Millions of people check in to enjoy the hustle and bustle of life. Will live streaming + setting up stalls be a new business?

Have you ever watched live broadcasts of night market stalls? The people coming and going in the background are the street stalls around us. When young people who are good at using the Internet start to join the army of street stall live broadcasts, will live broadcast + street stalls be a new business? Let us follow the article to find the answer with questions.

In the live broadcast, a girl dressed exquisitely stood behind a stall in the night market. The iron pan in her hand made the rice fly up and down, and she completed a plate of fried rice in less than a minute... This scene was slightly contrasting but full of the flavor of life. At first glance, it seemed that the talent hosts had arranged a new plot, but the busy street scene in the background told the audience that this was a real roadside stall.

After street stalls became a new "employment" track for young people, the live broadcast content of street stalls increased significantly on live broadcast platforms. No one expected that the street stall economy and the live broadcast economy would meet on the streets late at night and combine into a new business model of "street stalls + live broadcast".

When young people who understand the Internet and are good at live streaming turn into a large army of "live streaming stalls", will the integration of online traffic and offline business scenarios give birth to a good business?

1. Live broadcast of stalls: what you play is reality

As early as 2020, when the street stall economy recovered, many young people tried to develop street stalls into a sideline. In recent years, with the changes in the employment situation, the scale of the street stall group has continued to expand. In the article "Frontline Interview丨After making 1,000 yuan a day selling balloons, I chose to resign" published by Jingzhe Research Institute in March this year, it also analyzed the social phenomenon of young people joining the street stall entrepreneurial trend. The integration of street stalls and live broadcasting was the initial attempt by stall owners to attract traffic to offline business.

On short video platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou, live broadcasting of the production and sale of various night market snacks is the most common live broadcast content of stalls. Usually, the scene of the live broadcast room is a mobile stall represented by a roadside cart, or a local fixed night market stall.

The layout of the live broadcast room is also "original": there is no furniture display to show the status and taste of the anchors, the environment is even a little sloppy, the background is also noisy, and occasionally you can hear the horns of motor vehicles or the loud shouts of the stall owners next door. But it is this kind of content that has attracted thousands of fans to the live broadcast room.

Jingzhe Research Institute observed that most live broadcast accounts start live broadcasting from 4 to 5 p.m. during the evening peak hours and continue until the stalls close late at night. Some mobile stall owners will flexibly adjust the live broadcast duration based on the amount of stock and actual sales on the day.

In terms of live broadcast content, most of the hosts of live broadcasts setting up stalls have obviously not received professional training in speech skills. They neither excessively recommend their own products nor urge the audience in the live broadcast room to consume offline.

Only when someone asks about the specific address of the live broadcast stall in the comments will the anchor take the initiative to inform the stall location. However, there are also some stall owners who are familiar with the live broadcast traffic rules and will ask new users to follow the account and like it from time to time.

The way the anchor interacts with fans is also almost undesigned. In many cases, fans initiate topics and the anchor responds, so the topics of interaction are varied.

Some users will ask about the specific preparation methods of snacks; some users will be concerned about "Is it delicious?" and "Are the ingredients fresh?"; and some fans who appear to be "regular customers" will chat with the anchor and ask about the recent business.

However, due to the need to receive customers at any time and complete the snack making on the spot, the communication between the host and the fans in the live broadcast room will often be interrupted suddenly. Only when making snacks or there are no customers will the host take a look at the barrage comments and interact with the fans in the live broadcast room.

Compared with live streaming of selling goods and talent shows, there are almost no traces of performance in the live streaming of street stalls, and fans will not be asked by the host to send gifts using professional words. This completely real street stall scene and relatively natural and relaxed live broadcast atmosphere are the main reasons why it attracts audiences.

Sometimes users just finish a day's work and want to watch some videos to relax, and they happen to receive the live broadcast content in the same city recommended by the platform. The familiar positioning of the live broadcast room and the real scene full of fireworks lead users to find the taste of life again.

Judging from the platform data, many live broadcast rooms of street stalls can get tens of thousands of views in a 3-hour live broadcast, which is a level that exceeds that of most ordinary anchors.

2. The routine of “Internet celebrities” setting up stalls is inseparable from telling stories?

In fact, in recent years, millions of internet celebrities have emerged in the street stall industry.

For example, @波仔炒粉, who is called "the first person to stir-fry noodles" by fans, has been focusing on stir-frying noodles in Shenzhen for 12 years. As of now, his account has nearly 3.6 million followers; @渔妹妹, who started live streaming the killing of fish in 2022, has also exceeded 3.14 million fans in the past year, and the average number of viewers in the past 30 days has reached 1.634 million;

In addition, @阿华炒饭, a 21-year-old girl who set up a fried rice stall to fulfill her dream of going to college, has accumulated 950,000 fans in less than half a year, sparking heated discussions in the media and even attracting the attention of singer Xue Zhiqian.

However, becoming a street vendor internet celebrity with millions of followers is not an easy thing. @波仔炒粉 became popular because of a series of short videos of "frying a noodle in one minute" shot after the 2020 epidemic. In addition to showing his unique skills in frying noodles in the videos, the content format of "frying a noodle in one minute" also attracted fans to check in and other chefs to "kick the door". This plot similar to the competition between martial arts masters became the key reason why @波仔炒粉 broke through one million followers in the first three months.

The popularity of @渔妹妹 and @阿华炒饭 is largely due to the contrast between the scenes and the characters' appearances.

Behind the fish stall full of fish scales stood a pretty fish seller with a devilish figure. Users who accidentally came across @渔妹妹’s live broadcast room were attracted by the impact of the picture and clicked into the live broadcast room with the question “Why is such a beautiful girl killing fish?”

On the other hand, when passers-by see @阿华炒饭, a fair-skinned man in his early 20s, skillfully making bowls of egg fried rice by frying in a dark iron pan, they will also speculate that "there must be some story behind him setting up a stall at such a young age" and try to walk into the live broadcast room to find out.

In addition to using plots and contrasts to attract fans, the stories of anchors exposed in media reports also help street stall anchors expand their influence.

After @波仔炒粉 became popular, some media reported his inspirational story of how he expanded from a fried noodle stall to 12 branches, which made his image more complete and deepened his fans' psychological understanding of him;

After @渔妹妹 became known as the "Fish-selling Xishi" by fans, it was revealed that she was once a PK anchor and earned traffic by posting borderline videos. Although the subsequent revelation and discussion about her identity caused the anchor to encounter controversy, it ultimately helped the anchor quickly gain popularity and quickly attract fans;

In April, @阿华炒饭 had only more than 400,000 followers, but after the media reported the news of "21-year-old girl setting up a fried rice stall to fulfill her college dream", her account gained more than 500,000 followers in more than two months.

Combining the above typical cases and making reverse deductions, it seems that we can conclude that the secret to becoming a million-level online celebrity through live street vendor broadcasting is the real live broadcasting scene, the contrast between the profession and the character image, and the story that deserves the attention and interpretation of the public. But the reality is that live street vendor broadcasting itself may not be a way to achieve stable income, and the street vendor broadcasters themselves have also gradually realized the value of live broadcasting.

3. Earn tens of thousands of yuan a month by setting up stalls, without relying on sales tips

In March this year, CCTV News reported that a couple born after 1995 set up a stall at the Qingkou Night Market in Yiwu, Zhejiang Province and live-streamed the sale of iron plate tofu and potatoes, earning 9,000 yuan a day. This income figure was subsequently questioned by netizens. When netizens analyzed the income structure of the stall-selling couple, they found that the physical income from operating the night market stalls was still the main way for stall owners to make money.

Live streaming is more of a way to expand influence, helping stall owners accumulate popularity and divert traffic from online to offline scenarios.

Zhang, a post-95s student from Wuhan, started selling handmade chicken strips with his college classmates in January this year. In order to record his entrepreneurial experience, he registered a Douyin account named @逍张鸡柳, and also tried to use short videos and live broadcasts to help his offline business.

*Photo provided by the interviewee

After conducting a field investigation and analysis of the street stall live broadcast accounts, Zhang told the Jingzhe Research Institute: Street stall live broadcasts with a high degree of repetitive content are difficult to achieve good results in user retention and viewing time.

Unless the actions and language communication are interesting, and the live broadcast fans can maintain interaction, or are visually attractive enough - this is why many street vendors deliberately make exaggerated movements or wear inappropriate clothing for live broadcasts.

There are also some conflicts between live streaming and stall business . "The core goal of the catering industry is to let customers eat authentic food and enjoy high-quality services. However, excessive attention to live streaming will interfere with normal business operations. If you focus on stall business, the effect of live streaming will be greatly reduced, so you can't have both."

However, Zhang did not deny that online traffic helps offline business. " For offline physical business, the value of short videos and live broadcasts is that they can help businesses establish user connections. The short video platform itself has the function of recommending products in the same city.

When a stranger nearby sees our short video or my live broadcast, it will leave an impression in his mind. The next time he passes by here, he may recall the previous impression and choose to shop in the store.

Regular customers may also suddenly become interested in repurchasing after seeing our updated content." Zhang revealed that through continuous updating of short videos and trial live broadcasts, 10% of his current total turnover comes from online traffic conversion.

*Photo provided by the interviewee

Of course, in addition to directly attracting traffic for offline operations, street vendors can also increase their income channels by recruiting apprentices, selling goods on their homepage windows, etc. after they have enough influence. For example, a couple born after 1995 in Yiwu recruited apprentices at a price of 1,500 yuan per person. As for selling goods, many street vendors are still in the exploratory stage.

According to the Jingzhe Research Institute, there has not yet been a large-scale live streaming phenomenon of street vendors selling goods. This may be because street vendors have to serve offline customers while taking into account online interactions during live streaming, so there is not enough time and space to sell goods while setting up stalls.

According to Chanmama data, @渔妹妹 has only promoted 29 products in the past 360 days, with cumulative sales of 100,000 to 250,000 and cumulative sales of 5 million to 7.5 million yuan. @波仔炒粉 has promoted 11 products, with cumulative sales of 50,000 to 75,000 and cumulative sales of 1 million to 2.5 million yuan. @阿华炒饭 has only promoted 3 products, with cumulative sales of only 1 to 25 items and cumulative sales of 1,000 to 2,500 yuan.

In fact, quite a number of street stall bloggers have not tried to sell goods on a large scale. The account of the Yiwu street stall couple born after 1995 mentioned above has not even opened the product display function.

From this point of view, the street vendors may have never considered playing the role of a good host and making profits by selling goods.

If we look at the live broadcast of street stalls from the perspective of evaluating content, we can clearly see that the real live broadcast scene and the professional identity of the anchor can quickly establish the anchor's personality;

The contrast between the host's image and the live broadcast environment, as well as the exaggerated movements and inappropriate clothing, are enough to attract users to enter the live broadcast room to watch and stay; coupled with the natural conversion channels of offline entities, street stall live broadcasts have formed a perfect closed loop of traffic conversion.

However, if we examine the value of live streaming of street stalls from the perspective of offline physical business, we will find that although live streaming can attract offline traffic, it cannot directly monetize it on the spot.

This also means that online traffic can only serve as an auxiliary means of the offline economy, providing offline business operations with a long-term operational tool to connect with users and enhance user stickiness and loyalty.

In the past, people often said that online business has taken away the jobs of offline business, but at least in business forms such as street stalls that are still centered on offline scenarios, physical business and Internet thinking do not conflict.

At least in the business form of stalls, which still focuses on offline scenes, we can see that the fireworks of offline business and the operational thinking of the Internet have the opportunity to be deeply integrated. The value of online traffic does not necessarily have to be realized online, and offline business can also create new value with the assistance of online traffic.

Author: Cheng Yu;

Source: Public account "Jingzhe Research Institute";