Live streaming with goods, not so beautiful
——Survey on the status of e-commerce live broadcast industry chain
The anchor of Wuhan Xunshida Cultural Media Company is carrying goods live. (Photo courtesy of the interviewee)
Economic Daily · China Economic Net reporter Dong Bijuan Li Hualin
To say which industry is currently the hottest, live streaming is definitely one of the most concerned areas. With the continuous record-high sales of live broadcast goods, the broadcast anchors have become popular, and this new format has gradually stepped out of new heights. But behind the outbreak of the industry, what kind of changes has the live broadcast industry experienced? What direction will the industry develop in the future? Can the rapidly growing industry scale continue? Can the live broadcast of e-commerce that is envied by many people continue to create wealth miracles? Please look at the investigation by the Economic Daily reporter.
Not long ago, Li Jiaqi, a "big brother of lipstick", was once again on the Internet hot search, but this time not because of the performance of online live broadcast sales, but as a special talent settled in Shanghai. Nowadays, the lively live broadcast industry has attracted masses, celebrities and even elites in all fields. The “fast train” of live broadcasts has brought an increasing impact on the market and economy.
Behind the colorful and dazzling "filters" of live broadcasts, how does capital carry out business operations? What are the "doorways" in the live broadcast room? With readers' curiosity and doubts about this industry, the reporter of Economic Daily recently launched a survey interview.
Most anchors can't make money
Yu Haining, with a professional background in broadcasting and hosting, a graduate degree, has served as a TV host, and his image, eloquence and comprehensive ability are very good. But even so, she has really experienced the "pain" of the new anchor for more than three months of live streaming.
"The head effect of the live broadcast industry is very strong. Some manufacturers have to squeeze into the live broadcast rooms of well-known anchors even if they lose money. It is very difficult for new anchors to get popularity and traffic." Yu Haining told reporters that her "Ninghou Carmen" Taobao live broadcast room There are more than 3600 fans. The 15 anchors of the agency that signed with her are now only three or four. The success of live broadcasting can be seen in three or five months, and the pace of staff update is very fast.
The organization mentioned by Yu Haining refers to the MCN (multi-channel network product form) organization, a business model that combines professional content and production, uses capital support to ensure the continuous output of content, and thus achieves stable monetization. "Now on the live broadcast platform, most of the anchors with goods are more willing to sign MCN institutions." Yu Haining said.
According to her, the commission of the anchor and the organization is basically divided in half. The organization is mainly responsible for docking the supply chain, providing offline venues, providing assistants and operations for the anchor, and providing funds, personnel and industry resources. The anchor will participate in the selection of products, explain and interact in time in the live broadcast, and control the rhythm. The main investment is time, experience and comprehensive ability.
"A person cannot play at all and must rely on the team." Yu Haining sighed that live broadcasts involved businesses, institutions, platforms, anchors and other parties, including early selections, live broadcast environment construction, process script design, and anchor lecture interactive , Flow operation, after-sales service, etc., the entire industrial chain is relatively long and there are many links. Whichever link is dropped will affect the results.
Renhao, a young guy from Henan who used to shoot funny short videos, realized the importance of the team from the beginning. Last year, he persuaded five friends to set up a six-person live broadcast team, respectively responsible for editing, filming, marketing, live broadcast and other work, and opened a "sister food" account on Douyin to start live streaming. "Mainly bring snacks and fruits, the merchants are mainly local in Henan. The account flow is not large, few companies take the initiative to find the door, most of them have to take the initiative to find businesses by ourselves." Ren Hao said, one year later, Today, the account has nearly 250,000 followers. Not long ago, I brought an egg yolk pastry, and sold more than 8,000 orders in a live broadcast.
Regarding the income of the anchor, Ren Hao told reporters that the live broadcast looks lively, but the actual income is not as high as outside legends. He calculated an account. The commission for a live broadcast is generally 20% to 30% of the sales. Among them, the live broadcast platform deducts about 6% of the service fee, the e-commerce platform deducts about 10%, and finally the anchor gets the money in his hand. It may be less than 10%. "There are not many real money-making anchors, most of the anchors are still in a state of not making money or losing money," Ren Hao said.
In contrast, it is much easier for some bloggers with live streaming to bring goods live. "First-class public nutritionist, beautician, health manager, vice chairman of Shaanxi Provincial Health Association, well-known health blogger"-this is Zhang Linlin's certified title on Sina Weibo with more than 4.2 million fans. She told reporters that in 2016, when she was live on Yingke, after 1 hour, all 6 mobile phones were "exploded" by her friends. Because her live broadcast of health and wellness messages is loved by the audience, her fan loyalty is high.
"Some of the products I brought with me were actively promoted to me by the manufacturer, and some of them took the initiative to contact the manufacturer. In either case, I will filter them professionally. Although the price will not be cheaper than other channels, I will provide customers with sales. Pre-sales and after-sales professional counseling, using professional knowledge and services to add value to the product." Zhang Linlin said that this accurate and professional mode of bringing goods made her never afraid of "falling powder", a live broadcast achieved more than 100,000 yuan The transaction amount is very simple, with an average consumption of 600 yuan to 800 yuan per person.
Tang Jiqiang, a professor at Southwestern University of Finance and Economics and chief researcher at Xicai Think Tank, believes that objectively speaking, the live streaming industry is in line with the modern business development laws, greatly reducing transaction costs, providing customers with a good experience, and maximizing the value of commodities. Live streaming can not only stimulate domestic demand, but also serve as a sales channel to enable customers to become fans, ensure the production and marketing chain, and facilitate long-term repurchase.
A series of questions surfaced
"I haven't waited a month for delivery, but I can't wait. I consulted the store and found that the store has been closed and the customer service has disappeared..." A netizen spit out his live broadcast shopping experience like this on the Internet. On June 29, the China Consumers Association released a "6.18" consumer rights analysis report showing that during the monitoring period, a total of 112,384 pieces of information about live streaming goods were collected. "Slot point" includes some anchors, especially "star anchors", suspected of exaggerating the effectiveness of the product or the use of limit words in the live broadcast of the goods. The product is not right. Violation of live broadcast fan data and sales volume data fraud.
"E-commerce live broadcasts have changed the relationship between traditional consumers and enterprises, and turned "people" looking for "goods" into "goods" looking for "people". Pan Helin, Executive Dean of the Institute of Digital Economy, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law It is believed that in the case of a large number of homogeneous products in the market, live broadcasting can help consumers screen, match supply and demand more quickly, and help drive consumption. But at the same time, problems such as poor product quality, poor after-sales service, and indiscriminate charging caused by lagging supervision and low industry thresholds have gradually surfaced.
Zhang Hao, the founder of Media MCN, who has been deeply involved in the e-commerce field for many years, also agrees with this view. "At present, many manufacturers bypass the traditional intermediate channels such as dealers and start selling their own goods. They have a strong bargaining power and launch a large amount of '9.9 yuan. The low-priced product of ‘6.9 yuan free shipping’, but the quality cannot be guaranteed, resulting in some consumers unable to return and refund after purchasing low-priced and inferior products, which has affected the healthy development of the industry to a certain extent.”
In addition, Zhang Hao introduced that "pit fee + commission" is currently the charging model adopted by many anchors with goods. Among them, the pit fee generally ranges from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of yuan, and the enterprise pays the pit fee In order to obtain the qualification to be brought in, most of the anchors cannot guarantee sales, resulting in many companies paying pit fees but poor sales. It is not difficult to imagine that the cost of enterprise pit fees will eventually be passed on to consumers. In the long run, not only is it not conducive to the development of the entire industry, but it will also produce more low-quality and low-priced products.
The Matthew effect is gradually appearing on the live-broadcast eco-chain composed of platforms, MCN, merchants and anchors. Pan and Lin said that some head anchors now basically control more than 80% of the traffic, while most other anchors can only compete for the remaining 20%. Although the head anchor can endorse the product, it will also impose higher commissions and lower prices on the manufacturers. In fact, the merchants have not made much profit.
"This industry currently seems to have a low threshold, but only 1% of the participants who can make money, 99% are not making money or even losing money." Mo Rong, chairman of Chuangke Street Technology Investment Co., Ltd. and angel investor in the live broadcast industry, said that the current Industry winners are mainly mainstream live broadcast platforms, live broadcast teams with strong cargo delivery capabilities, special high-traffic influencers, and merchants with high cost performance for some products. Mo Rong believes that with the hot development of live streaming, it may also have an impact on physical businesses. In this regard, some forward-looking plans need to be made.
The anchors also felt very deeply about industry issues. "The current threshold for live streaming is still too low. It is very easy for individuals and businesses to enter the live streaming zone." Ren Hao believes that the current live broadcast platform generally lacks a clear entry threshold and standard standards for product quality, "three no" products He Xiao Workshop products took the opportunity to enter, leading to constant chaos in the industry.
Broad development space
VR live sale, "talk show + live broadcast + sitcom", live variety show... The reporter found that in the field of live broadcast, the content and form of innovation are becoming more and more abundant. "There is no doubt that live broadcast brings goods with a bright future. This is a good business model, and it can even be compared with the early stage of the development of the e-commerce era 20 years ago. And the industry has gradually moved from the mixed phase of dragon and dragon to the norms, especially platform management, one day It is more standardized than a day.” Mo Rong believes that in the growth of the industry, it is necessary to be more tolerant to the participants and allow the market mechanism to play its due role.
At present, many places are also accelerating the layout of the live broadcast industry. For example, Sichuan issued the nation's first provincial-level live broadcast industry development plan, which plans to achieve 10 billion yuan in live broadcast sales in 2022; Anhui issued "Opinions on Promoting Online Economic Development", proposing to vigorously develop live broadcasts and encourage development New smart marketing formats such as social e-commerce and community e-commerce.
"Currently, many places are actively promoting e-commerce live broadcasting, but whether it is suitable still needs to be further observed. Every region and every industry has to adapt to local conditions." Adu, the founder of Wuhan Xunshida Cultural Media Co., Ltd., believes that merchants also need to maintain Be calm, plan live broadcasts according to your own needs, and not fight for price wars for a little sales, which will disturb the ecological environment of the entire industry.
"The development direction of live streaming should be guided by values. Under the current situation of uneven live streaming, stick to the bottom line, combat vicious competition, and transmit the correct sense of competition." Tang Jiqiang suggested that the responsibility of the main body of live streaming should be strengthened. Strictly review the access mechanism, supervise the legality of transactions, strictly review the qualifications of online merchants, and urge the anchor and live broadcast platforms to operate in good faith and standardize in the process of bringing goods.
It is worth noting that in regulating the development of the industry, relevant institutions have already taken action. Recently, the China Advertising Association released the "Code of Conduct for Online Live Marketing", which is the first special specification for online live marketing in China, which undoubtedly has a guiding significance for the healthy development of e-commerce live broadcasting.
New trends in the industry that are constantly emerging also give people confidence in them. Yu Haining said that at present, live streaming goods are moving towards refinement, and they are continuously upgraded by releasing star effects, content production, creating a sense of participation, and optimizing live streaming scenarios, and more to reach users' unplanned shopping needs. The next stage of live broadcast e-commerce will bring consumers a better shopping experience compatible with entertainment and socializing.
Many industry insiders believe that live streaming will soon enter a more attractive second half. "As more and more merchants enter, the live broadcast platform strategy, anchor routines, and MCN gameplay are all familiar, and merchants will start to take the initiative and play a leading role in the field of live broadcast." Adu said that the application of new technologies such as VR will also bring Come to the "cloud shopping" and other new live broadcast forms to further liberate consumers' legs and hands and lead the new shopping trend.
In Zhang Linlin's view, the effective combination of knowledge and transactions and accurate delivery of professional information to customers should be an important direction for live broadcasts. The low-price, pan-traffic delivery model is unsustainable, and it is more of a hammer trade. Only with professional content support can we go long.
"In the future, more powerful participants will enter the industry, especially the big brand manufacturers, so the competition will definitely be more intense. At the same time, the importance of the live broadcast team will also become more prominent, and the chances of fighting alone are getting smaller and smaller. Only a team with comprehensive strength has the opportunity." Mo Rong said.
Ren Hao also agrees with team combat. Even though many merchants have begun to join the live broadcast, not all factories have live broadcast capabilities. The professional live broadcast team understands the market, consumers, and marketing better, and knows how to reduce the distance between products and consumers. There is more room for imagination in the future.
Pan Helin believes that the current live streaming of e-commerce still stays in the sale of final products. In the future, this industry chain link can gradually move up and enter the intermediate product field to help companies purchase raw materials and intermediate product sales to build an intermediate product. The trading platform helps to "lubricate" all links of the industrial chain, reduce transaction costs, drive the overall development of the industrial chain, and improve the overall production efficiency of the industrial chain.