Are the goods you grabbed in the live room really cheap?

Reporter investigates "Double 11" live broadcast with cargo chaos

  ● The uneven quality of anchors, false propaganda, price misleading and other phenomena have caused many consumers to complain. Under the influence of marketing routines and platform rules, it is increasingly difficult for consumers to grab real cost-effective products.

  ● "Head anchors" rely on economies of scale to master the qualifications to negotiate with brand merchants to lower prices, and attract most users' traffic, while store self-movers or small and medium-sized anchors can hardly break the monopoly of attention brought by "head anchors".

This kind of unbalanced live broadcast competition ecology has caused chaos in live broadcasts.

  ● It is necessary to strengthen spot checks beforehand, actively monitor possible problems in transactions, timely interview illegal merchants, and even require merchants to make certain commitments; it is also necessary to strengthen technical supervision and build a platform technology supervision system

  □ Our reporter Zhao Li

  □ Intern Yang Yinan

  "Double 11", which has peaked in traffic, is evolving from a "platform war" to a "live broadcast war".

  According to data from the China Internet Network Information Center, users who have purchased goods in e-commerce live broadcast accounted for 66.2% of the total e-commerce live broadcast users, and live broadcast e-commerce consumption habits have gradually developed.

This year’s "Double 11", e-commerce companies seized the opportunity to bring goods through live broadcasts and squeezed into the live broadcast rooms of well-known Internet celebrities in the form of profit and gifts. Those who did not squeeze in either live on the platform themselves or invite some The lesser-known anchors do live broadcasts.

  Low prices, convenient shopping, spike benefits, subsidies for red envelopes... these gimmicks in the live broadcast room are attracting more and more consumers to choose live shopping.

However, a reporter from the "Rule of Law" recently found that the uneven quality of the anchors, false propaganda, and price misleading have caused many consumers to complain. Under the influence of marketing routines and platform rules, consumers have to grab the more cost-effective products. It's getting harder.

Chaos one

Hunger marketing price misleading

  The original price of a box of cream is 350 yuan, and the price in the live broadcast room is also 350 yuan, but some samples such as masks or lotions will be given away. The price of these gifts is also included in the price of the cream, and then tell consumers: the cream is discounted!

  This is a live-streaming marketing routine summarized by senior "chop-hand clan" Liu Mo (pseudonym) when shopping in a live-streaming room of a "head anchor" recently-attaching the price of the gift to the product.

  According to Liu Mo, different from the "Double 11" live events in previous years, the commodity prices in major live broadcast rooms this year are generally not low, although the anchors chanted "family exclusive benefits", "lowest price on the entire network", and "30% off and 40% off". , 50% off", but many product discounts are realized in the form of free samples or single products.

  "For example, a bottle of water lotion is pre-sold for 188 yuan and a facial mask worth 60 yuan is given. The anchor said that it is 60% off, but this mask can not be found in the whole network. And the lotion was only available before. Selling a bottle of 168 yuan, I feel that some manufacturers are borrowing the "Double 11" carnival to clear the inventory." After some calculations, Liu Mo finally gave up buying the lotion.

  Regarding the anchor’s behavior, Aiyuan, a clothing e-commerce practitioner, said: “The gifts or demos did not flow into the market, and the value is not too high. If the price of the gifts is added to the merchandise, it is actually not reasonable.”

  On November 4, the reporter watched a live broadcast of "Double 11" by a female celebrity.

It claims that a certain brand of facial mask usually costs 18 yuan/piece, but the purchase price in the live broadcast room is 128 yuan/50 pieces, an average of 2.56 yuan per piece of mask.

  The reporter also entered the e-commerce platform to search for the same mask, and found that the price of this mask on the platform was 109 yuan/40 pieces. You can get coupons for two purchases, and you can finally buy 80 pieces of mask at a price of 198 yuan, on average. The film only costs 2.48 yuan.

  A "Double 11" cosmetics omni-channel price comparison guide issued by Shenwan Hongyuan also reflects that the prices in the live broadcast room are not the "most affordable": the agency detailed comparison of 41 beauty products including domestic and foreign brands with the lowest prices on the entire network, and found The lowest prices on the entire network for 16 items are from channels such as duty-free shops or official flagship stores.

  Since the price of the live room is not the "lowest price on the entire network", why do some consumers still rush to live shopping?

The reporter's interview found that the "hunger marketing" commonly used by anchors is one of the reasons behind it.

  Zhao Lei, an employee of a company in Beijing, usually likes to watch videos and live broadcasts related to catching fish. Recently, he gave a new name "Forever 30 Seconds" to an anchor he followed.

"This anchor is live catching fish while selling fish attractants. Every time he introduces it, he says that it will only be on the shelves for 30 seconds, so everyone rushes to buy it. A few minutes later, it will be on the shelves for another 30 seconds. He will live broadcast for an hour or two, and there will be countless 30 seconds." Zhao Lei was a little bit dumbfounded.

  Liu Mo also encountered a similar situation.

She found that the anchor will link the products in batches. “The first batch of 300 pieces was posted, and some consumers did not grab them after the sale. Will link again for the third and fourth time".

  Chen Dong, a practitioner in the live broadcast industry, told reporters that in order to stimulate consumption, some anchors will create the illusion that the product is very difficult to grab. “For example, the anchor said that only 500 pieces of this product were prepared, but the product link is still there after 500 pieces are sold. Consumers can continue to buy."

  "Live streaming is a kind of immersive shopping. The difference from search shopping is that there is no time to compare prices. Many anchors have a very short time to introduce products, and they also try to claim that they are almost out of stock, which induces consumers to place orders in a hurry. After the purchase, I found that there may be a lower price." Chen Dong said.

Chaos II

Holding a single call is time-consuming and labor-intensive

  In addition to price misleading, the ultra-fast speech speed and ultra-short time of some anchors when introducing products have also made many consumers "lost" in the live broadcast room.

  Liu Mo was originally ambitiously wanting to fight this year's "Double 11", so she was ready to panic as early as when the anchor announced the merchandise on the shelves.

Unexpectedly, on the night of the pre-sale, there were quite a few brands and products that "squeezed into" the "head anchor" live broadcast room. Almost all anchors increased the speed of introducing products, even ordinary "waist anchors", the time it took to introduce a product It will not exceed 3 minutes.

  “It’s over before I can hear clearly and see what the products look like. It’s getting harder and harder to grab the really cost-effective products in the live broadcast room.” Liu Mo Tucao said, in order not to miss her favorite products, she can only Staring at the screen intently, for fear that if you lose your mind, the link will slip under your nose.

  According to media statistics, during the 4 hours from 4 pm to 8 pm on the day of the "Double 11" pre-sale on October 20, anchor Wei Ya explained a total of 341 products, an average of 42 seconds per product; anchor Li Jiaqi explained together 252 items were purchased, one item in 57 seconds on average.

  "The introduction of products with such a large information density requires very high concentration and patience of consumers." Chen Dong said.

  Regarding this phenomenon, some netizens joked that they did not "listen to lectures" so seriously in class when they were students.

  The reporter also found in the interview that during the long live broadcast process, when fans are impatient, some anchors will set up some flash merchandise or ultra-low-priced merchandise to give fans benefits, attracting continuous attention.

  But Liu Mo has never snatched these spike products. "For example, if 100 items are spiked, they are often sold out as soon as they go online. Is it really the network or the speed of the hand that makes it impossible to grab them, or is there a hidden mystery? "Liu Mo didn't understand.

  In this regard, Chen Dong gave an explanation: "It is not ruled out that consumers have not grabbed it. After all, everyone will grab ultra-low-priced goods, but it may also be the anchor’s delusion. In fact, there are not so many product links. ."

  According to Chen Dong, there is a kind of phrase in the live streaming called "holding orders", that is, the anchor introduces to consumers at the beginning of the live broadcast how many orders there will be benefits today, and you can buy more expensive products for a few dollars. , But it has not been online, and when consumers can’t wait to leave, the anchor will say that they will link to it after a while. After waiting, consumers still can’t shoot.

  "The whole live broadcast industry is using this kind of routine." Chen Dong said, in live shopping, consumers' expectations are constantly being raised, but when placing an order, they find that they do not match their psychological expectations, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive. .

Chaos Three

Uneven quality

  Although there are various price routines in the live broadcast room, the reporter's investigation found that the prices of some commodities are indeed very low, or even lower than the normal market prices.

  In response to the above situation, Aiyuan explained: “In order to sell stock products and quickly withdraw funds, merchants will choose to sell at low prices. There are also some defective products, defective products or products near the shelf life, and merchants will also sell them at lower prices. Sell ​​at a price."

  According to Aiyuan, due to the large sales volume of the live broadcast industry, fast commodity circulation, high return rate and low prices, merchants will produce different batches of goods to meet consumers in different channels during production. Most of the products are produced on the assembly line, and many of the clothes are simply cut and sewn and shipped directly. The cost of such products is indeed low, and the price is naturally low."

  "Some anchors are selective and one-sided when introducing products, and even deliberately hide some key information." Chen Dong told reporters that he had bought a shirt in a live broadcast room. It was only then that it was completely inconsistent with the host’s description.

  In the end, Chen Dong chose to swallow his anger, admitting that he was unlucky, because "looking for after-sale compensation or returns will make him more angry, and the speed of after-sales response is slow and procrastinated, which is a test of patience."

  For some consumers who bought seafood and fruits in the live broadcast room, the difficulty of after-sales rights protection is even more embarrassing.

According to Aiyuan, some anchors who sell seafood and fruits will offer ultra-low prices during the live broadcast, but it is very likely that they will not ship at all in the end, and even people will not be able to find them.

After a while, the anchor can still continue to collect money by changing the account.

  "This situation mainly happens to those small anchors who are not qualified and bring their own goods." Chen Dong has been working in the live broadcast industry for many years, and he has a deep understanding of this.

  In Chen Dong's view, the uneven quality of the anchors is also the cause of the chaos in the live broadcast industry today.

"The current live broadcast shows strong grassroots and civilianization, and there is no need to hold a license to work. Some lower-quality anchors are also eager to try."

  Aiyuan pointed out that low professionalism is the "most pitted" place for some cargo anchors.

  "Some anchors don’t know the ingredients of clothes, and they make obvious mistakes when introducing products. For example, when introducing the wool, cashmere content, whether hair removal, pilling, etc. of the clothes, they just said that they contain cashmere. It is guaranteed that there will be no hair loss, which is obviously not in line with common sense." Aiyuan said that the chaos of live broadcasts needs to be rectified and regulated urgently.

  Comics/Li Xiaojun