Short video operation | What is the logic behind Kuaishou’s sales promotion?

Kuaishou Big Data Research Institute released the 2018 Kuaishou Annual Content Report in January 2019. According to statistics, there were 16 million users who earned income on Kuaishou in 2018, with an average of 300 million likes per day. On average, each video promoting products can bring the influencer an income of 1,069 yuan.

▲Source: 2018 Kuaishou Annual Report

Before Double Eleven in 2018, Kuaishou held the first Kuaishou "Sales Festival" and joined forces with many brand merchants to realize the scenario of top Internet celebrities "selling goods in groups".

According to media reports, on November 6, Kuaishou's top celebrity "Sanda Brother" sold more than 160 million yuan worth of goods in one day. The number of people online at the same time during his live broadcast exceeded 1 million. He sold 50 million yuan worth of goods in 3 hours, and the number of visitors to his Taobao store exceeded 10 million in two hours.

Many brands have achieved good sales volume by cooperating with "Sanda Brother": 10,000 Xiaomi Redmi 6 mobile phones were sold in one second, nearly 100,000 sets of Septwolves men's thermal underwear priced at 59 yuan were sold in just over ten minutes, and 30,000 units of Liangmianzhen toothpaste priced at 19.9 yuan were sold in one minute, with total sales exceeding 100,000 units.

In addition, there are some top celebrities, such as "Wawa Teaches Matching" who sold a 78-yuan sweater during the live broadcast and completed 1,000 orders in a few minutes, "Big Stomach Cat Sister" who sold 30,000 boxes of hot and sour noodles in one night, and "Tire Baba" who sold more than 20,000 orders of pet jerky.

At the same time, according to statistics, since the end of 2018, nearly 400 MCNs have actively settled in Kuaishou. Kuaishou's super strong user stickiness and ability to bring goods are the key points to attract MCN agencies.

This phenomenon of celebrities’ super-strong ability to bring goods on the Kuaishou platform is also full of opportunities for mid-level celebrities and some newly emerging accounts. It can be said that as long as the celebrities on Kuaishou work hard, they will have the opportunity to become masters of selling goods.

So how does Kuaishou achieve such a powerful influencer sales effect? This article sorts this out in detail.

01. “Inclusive” algorithm

First of all, as an APP product and a content distribution software, Kuaishou’s content distribution algorithm logic, overall operation ideas, and even its values ​​towards users and influencers are the fundamental factors that determine Kuaishou’s super ability to bring goods.

When Kuaishou CEO Su Hua founded Kuaishou, he has always adhered to the underlying design concept of "decentralization and non-disturbing users". Until April 2018, when short video platforms such as Kuaishou and Volcano were criticized by CCTV for negative information such as "early pregnant mothers", Su Hua immediately published an article entitled "Accept Criticism, Regroup and Move Forward", apologizing for the problems on the platform, reflecting on the flaws in the algorithm, and expanding the team size of reviewers to 5,000 people.

But this has not made Kuaishou lose its original intention of "fair distribution" of content and "letting every ordinary person be seen."

Many Kuaishou celebrities have reported that when they build their own user pool across the entire network, most platforms have basically no effective accumulation and data improvement. Only on Kuaishou can they feel that "the users are their own."

From this perspective, Kuaishou's "inclusive" algorithm actually provides many businesses and individuals who want to engage in content e-commerce with greater traffic and algorithm support, as well as confidence encouragement. The content of a new user will not be forgotten. Even if only a few dozen people are watching it, it will make the celebrity feel that these users truly like their content and themselves.

02. Super Daily Activity: Everyone is a guest

Kuaishou’s ability to sell products also stems from its huge daily active user traffic. According to the 2018 Kuaishou Big Data Report, the average number of original content uploaded by Kuaishou per day in 2018 was more than 10 million. DAU increased from 100 million in 2017 to 160 million.

In terms of the geographical distribution of users, first-tier cities account for 10%, second-tier cities account for 36%, third-tier cities and fourth-tier cities account for 20% and 34% respectively. Therefore, Kuaishou users are still mainly in the fourth and fifth-tier markets , but there has also been a certain increase in users in first- and second-tier cities. Currently, the total number of first- and second-tier users is about 40 million.

The products that Kuaishou users like to buy most on Kuaishou are mainly snacks, beauty products, men's and women's clothing, agricultural and sideline products, cultural relics, fishing, fitness products , etc.

Lifestyle videos account for 28% of the total, followed by content about young ladies (14%) and food (11%). In 2018, the sales of ugly apples on Kuaishou reached 300 million yuan, persimmon cakes reached 270 million yuan, and soft-seeded pomegranates reached 330 million yuan.

In addition, the report also counted the number of educational videos uploaded by Kuaishou users, totaling more than 28 million. Among them, the learning contents that users are most interested in are music, painting, English, mechanics, food, sports, etc.

Kuaishou’s huge daily active traffic can help new celebrities effectively reach their target users, and also provide a large enough basic traffic support for subsequent user retention and conversion.

03. Building content trust in the “chat scenario”

Some people say that the logic behind Kuaishou’s popularity is the “old iron economy”. The so-called "old iron" is actually an "old friend". Maybe you have never seen him before, but after listening to him talk for a few minutes and feeling that there are some things you like and are curious about, you may be willing to continue listening.

Previously, at an offline experience-sharing session for influencers on Kuaishou, there was an influencer named “Hu Yanxuexue Jie Youxuan” who had 480,000 fans on Kuaishou and mainly promoted her company’s beauty products.

Her main method of creating content is "exchanging sincerity for sincerity". She adopts the method of "daily update + live broadcast". She chats with fans every day and shares her skin care experience. If she goes on a business trip to other places, she will not forget to purchase local souvenirs and small gifts to give back to her fans.

Another celebrity, "Baoding Fu Lei Ge", has 7.67 million fans on Kuaishou. He also sells melon seeds and snacks produced by his own food factory. He reviews and recreates his entrepreneurial process through skits, sharing his difficult experiences and inspirational stories of starting from scratch.

He named his product brand after his girlfriend to thank her for her loyalty. After fans purchase his snack products, they will participate in helping him start his business. The establishment of this kind of transaction trust is almost indistinguishable and is bound by deep emotions.

▲ Source: Kas Data

The live streaming content on the Kuaishou platform can be operated smoothly because of its celebrity content positioning and emotional consistency. It’s just like getting along with old friends: I pay attention to you, so I want to see you more and listen to what you have to say.

Therefore, Kuaishou is a platform that can truly turn strangers into each other's "old friends". Based on this trust relationship, the conversion rate of goods will naturally increase.

In contrast, PGC content seems to be a bit thankless on the Kuaishou platform.

First of all, from the platform tone, Kuaishou hopes to create a real celebrity UGC content platform. The professional content team and planned and organized professional content have weakened this "sense of reality" to a certain extent.

Secondly, the production cost of PGC content is high, and most of the content of Kuaishou celebrities is completed independently. In terms of operating model and revenue, PGC content cannot have an advantage.

In terms of account privileges, Kuaishou officials have always emphasized that the cooperation with MCN agencies does not follow a contract model and does not set up separate bonuses. Celebrity accounts under MCN are treated the same as ordinary user accounts. They all need to rely on high-quality content to gain exposure. They are equal to ordinary users in the recommendation algorithm, and there are no official additional recommendations on traffic.

However, for some MCN agencies that are good at creating celebrity IPs, Kuaishou has become a new source of users and traffic growth platform.

According to media reports, by the end of 2018, there were 3,000 celebrity accounts from more than 300 MCN organizations on Kuaishou, attracting nearly 600 million fans. Taking Onion Video as an example, in just a few months in the second half of 2018, the number of followers of Office Xiaoye increased by more than 3.2 million, and the number of followers of Qijiu Naoye increased by 2.7 million.

It can be seen that as long as the trust relationship establishment mechanism in the Kuaishou celebrity chat scenario is mastered, the content of professional teams can also attract a certain number of users on Kuaishou.

04. Live streaming sales mainly depends on conversion rate

Also at that offline sharing session of Kuaishou, the official staff of Kuaishou shared a magical case on the spot. "Sany Heavy Industry" conducted a live broadcast on the Kuaishou platform. Only a few hundred fans watched it, but in the end 31 road rollers were sold, with the price of one road roller ranging from 350,000 to 450,000 yuan.

From this we can see that live streaming sales by Kuaishou celebrities cannot be viewed with traditional traffic logic, but instead should focus on improving conversion rates.

How to continuously attract new fans while also allowing old fans to become returning customers and continue to repurchase is the most fundamental advantage and profit point of Kuaishou celebrities in bringing goods.

Paying attention to those people who really like you and are accustomed to buying things through your channels, retaining them through various means such as sending gifts, answering, and lucky draws, and continuously attracting them with emotional, interesting, and positive content are key elements in the content planning and production of Kuaishou celebrities.

At the same time, the downward trend of Kuaishou platform users has also become the main reason hindering the entry of many large brands and merchants whose target users are in first- and second-tier cities. For example, some merchants selling red wine or high-end customization are more hesitant, and celebrities in related vertical categories will have to work harder if they want to achieve higher sales effects on Kuaishou.

The high average order value, in the case of Sany Heavy Industry, actually proves that the products are not impossible to sell. The key lies in how to "wash out" potential purchasing users from the user pool that follows you through celebrity content.

For example, through live broadcasts with themes and content related to product features, we can attract these users and generate continuous interaction with them. Generally speaking, in Kuaishou live broadcasts, the conversion rate of goods should be above 30% to be considered a successful live broadcast event. If this is not possible, you need to think of various ways to improve the conversion rate.

05. Platform configuration of Kuaishou e-commerce

In June 2018, Kuaishou teamed up with Youzan and Taobao to launch a short video e-commerce shopping guide solution - Kuaishou Store. In conjunction with the "Wheat Field Plan" at the end of last year, it upgraded and revamped Kuaishou Store and launched the "E-commerce Service Market".

Every anchor on Kuaishou can apply for the qualification to open a "Kuaishou Store" with valid identification, and the source of goods comes from Youzan's merchant platform, thus realizing the original intention of "everyone can open a store."

As a merchant, you can upload products after providing industry qualifications and licenses. After the store is successfully opened, the store owner can use Taobao passwords and other forms to directly put the product links from the Taobao store or Youzan store into his own Kuaishou store, and embed them in videos and live broadcasts. Users can make purchases and check orders while watching the live broadcast.

In March this year, Kuaishou E-commerce officially released four store operation rules, including "Kuaishou Store Operation Violation Management Rules", "Kuaishou Store Product Promotion Management Rules", "Kuaishou Store After-sales Service Management Rules" and "Kuaishou Store Shipping Management Rules", hoping to govern the e-commerce operations on the Kuaishou platform.

It mainly formulates punishment regulations for problems such as counterfeit and shoddy goods and false advertising that are common in the e-commerce industry, thereby protecting the consumer rights of Kuaishou users. Regardless of whether the store uses "Kuaishou Store" or third-party trading platforms such as Taobao, Tmall, Youzan, and Moxiu to complete transactions, all business operations on the Kuaishou e-commerce platform must comply with the above-mentioned relevant rules.

Recently, Kuaishou has launched the "Kuaishou Shopping Assistant" WeChat applet through its "Magic Chopsticks Star Selection". Users can select products in the Kuaishou store, click on the product link, and purchase directly through the "Kuaishou Shopping Assistant" using WeChat Pay. Merchants need to register on the "Magic Chopsticks Star Selection" platform (annual fee of 880 yuan), put their products on the shelves and then connect them to the Kuaishou account.

Kuaishou’s “universal” traffic algorithm logic has caused Kuaishou to lose some hot products and large traffic pools, and its operations are also in a “slow” mode. But at the same time, Kuaishou's self-operated UGC content community has allowed more and more celebrities to find people who truly like them on this platform, and has also played a certain role in the economic development of many rural and poor areas.

As a platform with a very good conversion rate for goods currently, Kuaishou's social value will gradually become apparent in the future. I believe that more celebrities and businesses will use the Kuaishou platform to meet a group of "old friends" and continue to serve these people, thereby gaining their own value and profit returns.

Related reading:

1.2019 Tik Tok and Kuaishou User Research Report!

2. Will the “rustic” Kuaishou be defeated by the “internet celebrity” Douyin in a variety of ways?

3. Kuaishou APP product analysis report!

4. For live streaming sales, why did I choose Kuaishou instead of Douyin?

5.What are the creative methods for Kuaishou’s advertising? Advertising analysis!

Author: Kas Data

Source: Kas Data