Tips for selling goods through short video live streaming

As more and more players join in, e-commerce live streaming will undoubtedly move from the blue ocean to the red ocean. So, how can live streaming e-commerce achieve long-term development? Today I’m going to share some tips on live streaming sales.

"Live streaming with goods" is one of the hottest marketing concepts from 2019 to 2020. Luo Yonghao announced his entry into the live streaming industry, making live streaming as a marketing method even more popular.

In the eyes of many people, live streaming has a low threshold and no cost, and it seems easy to make money. Many company bosses also want to do a live broadcast to sell products quickly.

The term "live streaming with goods" itself is very biased. When you hear about live streaming, you think that it will definitely sell goods, but is live streaming really that simple?

1. Livestreaming is the 2.0 version of TV shopping

Is live shopping really just a new retail method in the past three years? After analysis, it is not the case. Live shopping is essentially the 2.0 version of TV shopping.

Comparing TV shopping and live shopping, it is actually just the same expression used by consumers using different communication tools in different eras, and their essential logic is the same. They all try their best to communicate with fans/audiences and showcase the selling points of the products in a specific environment in order to achieve transactions.

But the progress of live streaming sales lies in the fact that it can achieve real-time interaction with fans. When fans have questions, they can leave messages directly in the live broadcast room. The anchor can interact with fans across the screen and help them answer their questions online. This restores the offline consumption scene. What's even better is that the shopping guides (anchors) here do not have the uncomfortable faces of offline shopping guides, which greatly improves the shopping experience. Live shopping creates a scene like old friends chatting, quickly narrowing the distance between fans and anchors and boosting the atmosphere of the live broadcast room.

The essence of marketing is to build trust with users. From traditional offline retail to content e-commerce and live streaming by internet celebrities in the Internet era, the essence of sales has not changed, only the sales channels are constantly replaced and updated.

In the past 30 years, in the era of radio and television when commodity production was not so abundant and the means of communication were relatively simple, people would shop on TV and listen to the TV host constantly saying "998, only 998, take the eight hearts and eight arrows home". This kind of incitement would instantly brainwash people and they would obediently call the ordering hotline.

Today, with the advent of the Internet age, commodity production has become more abundant and the means of communication have become more diversified. What is produced is still content, but the channels for carrying information have changed. Today's short videos and live broadcasts are essentially the newspapers and televisions of the past.

“All girls, buy it!” As soon as it appears, people will buy it without hesitation. In contrast, the information contained in texts today is equivalent to the newspaper and magazine media 30 years ago.

So we can conclude that today’s live shopping is the 2.0 version of TV shopping.

Video marketing is still in its infancy today. Strictly speaking, pictures, texts, short videos and long videos can all sell goods, but the most efficient form of selling goods is still live streaming. Many heavy Taobao users can no longer pay attention to pictures and texts after getting used to live broadcasts. The principle is the same as people who are used to watching Tik Tok and Kuaishou don’t want to read pictures and texts on Weibo and WeChat public accounts, or just like people who are used to watching TV no longer focus on reading newspapers. The video form of expression is far more intuitive and impactful than text and voice.

In addition, the arrival of the 5G era has made videos even more powerful. In the past, newspapers stimulated readers' vision, but after the advent of television, we can watch and listen. After the advent of video, we can not only listen and watch, but there are also people trying out products, chatting and interacting with you, mobilizing your senses in all directions, stimulating your nerves, and converting you. This is also why some people are very rational in their consumption in normal times, but can't help but buy when they watch live streaming.

Therefore, I believe that live streaming sales will still have a lot of room for development in the future, and there will be a 3.0 version.

2: Why does live streaming involve selling goods?

For example, if in the atrium of a shopping mall, a well-known brand of goods is being promoted by a seller at a much lower price than usual, will it arouse your desire to buy?

At least you will take a look first. If you find that the price of a certain product, such as a cup, is 20-30% lower than the usual lowest price, you will most likely buy it.

The three most important points here are: cheap, frequently used goods, and low average order value.

1. First of all, it is cheap. If this brand is not on sale at a low price, it will not attract your attention at all. This is the most important point.

2. The second is high-frequency use commodities, what does it mean? These are commodities that you use frequently in daily life, such as snacks, socks, towels, cups and other daily necessities. When they are at a low price, they will trigger your desire to buy, because even if you don’t use them now, you can still use them after buying them because they are at the lowest price.

3. The last is low average order value, which means that the price of each product is not high, and you do not need too much decision-making cost to buy this product. On the contrary, if the price of a product is 5,000 yuan, even if it is 20% off and the discount is 1,000 yuan, most people will not consider it.

For example:

As the top influencer of Taobao, there is no secret to Viya’s success in selling products. The most important thing is that the products are cheap. After watching a live broadcast, I found:

The prices of the products themselves are low, and coupled with the fact that Weiya’s live broadcast room offers lower prices than usual, it is no surprise that Weiya’s live broadcast is attractive.

Product categories: Among the more than 20 kinds of goods, there are snacks, men’s underwear, toothbrushes, sausages, necklaces, cockroach medicine, cosmetics, etc. What are the characteristics of these categories? Almost all of them are daily food and supplies.

For example, the small fried dough twists and dried tofu that cost 19.9 yuan are snacks that you can just pick up and put in the shopping cart when shopping in the supermarket. For example, a toothbrush for 39.9 yuan (one toothbrush with 5 brush heads), four pairs of underwear for 49.9 yuan, and two bottles of cockroach medicine for 64.9 yuan are all daily necessities that we need every morning and evening, so it makes sense to buy them while they are on sale.

In fact, this category is common for live streaming sales. The live streaming sales report of China Merchants Securities shows that Kuaishou’s sales have a GMV of 40-50 billion throughout the year, of which food accounts for more than 40%, daily necessities account for about 30%, and cosmetics account for about 30%.

So you should understand by now that the characteristics of Viya’s sales are that most of the goods are high-frequency daily necessities, and the prices are low and there are discounts. In this case, the user’s decision-making cost is very low, impulse consumption contributes greatly, and it is not surprising that the transaction rate is high. This is essentially no different from the shopping mall promotion model analyzed above.

For example: In comparison, a car worth 150,000 yuan has a discount of 30,000 yuan, which is already a very high discount, but it is unlikely to lead to impulse buying. Therefore, even Wei Ya may not be able to drive it. In fact, Wei Ya has driven a car before, but she really couldn't drive it. If a bag of potato chips that costs more than 30 yuan is discounted by more than ten yuan to 19.9 yuan, it will trigger impulse purchases by a large number of users.

It is precisely because of this that we see more people actually pursuing e-commerce live streaming that can bring them real sales. As more and more players begin to join in, e-commerce live streaming will undoubtedly move from the blue ocean to the red ocean.

From the platform side, we see the participation of leading e-commerce platforms represented by Taobao and Pinduoduo;

From the perspective of internet celebrities themselves, we see the participation of new and old internet celebrities represented by Wei Ya, Li Jiaqi, and Luo Yonghao.

What is certain is that live streaming sales in e-commerce will be one of the hottest areas during the transition period from e-commerce to new retail.

Although live streaming with goods can indeed bring us real sales under the current market situation, if we only pursue the sales of goods itself and ignore the equal relationship between goods and users, the so-called live streaming with goods may just be a new round of harvesting of traffic. Apart from that, there is not much other meaning.

Once the traffic dividend is gone, live streaming e-commerce will disappear like the previous e-commerce model. Therefore, the key to live streaming sales is not how many products you sell, but how many users’ needs are met by the products you sell. From this perspective, live streaming e-commerce has lost focus since the day it was born.

3. Live streaming is not just about live streaming itself

Whether it is live streaming or selling goods, its essence is a transaction of traffic. When we look at the issue of live streaming sales, we should not just focus on live streaming sales itself, but we need to think about the significance of live streaming sales from a more profound perspective. In my opinion, the focus of so-called live streaming with goods is neither on live streaming nor on selling goods. Only by truly breaking away from the constraints of live streaming and selling goods can live streaming and selling goods go further.

1. The user's experience after receiving the product is the key

Nowadays, people have a serious misunderstanding about live streaming e-commerce, that is, they only focus on live streaming e-commerce itself, how much goods can be sold, and how much traffic there is.

Although there is nothing wrong with this phenomenon, if we only regard live streaming with goods as selling goods itself, then the so-called live streaming with goods is essentially just a transaction of traffic.

In fact, live streaming sales is just the beginning. The user’s feelings and experience after receiving the goods are the real test of live streaming sales.

If we only regard live streaming as a new way of displaying products and ignore the connection between live streaming and the upstream and downstream processes and links of e-commerce, then we can almost conclude that live streaming will become a passing fad like the pictures and short videos before it.

Therefore, we cannot just focus on live streaming sales itself, but should pay more attention to the changes in the upstream and downstream supply and demand sides of live streaming sales. Only in this way can live streaming sales become a bridge and link connecting the entire industrial chain, rather than just a channel for selling goods.

The quality of live streaming sales should be judged based on the user’s reaction after receiving the goods. If the user's reaction after receiving the goods is positive, then live streaming with goods has met his consumption needs; if the user's reaction after receiving the goods is negative, then live streaming with goods has not truly met his consumption needs. Only by taking the users’ reactions after receiving the goods as reference and reference for the upstream production links, can we truly maximize the role of live streaming with goods, and live streaming with goods will no longer be just live streaming with goods itself.

2. Product quality is key

When talking about live streaming sales, our focus is on the host's own traffic, the host's temperament, the host's popularity and many other elements related to the host himself.

In fact, the key to live streaming sales is not just the host himself, but the product behind the host. Because users do not place orders for the host, but for the products recommended to them by the host. Although live streaming can bring traffic, we still need to regard products and services as the foundation. Only in this way can live streaming e-commerce truly find its own positioning, rather than being an all-round player.

I often hear people around me complain that the products they bought are not as amazing as what the anchor recommended during the live broadcast, and many products are far from what they need.

This actually tells us that the so-called live streaming with goods is not centered on the anchor, but on the product. Only by truly using products to win users can live streaming with goods truly find a balance between the anchor and the product.

This balance requires the host’s recommendations to be equal to the product’s own characteristics. We should not just focus on the host’s recommendations and ignore the product’s own characteristics.

Therefore, the key to live streaming sales is not the host itself, but the products recommended by the host. Only by measuring and judging the quality of live streaming sales from the perspective of the product can live streaming sales break away from the dependence on the anchor and truly return to the product itself. Live streaming sales is no longer a traffic transaction, but a product-driven existence.

3. Focus more on influencing and changing upstream manufacturers rather than users

Nowadays, live streaming sales is actually about persuading users to buy through the host’s recommendations. In fact, this greatly underestimates the nature and significance of live streaming sales.

Because what really needs to change in live streaming e-commerce is not just the users themselves, but the upstream merchants and even the upstream manufacturers. What the anchor really needs to do is to fully display the product to the user, rather than changing the user's original perception of the product and getting the user to place an order to purchase it.

At this time, live streaming e-commerce is more about feedbacking user demands to upstream manufacturers, allowing upstream manufacturers to reduce product design and production costs and improve their production efficiency. Position live streaming e-commerce as a tool and means to empower the B-end, rather than positioning it as a tool and means to harvest the C-end.

Only in this way can live streaming e-commerce truly find its own positioning, and its development will no longer be so dependent on traffic, but it can find more new roles and new positioning. For live streaming e-commerce, this kind of development is the only one that can truly last long-term.

If we only view live streaming as selling goods, but ignore the transformation of upstream production and supply links, the so-called live streaming is actually no different from pictures and short videos. Only by truly positioning live streaming e-commerce by changing upstream production and supply can live streaming e-commerce break out of the traffic vicious circle and find a more long-term development path of its own.

4. Can you sell the goods as long as you offer a low price?

The answer is of course no. For example: when a product enters Walmart, Walmart will usually negotiate a low price that is beneficial to consumers. But if you are a grocery store owner and want to negotiate like Walmart, it is estimated that no supplier will pay attention to you. To put it bluntly, it’s because Walmart has high traffic.

Still, the live streaming sales report of China Merchants Securities shows that among the more than 600 MCN agencies on Taobao Live, 20% of the top agencies account for 75% of the institutional market’s traffic and 80% of GMV. The Matthew effect of live streaming sales has become very obvious.

Not everyone can get a low price when doing live streaming. Viya and Li Jiaqi are able to get low prices because they have high traffic and exposure. The same is true conversely. Brands that are willing to offer low prices are only willing to give to anchors with high traffic and exposure. Simply put, traffic creates low prices, and low prices attract traffic.

So even if you give those products and discounts to a dog, it makes sense that it can still sell goods. The problem is that no one will give goods to a dog. Not to mention dogs, 90% of the anchors can't do that.

Why can Wei Ya and Li Jiaqi achieve such high traffic today? Just look at what they were doing in March 2018 when live streaming was just emerging. Some people say that there is no such thing as overnight fame, it is just the result of repeated tempering, which is very accurate.

5. How can live streaming e-commerce develop in the long run?

The continuous increase in the popularity of live streaming sales has begun to create a false impression about it in the entire market. The existence of this illusion ultimately led live streaming e-commerce into a dead end where traffic is the ultimate pursuit. In the context of the traffic dividend having already peaked, if live streaming e-commerce still regards traffic as its ultimate pursuit, it will be difficult for it to truly develop in the long run. Thinking about the long-term development path of live streaming e-commerce has become a key issue.

1. Product-centric

The key to live streaming sales lies in the “goods”. Only when it is truly centered on products can its development truly break away from its dependence on traffic and enter a new stage of development. The so-called product-centric approach does not just mean strengthening the requirements for product selection, but also paying more attention to the design, production and supply of the product itself. Only by truly changing the product itself in essence and truly impressing people with the product, will live streaming no longer be a place to discount and promote outdated products, but will it become a display center for new products.

At this time, the problems and drawbacks of imbalance between supply and demand that have plagued the industry can be fundamentally solved. Live streaming with goods is not a tool for harvesting traffic, but a real connector between user demand and product supply. Even if the traffic dividend reaches its peak one day, live streaming e-commerce can still gain momentum for development through its new positioning.

2. User experience is the ultimate pursuit

Now, the real focus of live streaming sales is on "whether the goods are sold", not on "whether the user's needs are truly met". At this time, live streaming with goods is actually a tool and means to dump goods. If live streaming e-commerce is only positioned at this level, it will obviously not last long. We need to set user experience as the ultimate goal in order to make live streaming e-commerce a brand new thing.

The user experience mentioned here does not just refer to the live broadcast experience, but the experience of users after purchasing goods through live broadcast. Only when user experience is truly regarded as the ultimate goal and pursuit of live streaming e-commerce can live streaming e-commerce truly break free from the constraints of selling goods and enter a new stage of development.

3. Position yourself with new features

Live streaming with goods is not just about live streaming with goods, but should have more new functions and positioning. In my opinion, live streaming sales should actually be a tool and means to empower upstream production links. Through live streaming, we can get to know users’ real needs up close. By feeding these needs back to upstream manufacturers, we can find ways to reduce product design and production costs and promote improved industry efficiency.

Therefore, it is necessary to truly position live streaming with goods as a new function, rather than just limiting it to live streaming with goods itself. Only in this way can the so-called live streaming with goods gain new development. Only by shifting the function of live streaming e-commerce from harvesting users to empowering upstream industries can its functions and roles be expanded and its development be truly sustainable.

The real problem with live streaming sales is that we merely regard live streaming sales as live streaming sales itself, which is a mistake. Only by truly bringing live streaming sales to a new level can the so-called live streaming sales break away from people’s fixed impressions of it and find new horizons for development. At this time, live streaming sales will no longer be a passing fad, but will become long-lasting.

Author: Qinghao

Source: Kuoyi Culture Media