The collapse of live streaming by top internet celebrities is in progress

Murphy's Law tells us that problems will always arise if they are supposed to arise.

1. Top Internet Celebrities’ Live Streaming Failures

Coincidentally, on the eve of the national Double Eleven carnival, at the critical moment of the sales PK competition among several major live-streaming influencers, the sales influencers began to collectively fail.

Let’s first take a look at the car rollover incidents that have occurred recently.

On October 23, Li Jiaqi was preparing to recommend a non-stick pan in the live broadcast room. After saying the magical line "OMG" as usual, the assistant started to fry an egg in a non-stick pan. Unfortunately, the assistant found that the fried egg started to stick to the pan and became mushy. Li Jiaqi tried to save the situation after discovering it, but unfortunately the egg liquid was still stuck to the "non-stick pan".

In the live broadcast room with 400,000 viewers, many users who like to watch the show left messages on the screen such as "It collapsed", "It stuck to the pan", "Is this a non-stick pan?", which made the scene very embarrassing for a while.

Although Li Jiaqi later made a statement claiming that there was no problem with the product and that he had been using it for several months, the only reason it stuck was because the new pan was not used according to the instructions. But it is obvious that Li Jiaqi and even the live streaming e-commerce industry, which has been booming this year, are suffering from a crisis of trust at the "Double Eleven" juncture.

In fact, this is not the first time Li Jiaqi has failed.

Some users on the Internet have reported that they bought an acne patch from Li Jiaqi’s Taobao store “Jia Qi Global Selection”, but developed redness, swelling and soreness on their faces after using it, and the customer service attitude was very indifferent.

In addition, some netizens claimed that a quilt product recommended by Li Jiaqi in a live broadcast "smells too strong and cannot be used at all". At the same time, many users are dissatisfied with the products and customer service in the "Jia Qi Global Selection" Taobao store.

A week after the "Li Jiaqi non-stick pan incident", on October 30, "Taobao No. 1" Wei Ya also suffered a live broadcast incident.

When Wei Ya recommended Joyoung products endorsed by Deng Lun during a live broadcast, she said she would give fans a Deng Lun figurine. However, after seeing and reading a message from a user who wanted a Xiao Zhan figurine, the Joyoung staff at the scene said, "Let's go find one."

Later, a fan left a message asking for a Wang Yibo figure, and Wei Ya blurted out to the Joyoung staff, "Is this what you mean by wanting you to change the spokesperson?" What's even more amazing is that the Joyoung staff added a magical finishing touch, "Yes, we will communicate"...

The sensitive topic of changing spokespersons immediately fermented in the fan circle. Now the "No. 1 Taobao Lady" truly witnessed the horror of fan girls. Although Viya later apologized and said that she "likes Deng Lun very much", it is obvious that the fanatical fan girls will not give up easily.

Apart from the "No. 1 Taobao Brother" Li Jiaqi and the "No. 1 Taobao Sister" Wei Ya's successive accidents on Double Eleven, the most embarrassing thing for the anchors is probably the inability to sell goods during live broadcasts.

Li Xiang, a benchmark case of "celebrity turning internet celebrity", also recently suffered a "live broadcast crash".

On October 25, Li Xiang recommended mink and white goose feather down jackets in the live broadcast room, but the embarrassing thing was that although 1.31 million people watched her live broadcast that night, no one bought the mink down jacket which cost 4,188 yuan. The milk powder that Li Xiang had previously recommended in a live broadcast was said to have sold only 77 cans. According to rumors, Li Xiang charges up to 800,000 yuan for a 5-minute live broadcast.

Later, Li Xiang also posted on Weibo to admit that she had made a mistake in choosing the product. A mink coat costing more than 4,000 yuan was indeed not cheap. She would choose more high-quality and low-priced ones in the future.

Wang Zulan, who has also joined the "Internet celebrity world", recommended skin care products in a live broadcast not long ago. As a result, he only sold 66 boxes of products despite 420,000 views.

Even Li Jiaqi has encountered such an embarrassing situation of "slow sales". Li Jiaqi recommended a high-end men's skin care product in a live broadcast not long ago, saying that it can be given to husbands or boyfriends. As a result, the comments on the barrage were full of "he doesn't deserve it" and "he doesn't need it"...

Li Jiaqi, who suddenly had an idea, once again persuaded everyone to buy it for their father or brother. The comments were still "He doesn't deserve it, next one". Li Jiaqi finally had no choice but to say helplessly "The girls in our live broadcast room are all heartless. Next time I will never sell men's products again"...

2. Livestreaming sales have reached a subtle turning point

From the failures of live broadcasts by major Internet celebrities, we can see that online live broadcasting has now entered a delicate critical point:

1) User trial and error and desensitization

From the user's perspective, the enthusiasm for impulsive recommendations seems to have begun to decline, users are gradually becoming desensitized to the rhetoric of live streaming sales, and are very likely to experience aesthetic fatigue with top Internet celebrities. Judging from the performance of many video influencers, almost no influencer can maintain top traffic for a long time without causing aesthetic fatigue among the audience.

In addition, the return rate of live-streamed products has always been high. After the novelty wears off and repeated trial and error consumption, it will only become increasingly difficult to get experienced shopping users to buy again, and the competitive pressure and sales challenges facing internet celebrities will also continue to increase.

2) Live streaming cannot save businesses

From the perspective of merchants, the risk of live streaming failure is quite high. For example, if a suitable anchor cannot be matched, it is possible that a large amount of money will be spent but zero sales will be achieved. Moreover, there is the phenomenon of data inflation that continues despite repeated bans. The "zombie stage play" incident that was all over the screen not long ago is the latest example of more than three million views with 0 conversions, and the account "Zhang Yuhan YuHan" that was invested in has now been restricted from accepting orders.

At the same time, placing live broadcasts by top internet celebrities requires merchants to make huge concessions on prices. If it is used to clear inventory, it is still an effective channel. However, if it is used to promote new products, merchants need to comprehensively measure the effectiveness of the campaign. It will also be a difficult problem to avoid affecting profits, brand tone, and impacting dealers' price system.

3) The anchor’s circle of competence is revealed

Even the top anchors have begun to reach the limits of their own sales. For example, Li Xiang cannot sell mink coats, and Li Jiaqi cannot sell high-end men's skin care products. However, this does not mean that high-priced products cannot be sold. Otherwise, there would not be the incident of Kuaishou live streaming selling excavators. Instead, it depends on whether the product, anchor, and scene are sufficiently matched.

The failure of live streaming to sell goods is determined by the characteristics of the anchor's fan base and the platform's users. Each anchor has his or her own circle of competence, which may be difficult to expand in the short term. Different anchors have their own areas of expertise in selling goods, and live streaming to sell goods is not a panacea.

After nearly a year of education on the Taobao live streaming e-commerce market, users, merchants, and anchors may all be reflecting on the true value of live streaming e-commerce, gradually eliminating the bubble and returning to rationality.

The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television also recently issued a notice regarding "Double Eleven", requiring anchors not to exaggerate when selling goods, not to defraud or mislead consumers, and to use civilized and standardized language in programs. The supervision of live streaming sales is already on the way.

3. Small issues about live streaming and our views

1) Was the failure of Li Jiaqi’s non-stick pan due to a wrong product selection?

From a long-term perspective, it is inevitable that there will be incidents of failure in live broadcasts by internet celebrities, but they just happen to be concentrated in this special period before Double Eleven and are magnified. Given the workload of top anchors like Li Jiaqi, it is impossible to conduct comprehensive simulation exercises for every recommended product, and occasional omissions are inevitable.

However, this was not caused by an error in the selection of non-stick pans. Li Jiaqi's audience and the attributes of the Taobao platform are quite suitable for recommending non-stick pans. We regard this accident as an oversight in the cross-category recommendation process. For Li Jiaqi as an IP, his influence is far more than just the beauty and cosmetics community. Recommending more daily necessities will be the inevitable path for his personal development.

2) Are high-priced products not recommended through live streaming?

Judging from the data of Douyin's best products list, 200 yuan has become the critical line for users' impulse consumption. Users will "buy when they see" products below 200 yuan and "look before buying" for products above 200 yuan. However, this is related to the scene characteristics of the Douyin platform and the stickiness between fans and anchors.

Kuaishou has had high-priced transactions such as selling tractors, excavators, and jade. Essentially, this is because the fans of Kuaishou anchors are more sticky and the bond of trust is stronger. The same applies when someone in your circle of friends pays for a high-priced item.

Therefore, it is not that high-priced products cannot be promoted through live streaming, but that merchants of high-priced goods need to focus on finding anchors with strong stickiness and appropriate live streaming scenarios.

In addition, we believe that there are some differences between "grass-planting anchors" and "content-based KOLs". "Grass-planting anchors" such as Li Jiaqi and Wei Ya are equivalent to discount stores and outlets for good products. The products they sell usually have good cost-effectiveness. If the price of the product is higher than a threshold that their audience can afford, users will no longer pay for it. "Content-based KOL" such as Rebecca is more like a brand store. There is a greater sense of trust between KOL and fans. Helping MINI cars to sell products is more like a cross-brand cooperation, which can impact higher product premiums.

3) Is there any difference between live streaming and TV shopping?

Although the two have many similarities, they are indeed fundamentally different.

Television shopping is a form of leisure-time economy, which uses idle time to broadcast long advertisements for conversion. Because television shopping is usually not broadcast during prime time, the audience is mostly elderly people, children and housewives, and it is easy to mislead this audience group by using exaggerated expressions. TV shopping has been making a lot of money quietly for many years, but because it is difficult for users to be held accountable, the phenomenon of selling counterfeit and shoddy products has emerged.

Live streaming with goods is a kind of attention economy. What matters most is the efficiency of selling goods. It can also adjust the wording in real time based on user barrage message feedback. It has a fast pace and a strong sense of presence. The anchor needs a huge supply chain and operation team to support it. But the important point is that the anchors who sell goods through live streaming are personified and need to build their own trust assets. Therefore, if they want to work in this industry for a long time, it is unlikely that the anchors will deliberately deceive users.

Live streaming can even drive the manufacturing supply chain through user demand. This is already very typical in the textile industry. With the deepening of flexible supply chains, this type of C2M model should become the general trend in the future.

Author: Zheng Zhuoran

Source: Spread Gymnastics (ID: chuanboticao)