Why did JD Live, which is unconventional, become so popular?

According to official data, the attention of "JD 11.11 Live Super Night" led the national satellite TV programs in the same period, and it was watched by more than 220 million people on the entire network, contributed more than 50 hot search topics, and topped the Weibo hot search twice!

In terms of results, JD.com achieved its goal and the marketing strength of JD.com Live was confirmed.

However, if you understand the energy JD.com has spent on this, many people may ask: Is it worth it?

1. The most exciting "11.11 Party"

JD.com’s investment in “JD.com 11.11 Live Super Night” can be called the Spring Festival Gala of the e-commerce industry.

The reason is simple. When shifting from a sales channel to a marketing channel, the quality of live streaming content is crucial.

Therefore, compared with the evening parties on other platforms, the characteristics of "JD 11.11 Live Super Night" are extremely distinctive.

One very obvious feeling is that there are not many advertisements for "JD 11.11 Live Super Night", but it focuses on stage performances, which is closer to the nature of a party.

In fact, Zhang Guowei, head of content ecology at JD Retail Group, has previously stated: "Reject excessive commercialization. I don't want everyone to see JD's 11.11 party filled with brands, with even the lyrics adapted by brands." "When it comes to content, it must be pure content."

Ensuring the quality of live broadcasts and user experience is JD Live’s top priority.

To this end, JD.com invited most of the entertainment industry to help out, covering the needs of users from different circles. This also fits with the theme of the evening party, "Act Only for Passion", to satisfy every kind of passion.

For example, in terms of top traffic, there are Cai Xukun, Wang Yuan, etc.; national singers include Li Yuchun, Xue Zhiqian, etc.; the joining of rock veterans such as Wang Feng and Xu Wei set the scene on fire; in addition, there are actors Zheng Shuang, Li Qin, Guo Qilin, and Zhang Jike from the sports world... Different types of top star artists have laid the foundation for the quality of the live broadcast content and made the live broadcast content more diverse.

At the same time, the behind-the-scenes team and group that match the front-stage lineup are just as good. Sound engineer Jin Shaogang was the chief sound engineer for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics; music director Liu Zhuo was formerly the music director of "The Voice of China"; the persons in charge and teams of stage design, lighting and other aspects all have mature experience in handling New Year's Eve parties or concerts.

In addition to upgrading the quality of content, JD Live has also made innovations in gameplay, bringing users a higher level of experience.

Ordinary evening parties combine live streaming of goods with live evening parties. Evening parties with poor experience can even be described as performances interspersed in advertisements. This time, JD.com has opened a second live broadcast room to realize "multi-screen interaction" of mobile phone + PC + TV. Users can concentrate on enjoying the performance and cheering in the first live broadcast room, or they can jump to the second live broadcast room in real time to grab special offers and have the opportunity to interact with the stars in real time after the performance.

This gameplay design, on the one hand, takes into account both pan-entertainment content and product consumption, and on the other hand, gives users the initiative. Not only does they have a stronger sense of participation, but the live broadcast experience of "watching, playing, and buying" also makes the party's reputation ferment and spread beyond the circle.

At the same time, through this party, JD Live also achieved unprecedented momentum.

But what JD.com gained from its advocacy and actions of "live streaming should be a marketing platform" is far more than just momentum.

2. Why does JD Live not take the usual path?

Despite its considerable momentum, JD Live, which does not aim to sell goods as its primary purpose, still seems somewhat "non-mainstream" in the current environment.

After all, those e-commerce live broadcasts that regard live streaming as a platform to sell goods have a very strong presence.

Taobao Live's GMV exceeded 350 billion yuan in the past 12 months ending at the end of September this year, while it was only 200 billion yuan for the whole of last year; Kuaishou's live e-commerce had a GMV of 109.6 billion yuan in the first half of this year, and its order volume is second only to Taobao Tmall, JD.com, and Pinduoduo.

While other platforms are busy selling goods through live streaming, why is JD Live so obsessed with defining live streaming as a marketing venue, even going so far as to spend a lot of effort to host evening parties?

First of all, JD Live’s focus on content and experience is undoubtedly more user-friendly.

For the vast majority of users, entering a live broadcast room does not mean they are ready to consume. As Jack Ma once shared, 17 million people visit Taobao every day but buy nothing. Most of the users who enter the live broadcast room are in an "online shopping" mode, and the most important thing to ensure is the user's "shopping" experience.

There is no doubt that compared with live streaming with hawking, entertaining and professional live streaming formats are more likely to retain users.

The anchors who sell goods online are also well aware of this. So some people are possessed by the spirit of drama and often engage in verbal battles with brands in the live broadcast room to "seek benefits" for fans; even Li Jiaqi's initial popularity was inseparable from the excitement of "OMG", interesting interactions with his little assistant, etc., which looked extremely "entertaining".

However, these are just another form of hawking, created to assist in selling goods, and are not true entertainment live broadcasts. Once the price advantage is lost or users become tired of the routine, it is inevitable that users will leave.

In contrast, JD Live puts marketing first, prioritizing content and experience, greatly increasing the possibility of acquiring and retaining users.

In a national carnival festival like 11.11, we need to maximize the role of live streaming for users. It is not enough to just encourage shopping, but we also need to improve the consumer experience.

Therefore, the "JD 11.11 Live Super Night" will work hard on the combination of content and consumption. Not only has it opened up a second live broadcast room to facilitate users to watch, play and buy at the same time, but it has also invited artists directly related to JD's business, such as JD's chief live broadcast officer Wang Feng, JD's computer and digital product recommendation officer Wang Zijian, etc., to ensure that users can get a good consumption experience.

Secondly, JD.com’s insistence on quality live streaming is also more in line with the long-term interests of merchants.

In Zhang Guowei's opinion, if live streaming is only used for promotion, it will only bring bubbles and will inevitably cool down. “How can any brand conduct promotions every day?”

If live streaming is viewed as a new marketing channel, merchants will focus on how to communicate more effectively with users, delve into the quality content and premium experience of live streaming, and then accumulate more store users to form a stable private domain traffic. This will not only bring more conversion opportunities in the future, but will also help merchants achieve twice the result with half the effort in launching new products, pre-sales, and reverse customized products.

For example, in the middle of this year, the "Cloud" Strawberry Music Festival jointly organized by JD Live and Modern Sky, although without mentioning any sales, brought in sales of 814 tons of wine and beverages. For businesses, this kind of pan-entertainment live broadcast can not only naturally complete sales conversion, but also make brand promotion a natural outcome because it provides a scene that is extremely consistent with the brand positioning.

In addition to general entertainment live broadcasts, the president’s live broadcasts also have equally outstanding results. During this 11.11 event, JD Live has arranged over 500 live broadcasts by CEOs.

Compared with general anchors, president anchors are more professional and understand brands better, and can effectively narrow the distance between merchants and users. In addition, JD Live continues to innovate the format of the president’s live broadcast, planning different content and matching personnel according to the president’s characteristics and user needs, such as “brand president + platform executives”, “brand president + industry experts”, etc., which also diversifies the content of the president’s live broadcast and reaches more potential users.

Finally, compared with the impulse consumption caused by crude live streaming, with the help of the marketing potential of quality live streaming, live streaming can bring users higher satisfaction, which will naturally make it easier to generate repeat purchases, promote product and brand dissemination, and achieve the unity of "product, effect and sales".

Therefore, we can see that JD Live, which regards live streaming as a marketing platform, has achieved equally impressive results in bringing in goods. On November 1, the sales amount of JD.com increased by 5.3 times compared with the 618 day; on November 11, 6 seconds after midnight, the sales amount of JD.com’s live broadcast exceeded 100 million.

It does not delay the sales of goods and is more in line with the interests of users and merchants, so why not do it?

3. Live streaming is the key to upgrading e-commerce platforms

In the wave of live streaming, if we only limit ourselves to the highly utilitarian live streaming with goods, it will be difficult to avoid problems such as poor live streaming experience and after-sales service. While consuming the attention and trust of a large number of users, it will also harm the future development of the platform.

On the contrary, high-quality live streaming is not only more beneficial to users and merchants, but is also actually more conducive to the development of e-commerce platforms.

1. Give or strengthen the quality image of the platform

For JD.com, quality live streaming ensures a good user experience and strengthens its consistent quality image.

This is also why the content of JD’s live broadcast is more of a PGC model, because JD has its own detailed requirements for each live broadcast. For example, regarding the live broadcast of the president, Zhang Guowei said that it is not that you can do whatever you want. The platform will create more ways to play and help the live broadcast content look better.

For the same purpose, JD.com has also been exploring new forms of live streaming based on different merchant needs and user interests. In addition to the common pan-entertainment live streaming, president live streaming, and institutional expert live streaming, there are also local live streaming based on offline stores and business districts of brand merchants, as well as industrial belt live streaming targeting the sinking market.

At the same time, we will continue to control low-quality live broadcasts and crack down on chaos such as fake orders and false advertising. Zhang Guowei explained: "The pool is constant. The more low-value live broadcasts there are, the greater the occupation of resources. What we want to create is a healthy live broadcast ecosystem. What we want is a jungle."

2. Promote e-commerce content and content e-commerce

The more crucial reason for insisting on quality live streaming is that it is related to the upgrading of the e-commerce platform.

Currently, most mainstream e-commerce platforms are shelf-type e-commerce platforms with strong purposeful consumption. That is to say, when users do not have clear consumption plans or needs, it is difficult to generate consumption.

However, a large amount of uncertain consumption can still be promoted through the guidance of high-quality content.

Therefore, major e-commerce platforms are paying increasing attention to content ecology. Before live streaming appeared, platforms such as JD.com had already explored the possibilities of content e-commerce through various graphic and text content. When live broadcasts that carry more information and are more interesting appear, how to do live broadcasts well naturally becomes a top priority.

"Live streaming is a group-level strategic business for JD.com. In JD Retail's content ecosystem, live streaming will also be the core part," said Zhang Guowei.

That’s why we can see that JD Live has developed from the initial live broadcast of the president to the innovative “President+” live broadcast model; from the 618 Qianlang Concert and Houlang Music Festival to the creation of the “JD 11.11 Live Super Night”... JD is pouring a lot of resources into live broadcast, exploring new directions of combining content and consumption, entertainment and e-commerce, in order to achieve the upgrade of the content ecology.

In addition, in order to further improve the content ecology and promote the contentization of e-commerce and the e-commerce of content, Zhang Guowei said that JD Live will continue to promote the scale of merchants' broadcasts. The goal for 2020 is to achieve 100% broadcasts in self-operated stores and a broadcast rate of more than 60% in POP stores.

The upgrade of an e-commerce platform cannot be achieved by the platform alone. Next, whether JD.com’s quality live streaming can bring greater surprises to users and merchants will be the key to success or failure.

Compared with the simple and crude live streaming sales, JD Live has obviously chosen a more difficult path.

But this path is the most suitable for JD.com, and perhaps it is also the path that other e-commerce platforms will have to take in the future.

Author: Jincuodao Channel

Source: Jincuodao ( ijincuodao ）