The top influencer has a monthly sales of 50 million. Is it better to sell group purchases than to do e-commerce?

With the advent of the digital age, live streaming is no longer the only way for e-commerce to monetize. Group buying live streaming, an emerging marketing model, is gradually becoming a new favorite among top influencers. Driven by short video platforms such as Douyin, group buying live streaming has not only opened up new sales channels for brands, but also provided new ways for content creators to monetize. This article will explore in depth the background of the rise of group buying live streaming, the transformation path of top influencers, and the new opportunities and challenges brought by group buying live streaming. Let's step into the world of group buying live streaming and find out.

Is live streaming no longer popular? Group buying live streaming has become the "new favorite" of top influencers.

Recently, Douyin's local life service released the "National Top Live Broadcasting Talent Monthly Ranking List", which includes celebrities and top talents. Among them, one talent's monthly sales reached 50 million.

In the past two years, the local life track has been full of smoke. Compared with platforms such as Meituan, short video platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou have the advantages of traffic and content ecology, which not only brings new publicity and sales channels for brands, but also brings new monetization opportunities for content creators on the platform.

So, what is the performance of top influencers in group buying? Will top influencers with their own traffic bring new imagination to local life?

1. Experts flock to group buying live streaming

• "Baheli, enjoy fresh Chaoshan beef hotpot at 36% off!"
• "Starbucks celebrity show, cheaper than the official show, stock up on coffee"
• "McDonald's May Day coupon sale, come and stock up"

Recently, Xinbochang discovered that more and more top Douyin influencers have "abandoned" live streaming to sell goods and turned to group buying live streaming. Among them are many influencers with millions of fans, such as Office Xiaoye and Xiaobawang.

Take Office Xiaoye as an example. She entered the group buying live broadcast in March this year, and cooperated with merchant brands such as Tustin, Tongren Four Seasons, Yihetang, Cha Baidao, Baheli, etc. According to Feigua data, Office Xiaoye conducted a total of 21 group buying live broadcasts in May, with sales of 5 million to 7.5 million.

As early as May 2022, Xiaoye tried live streaming to sell goods, but the data was not ideal. According to Feigua data, there were 12 live broadcasts in 2022, with sales of 1 million to 2.5 million. In May 2023, she stopped broadcasting until she started group buying live streaming a year later.

In addition to top influencers like Office Xiaoye who have transformed from live streaming with goods to group buying live streaming, there are also influencers who choose group buying live streaming when exploring ways to monetize.

For example, Zhong Qianer launched a total of 10 group-buying live broadcasts in May, mainly focusing on special live broadcasts of tea brand cards and coupons such as Heytea, Nayuki's Tea, and Coco. It did not involve other fields and developed towards the vertical track of tea brands. A total of 76 group-buying products were launched, with group-buying sales volumes of 750,000 to 1 million and group-buying sales revenue of 7.5 to 10 million yuan.

Xinbochang discovered that Douyin Life Service recently released the "National Super Top Live Broadcasting Monthly Ranking List" for May, with many celebrities and top influencers on the list, including top influencers such as Office Xiaoye and Zhong Qianer, as well as top institutions such as Make Friends.

Data shows that Jiao Ge Pengyou launched 14 group-buying live broadcasts in May, covering three major categories: furniture and home decoration, beauty and cosmetics, and health consultation. A total of 26 products were put online with group purchase sales of 10,000 to 25,000 and group purchase sales of 25 million to 50 million yuan. Among them, furniture and home decoration had the best sales volume and accounted for the largest proportion.

The product selection of Jiaogepengyou will be broader and not limited to tea brands and fast food brands. Although the number of products online is not large, the average customer unit price of the products exceeds 1,000 yuan.

In addition, there are many celebrities on the list, including Xu Juncong, Calvin Chen, Da Zuo, Christy Chung, Xu Haiqiao, Jinguizi, Che Baoluo, Zhang Rui and He Shengming.

It is understood that the "Super Top Live Streaming Talent Monthly Ranking" was launched in April. The basic threshold of the list is that the talent's average daily GMV excluding risk control payments is ≥ 1 million, or the cumulative GMV excluding risk control payments is ≥ 1 million on at least one day in a month. In May, the platform also added another requirement for the "talent write-off rate" ≥ 5% to enter the list.

2. New options for talent transformation?

Why are top influencers and celebrities flocking to group buying live streaming?

First, influencers still face the problem of monetization. With fewer advertisements and too difficult to bring goods through e-commerce, group buying live streaming has become a new option.

Ono from the Office once revealed in a short video that it is becoming increasingly difficult for short video influencers to get advertising, and her previous creative food short videos had high production costs and were difficult to monetize, so she chose to transform.

She also chose e-commerce to sell products at the beginning, but after all, she was fighting alone. Firstly, she had no supply chain advantage. Secondly, short video experts who switched to live streaming also faced new challenges such as sales pitch and operations.

On the other hand, it is difficult for e-commerce to bring new bonuses to influencers. This track is already very saturated, especially since the platforms have already released signals of focusing on shelves and rolling up low prices. It is difficult for short video influencers who fight alone and have no supply advantage to be competitive.

Compared with e-commerce live streaming, the threshold for group buying live streaming is obviously lower. From the products promoted by influencers, we can also see that group buying live streaming is mostly brand-specific, and the prices are indeed more advantageous than those in stores.

"The requirements for experts to sell group-buying coupons are relatively low. As long as you put the coupons up and explain the discounts and what is included, many users will place orders on their own. It's not like e-commerce products, which require a lot of details and content. So it's actually easier for experts to get started."

The head of an MCN agency in the local lifestyle track once told Xinbochang, "After all, it is a rigid demand and really cheap, so it will sell better than e-commerce products."

Secondly, the rapid development of Douyin’s local life business and the entry of many brands also mean new opportunities for many influencers.

According to LatePost, Douyin's sales of life services in the first quarter of 2024 have exceeded 100 billion yuan, an increase of more than 100% over the same period last year. Douyin's local life is developing rapidly with an unstoppable trend.

With the changes in the consumption mentality and consumption demands of user groups, Douyin's local life service track continues to be hot, with more and more merchants and brands joining in, actively deploying in the life service track and looking for new growth points.

On June 4, Metersbonwe announced its performance in the local lifestyle business on Douyin. In more than a month since the launch of the local lifestyle business on Douyin, Metersbonwe's GMV exceeded 100 million yuan.

Metersbonwe said that in more than a month, it has continuously optimized its operating model on the Douyin platform, strengthened interaction and communication with users, and launched a series of attractive promotions and special products. At the same time, the brand has also actively cooperated with Douyin's influencers and influencers, and with their influence and fan base, it has further expanded its influence in the local life market and achieved rapid explosion and stable growth.

The entry of brands will require finding influencers to cooperate in promotion, which will undoubtedly bring new monetization opportunities for influencers.

However, it is not without difficulties and challenges for experts to do group buying live broadcasts.

First, just like the competition between Dabo and Dianbo in e-commerce live streaming, group buying live streaming also faces such a problem. Xinbochang found that in the Douyin local life group buying expert list in May, Luckin Coffee ranked first, KFC Food Bureau ranked third, and more than half of the top ten were brand live streaming rooms.

Secondly, most of the group buying products of influencers are similar, which means there won’t be much difference. Whether users will buy depends on whether they can find it and whether they are attracted by the live short video content. So, how influencers sell and how to continue to sell may also be the problems they will face in the future. But in any case, for influencers, since there is a new way to monetize, it is the best choice to give it a try.

Author: Changmei, WeChat public account: Xinbochang