Kuaishou e-commerce live streaming operation methodology

2021 is already the 13th year of the "Double 11 Shopping Festival", and live streaming e-commerce is attracting more and more attention from consumers and merchants.

Live streaming e-commerce is divided into traditional e-commerce and content e-commerce. Taobao and JD.com are both traditional e-commerce companies that have integrated live streaming into their gameplay, while Kuaishou and Douyin are based on short video content and have created a new trend in live streaming with goods, finding a clear monetization path for the platform's influencers, merchants, and brand owners.

Two days ago, Kuaishou E-Commerce released the "Kuaishou E-Commerce Live Streaming Operation White Paper 2021" and emphasized the need to transform towards professional operations. Xiao Gu, head of Kuaishou e-commerce, mentioned in the opening remarks of the white paper, "Whether it is the Kuaishou e-commerce platform, merchants or service providers, everyone knows that the era of extensive growth is over. Now is the era of strategic thinking and professional, systematic and refined operations."

Judging from the strategic direction of Kuaishou e-commerce this year, it first proposed "developing trust-based e-commerce, developing brands, and developing service providers", and then proposed the "STEPS Brand Management Methodology" for brand merchants, and until the recent "STAGE Live Broadcast Operation Methodology", it can be clearly felt that Kuaishou e-commerce this year is developing in a "professional" way. The report is very long, but it provides a very practical review and summary of the details of live broadcast operations. After reading the report, I inexplicably developed an interest in Kuaishou e-commerce.

1. Thoughts on observing the top Kuaishou e-commerce anchors

I picked up my phone and opened Kuaishou.

It coincided with the Kuaishou 116 Quality Shopping Festival. A number of domestic brands such as "Anta, Huaxizi, OPPO, Junlebao" and others were live streaming and selling goods on Kuaishou. I observed for several days and found that the daily best-selling list of the Kuaishou 116 Shopping Festival was dominated by anchors with methodology.

For example, the anchor "Dandan" has 42 million fans and more than 100,000 people online at the same time in his live broadcast room. His fans are frantically posting comments on the brands and products they want in the comment section of his live broadcast room. Many of his friends jokingly call him "Alpha Egg". The emotional connection between the anchor and his fans is very deep.

On October 26, I happened to see Dandan release the "10.28" live broadcast preview, so I stayed tuned for the entire live show and summarized the live broadcast logic from an observation perspective.

I reviewed Dandan’s short video works in October, which can be roughly divided into the following categories: “Product promotion and live broadcast preview”, “Behind the scenes of live broadcast planning and shooting”, and “Stories with brands”.

The core of Dandan’s positioning has always been to focus on “product cost-effectiveness” . While selling out, Dandan said from the boss’s perspective that he was not satisfied with the prices of some products and planned to communicate with the brand again. After a while, he would say, “The price of xx brand last time was finally negotiated down… The last time xx sold for 2,000 yuan in the counter, we are selling it for 999 yuan in the live broadcast. This time it’s less than 500 yuan. Remember to come to the live broadcast room to buy it.”

Therefore, his personal character is “an anchor who provides super high cost-effectiveness by relying on the potential of fans”, and fans will follow his lead to buy without any disappointments.

In terms of traffic, Dandan’s previews were very sufficient . It started releasing short video previews three days in advance and used the exquisite preview poster as the cover of the work, pinning it to the top of the homepage . In this way, both new and old customers who clicked into the homepage would know about the live show on October 28.

In terms of live broadcast planning, the theme of the live broadcast is very clear, and its positioning is that families with children can buy it. The live broadcast script and the sales script for each product are carefully polished and planned.

For example, when selling waterproof down jackets, they will directly pour water on the clothes. After a basin of water, the clothes will still not get wet, which vividly shows that the clothes are not afraid of rain and snow when worn in winter.

In addition, each product has a preview video to serve as a live broadcast announcement, which not only lets fans know about the products they like but also gives them prices that fans cannot miss. Adding to this is the welfare activity of 1 yuan flash sale products, which pushes the number of people online in the live broadcast room to a climax.

He has a personality, traffic, supply chain, planning ability, and operational ability . Overall, Dandan is a mature Kuaishou e-commerce anchor. Fans have already formed a memory point for him, and his way of selling goods has also made his fans accustomed to it. Fans will follow Dandan to buy when they need it.

However, Dandan is a super anchor after all. What would happen if ordinary anchors mastered their live broadcast operation logic?

2. The evolutionary path of potential anchors

We selected three anchors from the list of the "Kuaishou E-commerce Live Streaming Operation White Paper 2021" report for observation. They do not have many fans. Yu Mo, who has the most fans, only has 1.49 million fans. But they have one thing in common: they are all anchors who participated in Kuaishou's "Preparation for 116 Merchant Growth Plan". The official explained and sorted out the Kuaishou e-commerce live streaming operation model STAGE for them. With the help of Kuaishou e-commerce and service providers, their GMV of goods sold this year is also increasing.

Out of curiosity, I followed them and watched their live broadcasts for three consecutive days, and indeed found a lot of similarities.

1. Lulu, the tea lover — 460,000 followers

Character: A beautiful and gentle anchor who grew up in a tea mountain and knows a lot about tea.

Short video works: A large number of works revolve around tea knowledge, with gentle voices and scenes all about drinking tea, which are very memorable and attractive.

Live broadcast content: It mainly talks about tea-related knowledge, such as tea pillows, tea stems, how to brew and drink tea, and occasionally inserts one's own tea stories, customer stories, and family stories, while brewing and drinking tea. At the same time, it also launches continuous live broadcast activities similar to "Taking Fans to Drink Tea Online".

Live broadcast room strategy: In terms of exposure, the IP of "Lulu who loves drinking tea" is very strong. The live broadcast room is mainly for old customers. It takes great care of the feelings of old customers and pays attention to repeat purchases. In the words of the anchor, "We don't ask for a thousand people to buy once, but we ask for one person to buy a thousand times."

In terms of live broadcast rhythm and content, most of the time the live broadcast room is used to take fans to drink tea, talk about tea knowledge, and serve questions from existing customers. Indirectly, they will plan themed new product launches, place special emphasis on the selection process of tea products, and release warm-up videos. During the live broadcast, the products are basically sold out in seconds. The loyalty of old customers is very high. In order to control the length of the live broadcast and expand the influence on new fans as much as possible, bloggers have to stock up in batches each time.

In summary, "Lulu who loves tea" wins because of its professionalism and dedication. All shipments are equipped with trial packs, and customers can return the main product if it doesn't taste good. The company is sincere and attentive to old customers, and with good data, the algorithm will bring more traffic.

On the methodological level, Lulu focuses more on live streaming and product inventory. Her personality building is the core, and the product supply chain is the barrier, so she can stand out in the high-priced tea category.

2. Yumo. The People's Career Selection Official - 1.49 million fans

Character: A couple of entrepreneurs born in the 1980s, and a host with a good look similar to Li Yuchun.

Live broadcast content: Each live broadcast is a live broadcast of selling goods, selling all categories of goods, and often live broadcasts are done directly in factory workshops. During the live broadcast process, popular products are often promoted, and orders are placed in a rhythm (100 to 300 orders).

Live broadcast room strategy: "Yu Mo" is a typical anchor of daily necessities. Product selection is very, very important . The products must be easy to use and not disappointing, and the quality levels must be differentiated to meet the needs of different customer groups.

In terms of traffic, Yumo will also make video previews in advance, and will post multiple videos in the early and middle stages of the live broadcast to attract traffic to the live broadcast room, and select popular videos from multiple videos for commercial investment, so that the number of people online in the live broadcast room at the same time will increase.

When the number of people online at the same time reaches a certain value, Yumo will first promote welfare hot-selling products, then cost-effective products, and finally high-quality hot-selling products, using fast-paced order placement + hot-selling product pressure ordering method to create the highlight moments of the live broadcast room.

In terms of product sales conversion, Yu Mo often goes to the factory workshop for live broadcasts, using the workshop's standardized production line and the physical objects of newly produced products for endorsement. Over a long period of time, she has formed the perception of the anchor as one with good quality and low prices, and more and more fans have followed her to buy.

In summary, Yumo is more invested in inventorying products, benefits, and live streaming, because the competitiveness of fast-moving consumer goods anchors is very high, and they need a deeper integration and use of methodology .

3. Shadow’s light luxury outfits – 470,000 followers

Personality: “A stylish anchor with good looks”.

Video content: Mainly editing of the content in the live broadcast room, plus previews of other live events, and more videos of daily outdoor activities will be released.

Contents of the live broadcast room: talking about materials, shooting details, giving away discounts, drawing blind boxes and other regular live broadcast rhythms.

Live broadcast room strategy: Yingzi is both the boss and the anchor, with a good figure and good looks, and he looks good in basically any clothes. This determines that his live broadcast room is highly entertaining, and users stay there for a relatively long time. At the same time, Yingzi, like Yumo, will release more short video works before and during the live broadcast, and select popular ones for traffic.

The sales strategies of shadow live broadcast rooms are relatively rich. For example, the popular blind box concept is directly used in the live broadcast room. Blind box products are often sold during highlight moments, and then at the end of the live broadcast, the blind box clothes are unboxed and introduced as great value, which will increase the average viewing time of users.

In general, Shadow's strategy focuses on live streaming, welfare, and products. Its personal appearance is an advantage, and the welfare strategy of the live streaming room and product supply chain are barriers. It keeps up with trendy marketing methods and accurately impresses target customers.

After observing the live broadcast rooms of the three anchors, we found the following common points:

1. The live broadcast should be warmed up in advance, and a preview of the next live broadcast should be made through short videos and in each live broadcast room.
2. Goods cannot be sold blindly. The anchor must understand the products and establish a strong supply chain to meet consumers' demands for quality and cost-effectiveness.
3. Keep on live streaming. Maybe there will be few viewers at the beginning, but you must persist until you find your own live streaming style and make your fans recognize and like your live streaming method.

The above common points are also the "live broadcast", "welfare" and "products" in the STAGE model of Kuaishou's live broadcast operation methodology. It can be seen that Kuaishou's live broadcast STAGE five-plate model is indeed closely related to the performance of the live broadcast room. The growth of the above three anchors is the best proof.

3. Analysis of the Kwai Live STAGE Operation Model

The operational methodology described in the "Kuaishou E-commerce Live Streaming Operation White Paper 2021" report is not very complicated. Many theoretical models are the result of the derivation and decomposition of data formulas, and Kuaishou is no exception.

The key indicator for our live e-commerce business is the GMV of the live broadcast room, so the GMV calculation method is actually an important formula for model derivation. I will briefly break it down according to my logic:

At the front end of the live broadcast ecosystem, the live broadcast room is the venue, the products in the shopping cart in the live broadcast room are goods, and the customers are people. How do people buy “goods” in the “venue”?

Obviously, customers must first discover the "market", then enter the "market", then shop around the "market", and finally buy the "goods" they are interested in in the "market".

The "people, goods, and places" logic of the short video live broadcast room is exactly the same as that of the offline shopping mall. Offline consumers see the shopping mall (Kuaishou), enter the mall and see the store they are interested in (the live broadcast room), pick up the goods (products in the live broadcast room) when they enter the store, and may eventually leave because of lack of interest, or they may buy several products .

Of course, the process determines the results. The higher the conversion rate of each step and the lower the cost, the higher the return you will get.

After breaking down the customer's consumption behavior, the formula for calculating the GMV of the live broadcast room is available.

GMV of live broadcast room = exposure * visit conversion rate * viewing time * number of orders generated per unit time * average order price

The GMV improvement operation model of the live broadcast room is simply to improve the conversion rate of indicators in each link in the formula and reduce the cost of each link.

Therefore, the essence of Kuaishou Live STAGE's "Five-Plate Model" is to improve the conversion rate of each step in the entire process of "from users seeing the live broadcast room, entering the live broadcast room, watching the live broadcast room, and placing an order to purchase."

Pan Live is the foundation and the overall design. In order to plan and present a live show, live broadcast planning needs to include the live broadcast theme, content, activities, live broadcast script, traffic rhythm, and sales rhythm. Everything needs to be sorted out before the live broadcast.

The commercialization and highlights of the show are more about obtaining accurate traffic for the live broadcast room. We must first understand the portrait labels of the target population and the preferences of fans in order to extract the highlights of the live broadcast room, release works in advance to warm up, and continue to release popular works to attract traffic during the live broadcast, while also supplementing it with "target population package" advertising to bring incremental users to the live broadcast room.

The purpose of listing benefits and goods is to better attract users into the live broadcast room. Goods are long-term supply chain advantages, and benefits are planned and packaged marketing strategies. The goods cannot go against the anchor’s personality, and the anchor cannot sell whatever he wants. Welfare is the best way to retain people. The goal is to extend the average length of stay, create highlight moments in the live broadcast room, and generate sales revenue that meets the target.

Therefore, the STAGE five-disk model is designed to improve the conversion rate of each level of the live broadcast room.

4. Guide to Improving the Conversion Rate of Live Broadcast Rooms

1. First of all, how to increase exposure?

The exposure entrances of Kuaishou’s live broadcast room can be divided into three sources: “public domain, private domain, and commercial advertising”. The public domain refers to natural recommendations, such as the discovery page, the same city, and selected videos; the private domain mainly refers to entering the "follow page"; and commercial advertising usually refers to "Magnetic Taurus" and "Fan Tiao", which support increasing fans, bringing in goods, and targeting new and old customers.

If the anchor wants more natural traffic, one is to post more popular short videos, and the other is to maintain a fan base that pays attention to him; then he can pay appropriate fees to help the traffic break through the algorithm level, so that he can get more exposure.

2. How to improve click-through rate?

The click-through rate of a live broadcast room is mainly determined by the design and copy of the cover image of the live broadcast room. Usually, a cover poster ratio of 16:9 + clear and powerful communication of the highlights of the live broadcast can attract customers who browse the live broadcast room to click in one second, thereby allowing more customers to enter the live broadcast room.

3. How to increase the average viewing time of users?

The short video platform itself is an extremely entertaining content platform with a lot of content that attracts users. Why do users always stay in your live broadcast room?

Generally speaking, users will stay for the appearance, happiness, beloved products, and favorite anchors. At this time, live broadcast planning is very important. It involves choosing the anchor, the rhythm of the live broadcast, and the live broadcast benefit hook. The clearer the value that the live broadcast room brings to users, the more willing users will be to stay and watch.

Kuaishou's algorithm is "user-centric" . If a user stays on your live broadcast for less than 5 seconds, your live broadcast room may no longer be pushed to this user in the future. If the user watches for more than 60 seconds, your live broadcast room is more likely to be pushed to this user next time. Therefore, the average viewing time not only represents the attractiveness of the live broadcast, but also lays a certain foundation for the subsequent live broadcast traffic.

4. How to increase the order output of live streaming?

When the product system and unit price are determined, it becomes particularly important to sell more orders.

There is a misunderstanding here. Many anchors sell goods step by step according to the script, but the overall performance is not ideal. The reason is that they have not given in-depth consideration to "how to sell well"?

There is a key judgment in the "Kuaishou E-commerce Live Streaming Operation White Paper" 2021: "Highlight moments are positively correlated with the overall GMV", which means that the more highlight moments you can create in a live broadcast, the higher the GMV of your entire live broadcast.

So the question is, what is the "highlight moment"? 

The definition of Kuaishou report is [Highlight moment: when ACU reaches or is about to reach its peak, it matches the most potential hot-selling products and promotes a large number of orders for hot-selling products]. ACU refers to the number of people online at the same time in the live broadcast room, and PCU refers to the peak number of people online in the live broadcast room.

My interpretation is: every user who enters the live broadcast room will stay for a period of time. During this period, the user will experience an "incubation period". As the overlap of the user's incubation period accumulates, the number of people online at the same time in the live broadcast room ACU will continue to rise. At this time, the anchor must seize the opportunity to put the matching popular products on the shelves in time, thereby forming a very advantageous order conversion rate. A live broadcast does not have only one highlight moment. Through careful planning and optimization during the live broadcast, rich and continuous highlight moments can be created.

Having written this far, this article has completed the live e-commerce methodology obtained by observing Kuaishou anchors and reading reports. If you still have doubts, I strongly recommend you to read the "Kuaishou E-commerce Live Operation White Paper 2021" which was just released on October 27.

This article is over, thank you for reading~

Author:Eric

Source: Eric