image Aesthetics", live broadcast rooms focusing on middle-aged women, including "LANCY" and "ALICE Clothing", have become officially recommended benchmark cases.

On the left is the Douyin account "Liu Chun Clothing", and on the right is the video account "Langzi LANCY"

It is said that "whoever wins the young people wins the world", but now some people have also started to make early plans and quietly make money in the middle-aged and elderly track.

3. What is the correct approach for middle-aged and elderly users to make money?

Back to our original question, how to make money in the middle-aged and elderly track? RuienCo and "Meitong Image Aesthetics" have achieved good results, but any business has its prerequisites.

1. Users first

Although both of them target middle-aged and elderly users, RuienCo and "Meitong Image Aesthetics" clearly focus more on middle-class women aged 40-60.

Among middle-aged and elderly users, compared with the elderly over 60 years old, "40-60 years old" users have more energy and consumption scenarios.

Among all consumer groups, the "middle class" users tend to have a larger consumption budget. They are a group of users who have money, free time and are willing to spend.

As for "women", Ertu, a video account service provider, joked: "The commercial value of men over 40 is lower than that of dogs." In his opinion, only a few products with circle culture such as cultural relics and tea can attract 40+ men to consume. "On the video account, even alcoholic beverages can't be sold."

2. Then the track

Although many women's clothing brands target middle-aged women, there are not many women's clothing brands designed specifically for middle-aged women. The New List editorial department found that there are many offline clothing brands suitable for women over 40, but there are not many suitable brands online. Perhaps for this reason, the most successful cases are currently the live broadcast rooms for middle-aged women's clothing.

In addition, Ertu believes that jewelry, nourishing products and other categories can also attract middle-aged and elderly users to place orders. Hu Xin, founder of the jewelry brand Baoshi Xiaoman, once mentioned that his main customer base is the 40+ sisters who have settled in the private domain of WeChat.

3. Finally, the platform

At present, there are many cases on the Douyin and Video Account platforms that can be used for reference and learning.

Douyin's multiple live broadcast rooms prove that as long as the product and content are good enough, it is not difficult to capture middle-aged and elderly users with enough commercial value on Douyin, which has more than 600 million daily active users. As for Video Account, this may be the platform with the highest number and purity of middle-aged and elderly users, and it also has some early dividends. Muzi gave an example: "To sell goods worth tens of millions of yuan, Douyin's live broadcast needs 10,000 to 20,000 people online, but Video Account's live broadcast only needs more than 1,000 people online."

Overall, according to the 2023 China Future Consumer Report: Generations and official data from the National Development and Reform Commission, the current population of people aged 40-60 in China is around 400 million, and the population aged 60 and above is about 280 million. This is a very large consumer market that has yet to be developed.

By conducting in-depth research on these users and finding the right positioning and methods, there may be an opportunity to open up new growth dividends outside of the extremely inward-looking young people market.

Author: Yun Feiyang

Source: Newrank (ID: newrankcn)