Should Xiaohongshu do live streaming? If so, how should it be done?

This article deeply analyzes the opportunities and difficulties of Xiaohongshu live streaming. The author believes that although Xiaohongshu live streaming is a latecomer, it may find its own opportunities by adopting differentiated positioning and matrix operations. Overall, this article comprehensively and objectively evaluates the development prospects of Xiaohongshu live streaming, which helps e-commerce anchors and brand merchants understand the operational strategies of Xiaohongshu live streaming. It is worth reading.

In early June 2019, Xiaohongshu began to launch the internal testing of the live broadcast section. Now, four years have passed. Although the overall traffic results of the section are still particularly obvious, there are at least representative figures like Dong Jie and Veronica Yip.

Based on the current situation, both influencers and businesses have to think about a question: should Xiaohongshu live broadcast be done? If so, how should it be done? Today's article will talk about Xiaohongshu live broadcast, maybe you can find the answer here.

1. Layout too late, too few entrances

Compared to Taobao, which started to develop live streaming in 2016, Xiaohongshu’s live streaming was launched more than three years later. This late arrival resulted in the live streaming sales pie having been completely taken up by the time Xiaohongshu entered the market.

When the general public has formed the user mentality and habits of live shopping on other platforms, Xiaohongshu's live broadcast section has just been launched. Not only is the user mind occupied by the first entrants, but even the minds of the anchors are more inclined to other platforms. The number of KOLs on the entire Internet platform is basically constant. The later the live broadcast platform enters the market, the less advantage it has in signing anchors to bring goods.

Xiaohongshu currently has three live streaming entrances: the first is at the top of the "Follow" page on the homepage, which will display the live streaming of the influencers that the user follows; the second is the third column of the "Discover" column on the homepage, which is the main source of live streaming traffic; the third is to search for "Xiaohongshu Live" in the search bar, which will jump to the live streaming square. The three entrances are relatively hidden, and if users do not use Xiaohongshu frequently, they will hardly notice these three entrances.

2. Differentiation of live streaming positioning

Since the birth of e-commerce live streaming, it has always been regarded as a variation of TV shopping in the Internet era with the "anchor-centered, lowest price strategy in the entire network". The role of the anchor is similar to that of a shopping guide, responsible for explaining product details and conveying discount information to users. In a business model based on "discounts", for a platform, the core competitiveness is to be able to manage the supply chain and traffic. Taobao and Pinduoduo have these characteristics. The former has already taken the lead, while the latter is still on the way.

The main purpose of this type of live broadcast is to stimulate users' impulse purchases, and the biggest motivation for users to make consumption decisions is very tempting prices. Based on this, the anchor uses his popularity to exchange for lower prices from suppliers and brands, attracting more users to watch and shop.

However, since most brands that have been active on Xiaohongshu for a long time are high-profile and advocate a higher quality of life concept, this type of brand is unwilling to lower their prices and avoid affecting the "tone" they have worked hard to build. Even if they adopt Xiaohongshu's live streaming to sell goods, they are not purely pursuing order volume and GMV, but pay more attention to conversion and average order value.

It seems that Xiaohongshu is taking a completely different path from Taobao, Kuaishou, and Douyin. On the one hand, it is related to its "fashionable and high-end" platform tone. Official data shows that more than 80% of Xiaohongshu users are female, more than 60% of users are from first- and second-tier cities, and more than 70% of users are born after 1990. They have strong purchasing power and high willingness to consume, and their high-priced and high-profile positioning is gradually revealed.

For Xiaohongshu, whether to make "books" or "shelves" is a problem. For niche brands, it is relatively clear whether they can do it. In the long run, it will be difficult for Xiaohongshu's live broadcast to generate large-scale GMV in the short term. But in the short term, the live broadcast sector has little competitive pressure and high conversion rate, so brands can participate in short-term layout.

1. Matrix Play

At present, there is very little competition in the live broadcast section of Xiaohongshu, and the number of people broadcasting every day is still not large. In addition, the threshold for the live broadcast popularity list is not high. The popularity values ​​of the TOP10-20 are only in the range of hundreds to thousands of people. The list is the main entrance to the flow of traffic in the live broadcast section. Brands can use a matrix approach and broadcast on multiple accounts to impact the list.

2. Self-broadcasting

For many brands, daily self-broadcasting has become a normal practice on Douyin, Taobao, and Pinduoduo, but there are almost no brands that broadcast themselves on Xiaohongshu on a daily basis. Brands that want to deploy live broadcasts on Xiaohongshu can try Xiaohongshu’s daily self-broadcasting strategy. The competition on the brand list is not very fierce, so there is still a good chance of getting traffic from the list.

3. KOC pure commission strategy

Because Xiaohongshu's e-commerce has achieved a closed loop, most of Xiaohongshu's influencers' live broadcast rooms sell products from their own potato shops and brand stores, and the categories and quantities are extremely limited. If the brand or supply chain can provide more categories of SKUs for self-broadcast KOCs and offer high commission cooperation conditions, the live broadcast KOC model can be fully operational. There is still a shortage of products on the influencer side, and brands are needed to supply diversified SKUs.

Author: Vic's Marketing Thoughts

Source: WeChat public account "Vic's Marketing Thinking (ID: Viccps0227)"