Douyin "Handmade Geng", why do you have to trade on WeChat

This article deeply analyzes a special type of merchants on the Douyin platform - individual handicraft merchants, and why they complete some transactions through third-party payment platforms such as WeChat. The article is rich in content and detailed in data, which helps readers to fully understand the issue. It is worth reading for e-commerce practitioners and senior influencers.

These merchants who live broadcast live often have several characteristics, namely, handmade, customized and low unit price. The DIY attribute determines that this kind of product is private and difficult to resell. In addition, the unit price is low and the profit is thin, so merchants are unwilling to bear the risk of returns and exchanges.

Who would have thought that the live broadcast used by beautiful anchors to compete for rewards from the "big brother" would be used by merchants who were pushed to the extreme to sell goods, and it would become a "guerrilla force" outside the governance system of the Douyin e-commerce platform.

This live broadcast model is different from traditional live broadcasts, as they are often a group of individual craftsmen who customize products.

Generally speaking, users need to bid for a package of their choice during the live broadcast. The amount is often set to the price including shipping, about 30 or 40 yuan, which acts as a deposit. Merchants connect with consumers in the order of bidding to understand their specific needs. Consumers choose products and settle accounts. The difference in price over the price of the package of their choice can be paid.

This is where the problem lies. For this type of live broadcast, the actual average customer spending is generally between 100 and 200 yuan. For the subsequent price difference, the anchor will often lure consumers to leave the Douyin system and go to WeChat Pay.

Why does this kind of circumvention of the platform occur? Douyin has taken strict measures to prevent circumvention of the platform, but it still continues despite repeated bans. Whether WeChat is willing or not, Douyin and WeChat have already indirectly cooperated in the e-commerce fulfillment link.

01 Stripping away private domain traffic

In most cases, the merchants who use Douyin to "select products through live broadcast" only have stores and display windows. If customers who send bullet comments or connect to "select products" in the live broadcast room want to get the products they like, they will eventually be directed to WeChat by the merchants, and the rest of the transaction will naturally bypass Douyin's supervision.

When I clicked into a store selling DIY accessories, the merchant displayed the products in the live broadcast room and passed the products one by one. "If you like it, you can connect to the microphone or type to select the style. After placing an order, click the connect to microphone button in the lower right corner of the screen, and I will directly pull you to the microphone." "But our products are non-refundable and non-exchangeable, you can consider it before placing an order."

But placing an order is just the beginning.

After placing an order on Lujiu Business Review, the merchant said that I could first join the Douyin fan group, and the group would send WeChat messages, and subsequent transactions would need to be made on WeChat.

After adding the merchant’s WeChat, you will soon be pulled into the merchant’s private group chat for maintaining customers. It can be seen that a Douyin merchant with 1,536 fans has 139 Douyin group chat members and 88 WeChat group chat members, which is more than half. In the WeChat group, there will be reminders before each broadcast, and there will be new model previews. Some "old models" will also be returned if they are highly popular. Merchants will also post live broadcast previews in the fan group, "I will make something live at 8 o'clock tomorrow night, and see you there", to increase the popularity of the live broadcast room.

However, Douyin strictly restricts merchants from "jumping orders" on other platforms and has restrictions on banned words in live broadcasts. Once banned words appear, the live broadcast will be banned for a certain period of time due to suspected diversion.

In Douyin fan groups, the use of WeChat-related words is also restricted. When businesses post their WeChat phone numbers in the group, they must send the numbers twice to prevent them from being recognized by the platform.

Under the platform restrictions, WeChat has evolved many aliases: "Green Software", "Green Bubble", "Desert", "Grassland", "Satellite", "Earth", or simply replaced by the abbreviation "v". This is exactly the same as the "new cultural movement" that appeared on Douyin before, such as Bobojian and Xiaohuangche.

The same situation occurred in another live broadcast room. There was no shopping cart in the live broadcast room. After posting a barrage asking how to buy, the merchant did not directly inform the user, but told the user that there would be a purchase method on the homepage.

Such merchants usually mark their WeChat account on their homepage. One merchant directly marked on the background icon of the homepage: "If you place an order for return, a 30% service fee will be deducted for a short time, and a refund will be made after the order is packaged. If the order is refused, a six-yuan travel fee will be added and a 50% refund will be made."

After placing an order, Lujiu Business Review also tried to question the merchant's practice of bypassing the Douyin platform, but at this point, the merchant's patience usually disappears - "It's the same here, and it's the same for everyone else."

02 Most of the people are self-employed

Unlike top live streaming platforms such as Dongfang Zhenxuan and Jiaoge Pengyou, the size of these merchants who "live broadcast and sell goods" is usually very small. According to Lujiu Business Review, these merchants usually exist in department stores and accessories, and most of them are individual businesses.

Lujiu Business Review observed that these merchants who live-broadcasted products often have several characteristics, namely, handmade, customized and low unit price. The DIY attribute determines that this kind of product is private and difficult to resell. In addition, the unit price is low and the profit is thin, so merchants are unwilling to bear the risk of returns and exchanges.

At the same time, such merchants often produce handmade products with limited supply, and some consumers find it difficult to collect enough free shipping in one live broadcast. Some merchants cannot open pre-sales on the Douyin platform, which also leads them to turn to WeChat transactions for deposits. That is, after paying the deposit, if the amount is not fully selected in one live broadcast, you can continue to select next time and collect enough free shipping before delivery.

Live broadcast rooms selling goods often have the words "no refunds, no exchanges", but this rule is not recognized by the law. For online shopping, general goods support seven days of unconditional returns and exchanges. Therefore, when buyers force a refund, the merchant can only bear the cost.

From the live broadcast duration of nearly dozens of hours, it can be found that most of these merchants are full-time anchors, and live broadcasting with goods is basically their main source of income. At present, the commission ratio of all categories of small stores on Douyin is basically between 2% and 5%.

This ratio may not seem high, but for small businesses, they would rather give as little as possible, so they think of various ways to circumvent the profit sharing.

By taking a detour to WeChat, you can not only make more money, but also recover funds faster.

Douyin merchants often receive payment some time after consumers confirm receipt. If the buyer does not click to confirm receipt, this time will be longer. And many consumers do not have the habit of clicking to confirm receipt in time. This can also shorten the capital circulation time and make the capital return faster.

03 Some customers are really difficult to serve

The platform's inclination towards consumers and "difficult to serve" customers are also the main reasons why merchants resort to such measures. For example, some repeat offenders who wander around in such live broadcast rooms have caused merchants to complain bitterly. Some of them make impulse purchases, and some even simply enjoy the process of selecting items and immediately refund the money after leaving the microphone. The high refund rate will affect the store's traffic.

Some users who are attracted to the live broadcast room by the products often give up the purchase after learning that they need to use WeChat for transactions because they find it troublesome and worry about the lack of security.

"Sometimes I really don't want to buy things privately through WeChat Pay. I can't see the logistics information. It's better to pay on Douyin." Ru Tong has had many transactions on the WeChat platform, but she still minds this method.

If only part of the payment is made on the WeChat platform, the logistics information can still be seen on Douyin, and there is a certain guarantee for after-sales service. If the entire payment is made on WeChat, it will be difficult to recover the money if a dispute arises.

What attracts merchants to take risks and trade on the WeChat platform?

We may be able to find clues from the complaint videos posted by merchants on Douyin. One merchant angrily said in the video: "The goods have been packed and shipped, but they are still being returned. Some of the styles took a long time to customize according to her preferences, but now the goods are ready and no longer needed. Others may not like this product, so what should I do with it now that it is here?" This situation is by no means an isolated case.

Another situation is that the merchants who sell goods through live broadcasts often do not make much profit, and some of them just sell in large quantities. Those who make malicious refunds will also delay the live broadcast time. If you continue to trade on the Douyin platform, it is obviously not worth it from the perspective of handling fees.

Because of this, after suffering losses many times, merchants began to find ways to avoid losses. They used Douyin to obtain traffic, but conducted transactions on WeChat, using Douyin as a transit station.

For example, some merchants said in the Douyin fan group that "You can get a 5 yuan discount on purchases over 100 yuan through WeChat, which is just enough to offset the Douyin transaction fee." This is undoubtedly encouraging consumers to trade on the WeChat platform and to get funds back faster.

04 Trading rules need to be improved

Currently, consumers have an absolute advantage in Douyin's return system. If a buyer applies for a refund before receiving the goods, the merchant can only accept it. Unless the buyer wants to get a free ride by applying for a refund after receiving the goods, or "passes off inferior goods as good ones" when returning goods, and the merchant has strong evidence to prove the buyer's unreasonable behavior, it will be difficult to protect its own interests.

However, for this type of DIY product, this logic will cause substantial losses to merchants.

Zhuang Shuai, founder of Bailian Consulting, told Lujiu Business Review that this, to some extent, is a loophole or imperfection in the platform's governance, and it is impossible to use a single rule to meet the operational needs of multiple merchants.

Of course, if these handmade products are placed on JD.com and Taobao, they can be classified as personalized customized products. When Lujiu Business Review enters the keyword "customization", you can see many products that compete with Douyin's "Handmade Geng".

In the platform rules, they usually refer to physical goods that are produced, processed, cut and produced, and ultimately delivered to buyers by sellers, which contain information materials containing the buyer's specified personalized needs (such as patterns, texts, imprints, accessories, sizes, etc.) and are different from standardized, large-scale production.

Unlike "small items" such as bracelets, this type of product is more difficult to return or exchange once completed because of personal attributes such as "real person photos" and "names".

For example, in terms of delivery and shipment, Taobao merchants should ship goods within 48 hours after the buyer first requests delivery; in terms of the most critical return and exchange, there are three major rules:

Any losses caused by other matters that have not been agreed upon or are not clearly agreed upon between the buyer and the seller shall be shared by the buyer and the seller, and the specific proportion shall be determined by Taobao based on the degree of fault of both parties.

If the buyer applies for a refund without reason before the delivery time limit for customized goods expires and the seller has not completed the customization, the buyer shall compensate for the losses if the seller suffers losses, but the maximum amount shall not exceed the transaction order amount.

If the seller has completed the customized product before the delivery time limit, and the buyer applies for a refund without a valid reason, the buyer must reach an agreement with the seller. Otherwise, the Taobao merchant has the right to reject the buyer's refund application.

Therefore, it is not advisable for "Handcraft Gengs" to jump from Douyin to WeChat at present. After all, consumers' rights and interests are the first priority. How to improve transaction rules is the homework that Douyin e-commerce needs to do more.

Perhaps a change in the rules will, to some extent, change the fate of a group of businesses.

Author: Zhao Beiqiaoshan

Source: WeChat public account "Lujiu Business Review (ID: liujiucaijing69)"