The wealth of Douyin’s big anchors can no longer boost GMV | Observation of Douyin e-commerce 618

GMV refers to the total merchandise transaction volume of the e-commerce platform. This article focuses on the phenomenon that the total GMV is still not optimistic despite the "extravagant" Apple mobile phone lottery phenomenon. It analyzes Douyin's e-commerce reforms in recent times and gives suggestions, hoping to be helpful to everyone.

During this year’s 618, the big anchors on Douyin were “arguing” about giving away Apple phones.

"8 iPhone 14s will be given away every minute in the first two hours! Everyone must come!" Half a month before the broadcast, the Guangdong couple had already warmed up for the first live broadcast welfare on June 1 in multiple short videos, claiming to prepare 10,000 Apple phones for free lottery in the live broadcast room. Coincidentally, Jia Nailiang, who is also a top anchor, also took out the posture of giving away Apple phones in the 618 live broadcast room, and increased the welfare to 10 iPhone 14s per minute. In the comment area, many netizens were discussing whether they had won an Apple phone.

Tik Tok screenshot

Although the top anchors are generous in spending on live broadcast room benefits, this "generosity" has not fully achieved their GMV target.

Judging from the sales performance of the Guangdong couple, the live broadcast lasted from 11 a.m. on June 1 to more than 2 a.m. the next day, and the final GMV was fixed at 500 million yuan.

Although they did not reach the expected goal of 1 billion, the Guangdong couple said in the live broadcast room that the number of fans on their account increased by 3 million in recent days, which is also a gain. At present, the number of fans of the Guangdong couple on Douyin has reached 55.356 million, and they continue to challenge the 1 billion GMV. At the same time, they continue to give away Apple phones, but the number has been reduced from 8 per minute to 1.

As early as last year's Double Eleven, a scene of giving away Apple mobile phones for free appeared in the live broadcast room of a Guangdong couple. At that time, a total of 3,000 iPhone14s were prepared, with an average of 3 units given away every minute. The GMV of a single live broadcast exceeded 700 million yuan, which was higher than the record of the first live broadcast with goods on June 18 this year. However, this year on June 18, 10,000 iPhone14s were prepared, but the GMV was only 500 million.

The iPhone 14 was also used as a lucky draw bonus in the live broadcast room, but the larger number of lucky draws did not bring about a year-on-year increase in the GMV of the live broadcast room. Is it because the Douyin anchors are too rich to boost GMV? Or are there other reasons?

01 Giving away Apple phones every minute won’t increase GMV?

If we were to make a voting list for the hard currency in Douyin's live broadcast room, then Apple phones would definitely be on the list, which also makes it a "weapon" to attract users to stay in the live broadcast room.

Even the iPhone 13, which was launched at Apple's autumn new product launch in 2021 and was called the least noticeable by the outside world, was rushed by consumers and the official website crashed after it went online. Subsequently, Luo Yonghao's live broadcast room also opened pre-sales for the iPhone 13 series of products. According to Feigua data, the final cumulative sales of these four mobile phones reached 17.13 million yuan, accounting for 56% of the total live broadcast sales on that day. In the 2021 Douyin Live Annual Brand List, Apple ranked first in the year, with an estimated sales of 3.48 billion, becoming a well-deserved hard currency.

2021 Douyin e-commerce ranking annual list

Intuitively, Apple phones are expensive and have a wide audience, which can drive certain sales . Combined with the low prices or free draws in the live broadcast room, it can further trigger consumers' desire for them. Invisibly, this has also become a representative of "luxury".

For example, in December 2022, during the Douyin live broadcast of the "top wealthy family" Xiang Tai Chen Lan, she also offered to draw an Apple phone in two minutes.

In addition to showing off their love for fans, the essence of top anchors directly holding draws to give away Apple phones is to increase the number of viewers in the live broadcast room and extend the viewing time of the live broadcast.

In the Guangdong couple's live broadcast room, the condition for participating in the lottery for Apple phones in each round is to join the fan group and post a comment in a uniform format, such as "The whole venue has opened the bid." In order to increase their chances of winning, some users took out multiple mobile phones for the lottery. In the Guangdong couple's live broadcast room, the number of people participating in the lottery in each round is basically more than 10,000, and the number of online viewers exceeds 100,000.

Attracting users to watch is a prerequisite, and prompting users to place orders is the determining factor of GMV. This requires us to return to the discussion of the goods in the live broadcast room itself.

In the live broadcast rooms of the Guangdong couple and Jia Nailiang, which started broadcasting on the same day on June 1, the theme of the first live broadcast was international big-name beauty products, which are "hard currency" with high unit prices and a wide audience. They can be sold in a differentiated manner through the form of self-assembled SKU sets, bypassing the link of price comparison for the same products.

Tik Tok screenshot

But in general, the range of international big-name beauty products available for anchors to choose from is fixed, so there is inevitably a certain degree of brand overlap in the products on the shelves, such as Estee Lauder, Lancome, Helena Rubinstein, etc., and price comparison competition across the entire network still exists.

After all, the real "king" Li Jiaqi's main sales force on the first day of 618 pre-sale was also beauty products.

The product selection team of Mei ONE's live broadcast room once stated that in 2022, Mei ONE's product selection penetration rate in the beauty and cosmetics category exceeded 97% among Tmall's top 100 skincare/makeup brands. However, compared with the international big-name beauty brands in Jia Nailiang and the Guangdong couple's live broadcast rooms, domestic brands such as PROYA, WINONA, and QUADY were added to Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room, and they became the main sales force that night.

According to the first wave of Tmall 618 (May 31-June 3) store/brand sales rankings in 2023 released by "Tmall Online Business" and Tmall, PROYA ranked fourth in the beauty brand sales list. Compared with international big-name beauty brands, domestic brands have low unit prices and high cost-effectiveness, which have attracted more consumers to try in recent years and have also become a new addition to the 618 track. However, in the live broadcast rooms of Douyin's top anchors such as Jia Nailiang and the Guangdong couple, they still attract consumers with the "discounted and low-priced" lineup of international big-name beauty brands, which is somewhat lacking in stamina.

Tmall 618 first wave of beauty lists

What's more, in the eyes of increasingly cost-conscious consumers, there are always various strategies to compare and find ways to spend less money on the "discounted and low prices" of these international brands.

02 To promote a new C position, Douyin has to "diverge" again

The reason why big anchors cannot increase GMV is not only related to their own factors such as product selection, discounts, and live broadcast style, but also related to the fact that the C position of Douyin e-commerce has undergone several obvious adjustments.

In 2020, celebrity live streaming is very popular, and celebrities from all walks of life have developed side businesses in live streaming.

From signing Luo Yonghao to Chen He’s entry, to the official announcement of Angelababy, Douyin can be said to be at the forefront of celebrity live streaming. However, most celebrity anchors who have joined Douyin are at their peak after their first show and run away after grabbing the goods. According to the statistics of celebrity live streaming by CBNData as of the end of June 2020, 8 celebrities have only conducted live streaming sales on Douyin once, and the only celebrity who has conducted live streaming sales more than 5 times is Wang Zulan.

"2020 First Half Celebrity Sales Report"

After sensing the uncertainty of celebrity sales, brand self-broadcasting rose on Douyin in 2021 , and Douyin also launched the "Top 100 Growth Plan" for brand accounts, recruiting high-quality leading brands in industries such as fast-moving consumer goods, luxury goods, automobiles, 3C home appliances, and local products. At the same time, the halo of celebrity sales on Douyin is gradually fading, and Luo Yonghao has also reduced the frequency of his appearances in the live broadcast room.

As a result, Douyin’s focus on traffic to live broadcasts by big anchors and related restrictions have been mentioned more and more frequently.

According to Chanmama data, among the top 10 Douyin live streaming accounts in Q1 2021, three were owned by brands, namely Suning.com Super Live Streaming Room, TeenWeenie flagship store and Xiaomi Live Streaming Room. The cumulative sales of each account in Q1 exceeded 350 million yuan. Among the top 50 Douyin live streaming accounts, nine were owned by brands, which is the same as the number of celebrity live streaming accounts in the TOP50. According to Feigua data, Douyin brand store live streaming sales accounted for 50% of total sales since February 2021.

This year, Douyin has made shelf e-commerce its new focus.

Since Douyin E-commerce upgraded its hobby e-commerce to the global hobby e-commerce stage, it has invested heavily in the construction of shelf e-commerce and set Douyin Mall as the first-level entrance. At the third Douyin E-commerce Ecological Conference this year, Douyin E-commerce officially announced that GMV increased by 80% year-on-year in the past year, of which the shelf scene GMV accounted for 30%. At the same time, Douyin E-commerce upgraded the methodology to "FACT+S" based on "FACT+", and made a more practical explanation of the shelf scene.

Screenshot of Douyin Mall

The shift in focus of shelf e-commerce has diverted the transaction volume of live broadcast rooms to a certain extent.

A skin care merchant told Yiyuguancha that many customers are used to looking at the product details page to understand the product and decide whether to buy it, rather than being guided by the anchor to place an order directly in the live broadcast room, skipping the process of choosing and purchasing by themselves. Although this process of selecting and comparing prices is closer to traditional e-commerce platforms such as Taobao and JD.com, the behavior of actively searching, paying attention to and placing orders to purchase products is the driving force behind users' continued consumption, which is not only conducive to long-term user retention, but also conducive to users' repurchase.

On the contrary, the live broadcast room of big anchors is a natural shopping scene, where users passively accept rather than actively choose. Once the novelty wears off, there needs to be a lead product in the live broadcast room to attract users' attention, including free Apple phones given away in a lottery, or discounted items that can be snapped up for only 0.01 yuan. While the anchor introduces the product, users can still stay online.

03 Behind the flames of the 618 war, “interest e-commerce” finally reached a point of divergence

At present, the Douyin 618 schedule, which started on June 1, has already passed the halfway point. The deposit pre-sale period and the opening period have officially ended, and it has entered the "Industry Theme Day" event stage.

According to the official disclosure of Douyin e-commerce, as of May 31, the pre-sale GMV of the home appliance industry increased by 808% compared with the same period of 618 last year. According to the trend of the list compiled by Ebrun Power, more and more mature brand merchants have entered the TOP10, and some categories of Chinese brands and new consumer brands still have great opportunities. These characteristics are particularly prominent in women's clothing, luggage, bedding, beauty and skin care, children's clothing and other categories.

The maturity of the brand has laid the foundation for Douyin to take the path of shelf e-commerce. On the eve of 618 this year, Douyin e-commerce launched a commission-free product card project and plans to allocate 10 billion cash subsidies to the project this year. It is understood that product cards are a display carrier for product information in shopping malls, searches, stores, windows and other shelf scenes. They are associated with orders that are completed by clicking on products on non-live broadcast and non-short video pages.

This will further enhance the attractiveness to merchants and accelerate the migration of users from the live broadcast room to the mall.

The official data released by Douyin also shows that in April 2022, the GMV of Douyin's e-commerce shelf scene accounted for 20%; as of November, this figure had reached 27%, and further increased to 30% in May this year. Wei Wenwen, president of Douyin's e-commerce, once mentioned that in the future, new fields such as shopping malls and searches will account for more than 50% of the business, that is, GMV. When the number reaches 50%, it means that the shelf scene will compete with the content scene, and the traffic and sales of the anchor's live broadcast room will be further challenged.

Fate is a cycle. When Douyin e-commerce was first launched, it was known for its strong content and proposed the new concept of "interest e-commerce". However, the logic of the development of e-commerce has been questioned. For example, the "goods find people" model was not the first to be created by Douyin. The model of finding people to join groups and bargain had already appeared as early as the Pinduoduo period.

When "interest" is not enough to tell a story, Douyin e-commerce will focus on "shelves", and then gradually de-contentize and strengthen the support for brand merchants. According to 36Kr, Douyin will lean towards the pan-mall in terms of personnel investment, marketing budget and subsidies this year.

These changes and trends will affect the battle situation of Douyin e-commerce on June 18, and will also affect the commitment and ambition of every practitioner in the ecosystem.

At the next event node, how should the big Douyin anchors "paint the pie" for their own growth?

Author: Thick Code

Source: Yiyuguancha (ID: yiyuguancha), the telescope and sonar of the pan-entertainment industry.