What does Douyin want to do by guiding businesses to sell products not through live streaming or short videos?

"You don't need to broadcast or shoot short videos, and you can get mall traffic recommendations 24 hours a day." Douyin's "Product Card" is a new way to sell goods online without live streaming. What's the secret? As a platform known for short videos, why does Douyin guide merchants not to sell goods through short video live streaming? This article analyzes Douyin's new move, hoping to inspire you who are interested in live streaming.

“No need to start broadcasting, no need to shoot short videos, you can get mall traffic recommendations 24 hours a day”, “You only need to provide graphic and text materials, the production threshold is low and easy to get started”... After launching the mall and focusing on the shelves, Douyin e-commerce has made new moves: launching the "product card" commission-free gameplay, and opening it to new and old merchants of all categories.

"Product Cards", also known as the Douyin version of "Guess What You Like", are simply the scenarios for bringing goods in addition to short videos and live broadcasts, including search, mall recommendations, etc. This move is intended to allow merchants who do not understand content to abandon their dependence on short videos and live broadcasts and switch to the shelf e-commerce system with relatively lower operating costs. While Taobao is accelerating its contentization, Douyin e-commerce has chosen to "go the other way" and once again forcefully attack the hinterland of traditional e-commerce.

However, merchants are also well aware that "free commission" will not exist for too long, and the best strategy is to seize the dividends quickly during the window period for Douyin e-commerce to attract new users.

1. Douyin "Product Card" is commission-free

On March 1, Douyin held an online "Douyin E-commerce Merchandise Card Policy Release Conference". Mu Qing, vice president of Douyin E-commerce, interpreted the background of the introduction of new regulations on commission-free merchandise card orders, and announced that Douyin E-commerce will launch a commission-free merchandise card activity: starting from March 1, the platform will refund the technical service fees (commissions) generated by merchants' merchandise card orders.

It is understood that the product card commission-free activity will be divided into three phases. From March 1st to May 31st, each natural month is a phase. During the activity, merchants can register through the Douyin e-commerce learning center or the Douyin official website's merchant management, station message, compass and other channels, and complete basic tasks such as "listing new products", "optimizing product titles" and "decorating stores" to participate in the commission-free activity.

In addition, at the meeting, Douyin Vice President Mu Qing also mentioned the case of the men's clothing brand "Shirt Lao Luo" that grew up on the Douyin e-commerce platform. Currently, the merchant's product card orders account for 90%, and the monthly GMV has reached 2 million yuan, which is equivalent to about 100,000 yuan in commission exemption (clothing commission is 5%).

In terms of entry threshold, the threshold for the merchandise card commission-free activity is not high. Both new and old merchants can participate, and it is open to all categories, which is very friendly to merchants.

Regarding the definition of "product card", according to the official introduction of Douyin e-commerce, product card is a card that displays product information in the shelf scene, and only orders that are completed by clicking on products on non-live broadcast or non-short video pages are product card orders.

It is understood that the advantage of product cards is that you only need to provide graphic materials to obtain multi-scene displays of multiple products and 24-hour natural traffic. At present, product cards mainly include 7 traffic entrances: search, mall recommendations, showcases, stores, channels and activities, shopping pages, and guess you like. Among these entrances, the highest quality and most frequently used by users are Douyin Mall and search.

For example, when Xinbochang searches for "lipstick" in the Douyin App, many lipsticks of different categories and brands will quickly pop up, and the sales volume of the products will be displayed. By clicking the "Live Broadcast" option, you can also see the brand's live broadcast room that is currently broadcasting.

In other words, the backend data shows that the source of the products purchased from Douyin's "shelf e-commerce" is the "product card". In this respect, the gameplay of Douyin's product card is actually very similar to that of Taobao, both of which test the platform's natural traffic.

As early as September last year, there were institutions in the industry that were doing Douyin e-commerce training and promoting the gameplay of "commodity cards". By December, the term "commodity cards" had repeatedly appeared in Douyin's official second statement and the mouths of some knowledge-based paid bloggers.

2. Don’t rely on content to bring goods

"The gameplay of product cards is the time for Taobao players to take the stage." Someone expressed the above opinion on the gameplay of Douyin product cards.

The CC of a Douyin store said that his job before was mainly live streaming traffic, but with the policy of free commissions for product cards, their overall focus is shifting to product cards. "We are still exploring, but the traffic and transactions have been pretty good recently. I hope that by operating a store and playing with product cards, I don't have to rely so much on live streaming."

"It's too difficult to recruit anchors. The product card method doesn't require anchors. If done well, the transaction volume can surpass live streaming sales. Doing Douyin shelf e-commerce depends on product selection and operation."

Douyin’s restrictions on the promotion of individual stores and the sale of goods are actually guiding the main business battlefield of individual stores to shift from the content field to the shelf field dominated by goods and searches.

Different from live broadcasts and short videos where orders are placed through content recommendation, purchases brought about by product card orders are the result of users’ active searches. This purchasing model has precise users and high demand, so the corresponding return rate is also lower.

For merchants who have supply capabilities but lack content capabilities, making product cards can also reduce the investment in influencer cooperation and obtain higher sales revenue.

A user once said on a social platform that when he first started using product cards to promote sales, most of the traffic came from mall recommendations, and in the early days, there were more searches for hardware. But in the second half of last year, the frequency of searches for product cards to promote sales increased significantly, and for example, all fitness equipment products were sold through searches.

Therefore, for merchants who want to obtain product card traffic and stable transactions, it is crucial to improve the mall recommendation and search weight of their products.

It is not difficult to see that the launch of the commission-free product card and other gameplay is actually one of Douyin's e-commerce initiatives to focus on shelf scenarios and deepen and solidify all-domain interest e-commerce.

Since May 2022, when Douyin E-commerce officially announced that it would upgrade its interest e-commerce to global interest e-commerce, although it is still named "interest e-commerce", its focus has actually shifted to "shelf e-commerce". Since then, in addition to short videos and live broadcasts, Douyin's interest e-commerce business has also extended to search, shopping malls, stores, etc.

According to Douyin's e-commerce data, in 2022, a total of 23.9 billion items were sold through the platform, and the shelf scene drove GMV to account for 28% of the total.

In addition, Xinbochang also learned that Douyin e-commerce is testing a traffic tool called "Super Commodity Card", which is another paid traffic channel after Qianchuan Search. However, "Super Commodity Card" is different from other carriers. It does not rely on other short videos and live broadcast rooms, but directly recommends products to users.

In addition, including the commission-free product card activity, Douyin e-commerce has also launched nine "new merchant settlement rights", including the rapid settlement and 0 yuan settlement rights for personal stores that are currently open to 44 trial operation categories such as sporting goods, personal hygiene and cleaning products, and sanitary ware, as well as free trials of business tools, operation method guidance and free training courses, event traffic subsidies, and other content open to all new merchants.

3. To attract new customers? To pave the way for shelf e-commerce?

The release of Douyin’s commission-free policy for merchandise cards, coupled with the reopening and rapid opening of personal stores, quickly attracted a group of new merchants to settle in.

"The point is not to waive commissions, it's to attract new customers and pave the way for shelf e-commerce."

An old e-commerce player said that although Douyin Mall has long been noticed by everyone and the platform is also vigorously promoting it, there is a difference in the quantity of goods in the mall compared with traditional e-commerce platforms, so it is necessary to use policies such as no commission to attract more goods to be listed in the mall, which is the same as the zero threshold and zero commission of small stores in the past.

Regarding the new customer-attracting policy of free commission for product cards, a Douyin e-commerce player said that the platform had specifically rectified the phenomenon of duplicate distribution last year, but judging from the current trend, the practice of large and small merchants opening stores in batches to increase the exposure of their products may become popular.

Some more daring merchants asked: How can we exploit this policy loophole to fake orders?

In general, Douyin Mall’s commission-free policy for product cards has allowed many merchants who are familiar with shelf e-commerce and Douyin e-commerce to see new opportunities and possibilities.

But at the same time, everyone knows that when Douyin's shelf e-commerce reaches a certain scale, the commission-free policy will no longer exist, and the subsequent operational pressure should not be underestimated. It can be said that this commission-free policy is an "open conspiracy" with a time difference bonus.

In fact, it was mentioned in an earlier conversation between Xinbochang and service provider Li Ruchuan that the mall or shelf e-commerce will be the focus of Douyin e-commerce in 2023.

After all, whether it is Douyin or TikTok, they are essentially content products, and their development should be oriented towards DAU and content ecology. Shelf e-commerce based on "people looking for goods" will not occupy too much of the user's content consumption market, which is the demand of product development.

For merchants, the commission-free policy may be a window of transformation, abandoning their reliance on short videos and live broadcasts and switching to a shelf e-commerce system with relatively lower operating costs, but at the same time, they will also face various uncertainties and trends in the future. As for existing shelf e-commerce players, they will face a new battle.

At a time when Taobao is accelerating its contentization, Douyin e-commerce is "going the other way" and once again making a strong push into the heartland of traditional e-commerce. Traditional e-commerce platforms are competing for content, and content platforms are competing for merchants. For merchants, perhaps the ultimate difference in platform gameplay is hard to tell, and the end result is the same.

Author: Xiaolongguo, Aligu

Source: New Broadcasting Company (ID: New_bc), a value deconstructor of culture and entertainment, new consumption, and commercial technology.