Taobao Live Competitive Product Analysis and Optimization Strategy

In recent years, the integration of live streaming and the e-commerce industry has become increasingly close, and e-commerce live streaming has increasingly become an important means for customers to understand business and for merchants to attract customers to consume. There are so many e-commerce live streaming products. What are the differences between different products and what are the differences between their advantages and disadvantages? This article will give you a detailed introduction.

Table of contents

1. Product Overview

2. Competitive product selection

1. Direct Competitor

2. Indirect Competitors

3. Product structure analysis

1. Product Information Architecture

2. Product function design

3. Interaction Design

4. Competitive Product Summary

5. Reference and inspiration

1. Product Overview

Taobao Live : Experience version 9.1.0

Launched : April 21, 2016

Product positioning :

Taobao Mobile is positioned as a "consumer live streaming" platform. As of June 2016, female viewers are the absolute majority, accounting for about 80%. 8 to 10 p.m. every night is not only the most popular time to watch live streaming, but also the time when users are most willing to place orders - this seems to prove that women are just as crazy about live streaming.

Mission and slogan : Restore the real experience scene, live broadcast takes you to buy around the world

Traffic scale :

According to the "2019 Taobao Live Ecosystem Development Trend Report" produced by Taobangdan and Taobao Live, the Taobao Live platform brought in more than 100 billion yuan in sales in 2018, a year-on-year growth rate of nearly 400%, creating a new incremental market of hundreds of billions of yuan. Statistics show that Taobao Live has an average of over 60,000 live broadcasts per day, totaling over 150,000 hours, equivalent to more than 33,000 Spring Festival Galas.

Development and Innovation :

On September 17, 2018, Taobao Live called on the top ten most powerful agricultural product live streamers on the Internet to volunteer to support the 9.17 Harvest Festival Gala, creating a sales miracle of 10 million in 4 hours. Taobao Live has launched the “Village Live Plan”, which will help 1,000 farmer live broadcasters in 100 counties to earn 10,000 yuan a month, help promote the sales of high-quality agricultural products, and achieve industrial poverty alleviation.

2. Competitive product selection

1. Direct Competitor

(1) JD Live

Experience version : v8.3.2

Launched : August 2016

Mission and slogan : One-stop scene marketing, stimulate business creativity and activate fan assets.

(2) Mogujie Live

Experience version : v.13.0.01634

Launched : March 2016

Traffic scale :

"Mogujie is the first in the industry to integrate the entire purchasing process into the live broadcast room." As of June 30, 2019, Mogujie's live broadcast GMV was 1.315 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 102.7%; the GMV of the live broadcast business accounted for 31.5% of Mogujie's total GMV, almost twice that of the same period last year. In this regard, Cao Lei, director of the E-Commerce Research Center of the China Internet Network Information Center, pointed out that the Mogujie live broadcast entrance now occupies the most important resource position on the entire platform.

Purpose and slogan : Try on new fashion styles for you, the effect is believing, the fabric material is really visible

2. Indirect competitors

Douyu Live, Yizhibo

3. Product structure analysis

1. Product Information Architecture

(1) From the perspective of live broadcast content:

Taobao Live covers the largest range of products and has the most detailed classifications. Some of the classification standards are based on traditional product categories, such as "apparel", "beauty", "food", "jewelry", and "home", and some are based on Taobao's consumption levels, such as "Global Shopping", "Big Brands", and "Real Benefits".

The most important thing is that in its latest update, Taobao Live added the "Double 11" category label so that consumers can participate in this shopping spree during the live broadcast. This is also because of the development potential of live shopping, and the hope is that the integration of "live streaming" and "shopping festival" can once again create a sales miracle.

JD.com’s live broadcasts have relatively little content, with only “Featured” and “My Focus” classification labels. Compared with the live broadcasts on the other two platforms, the live broadcast content is mainly concentrated on 3C products, electrical appliances, etc.

Mogujie's live streaming is in line with Mogujie's product positioning, focusing on young girls' love of beauty and fashion needs. The live streaming room also focuses on clothing, beauty products, and luggage. Some anchors will also promote some furniture supplies, snacks, etc. during the live broadcast.

(2) From the perspective of function navigation settings :

JD Live has the least function settings, only "Follow" and "Share". The basic search box and direct access to the shopping cart function are not set up.

In addition to these basic functions, Taobao Live has also set up an "Anchor Guardian Plan" with the slogan "Come and adopt an anchor!". In one sentence, it puts users in a position higher than the anchors, enhancing fans' initiative and sense of control.

By recommending the anchor to your friends, you can get guardian red envelopes (the recommended person needs to place a purchase order), which increases fan participation and also brings economic benefits. Because ordinary users are more receptive to things recommended by their friends, the host's fan traffic will also increase accordingly.

Taobao Live has a unique "floating window". The floating window is located in the position where consumers can see it most easily and click on it. It will be displayed when switching to each category. It is the official channel of Taobao Live, and the settings of the live broadcast room are basically the same as other live broadcast rooms.

In addition to the basic functions, Mogujie Live has added the "My Live" function to display user (fans) personal information.

2. Product function design

Taobao Live: Basic functions are relatively complete

JD Live: It has the simplest interface and the simplest functions. The host’s personal homepage and fan level need to be improved. The unique fan request explanation function can enhance the user’s sense of control and can also better meet user needs and solve user questions.

Mogujie Live:

Live streaming has become Mogujie's main feature now, and the functions of the live streaming room are also very complete. Compared with the other two, the top function bar has added the "My Live Streaming" function to display user (fan) personal information, including live streaming points, distance to the next level, my footprints, my subscribed anchors, and subscribed products, making it convenient for users to view and manage.

In terms of fan maintenance, there are daily fan rankings and overall fan rankings, which can stimulate fans' social and entertainment motivations to a certain extent.

In terms of purchasing, the real-time display of live broadcast products (which changes in real time according to the changes in the products tried on and introduced by the anchor) is very convenient for users to place orders and purchases, shortening the entire purchase chain and helping to increase the purchase rate. On the contrary, in the Taobao live broadcast room, the anchor has to constantly tell the fans who have just entered the live broadcast room which product is being explained, which will affect the efficiency of the live broadcast.

3. Interaction Design

(1) Traffic entry

Taobao Live : It occupies a relatively prominent position in the upper right corner of the functional module on the first page of the homepage (occupying one-sixth of the total).

JD Live : When you swipe down on the homepage, the lower right corner of the function module (one twelfth of the page) is easily overlooked.

Mogujie Live : Under the search box at the top of the homepage, there is the second tab in the function bar at the bottom of the homepage. There are two live broadcast entrances on the homepage. Compared with Taobao Live and JD Live, it can attract traffic to the greatest extent. The top entrance adopts a horizontally expanded information browsing method, which can display more information in the smallest space, while reducing page jumps, which is conducive to improving user efficiency.

(2) Live broadcast interface (three-level interface)

Similarities: The basic layout is the same, the entrance to the anchor's personal homepage is in the upper left corner, the function of closing the live broadcast room is in the upper right corner, the fan comment area and dynamic area are in the lower left area, and there is a like button in the lower right corner.

Differences:

• JD Live does not display fan levels and ratings. The other two are displayed below the anchor's avatar, showing both level and points. The fan level display area of ​​Mogujie Live also scrolls with "You have a new task" and "Share to receive coupons";
• The top of Mogujie Live's live broadcast room will display the avatars of other anchors, while the other two do not;
• On the left side of the live broadcast room of Mogujie Live, two live broadcast products are displayed, with two different states of "waiting for flash sale" and "flash sale in progress", while the other two are not displayed. Such a direct and eye-catching setting makes it easier for consumers to find the products they like in the current live broadcast, which is more conducive to increasing the purchase rate. The word "flash sale" will induce users to buy.
• JD Live and Mogujie Live both place the reward function separately in the bottom function area, while Taobao Live's reward function is combined with the report function;
• The shopping entrances for JD Live and Mogujie Live are set on the bottom right, while Taobao Live is set on the far left at the bottom. The sharing function is set at the bottom for JD Live except at the top.

(3) Purchase navigation

In terms of product display:

① Taobao Live and JD Live both use a list format to display the basic information of the live products, namely “product thumbnail + product name + price + add to shopping cart”. There is a coupon function at the top of the list. JD Live also has a “Request for explanation” function. Clicking this button will automatically post a comment, “xxx, request explanation of product number X”, which can prompt the anchor to explain. The popularity of the product can also be seen from this function. Taobao Live also has a playback function, which is to return to the time period of the live broadcast user to specify the product.

② The product display of Mogujie Live adopts a horizontal expansion method by default. The advantage of this method is that the entire page can be used to display the information of a product. Consumers can see the product specifications more comprehensively, or click "Product Explanation" to quickly view the live broadcast clip of the product. The horizontal dragging method also minimizes the user's operation of viewing the product. More importantly, a "switch" button is set, and users can choose the way to view the product display according to their needs.

③Taobao ’s “Replay” function and Mogujie’s “Product Explanation” function are both designed to make up for the lack of time in live broadcasts. Users are prone to miss product information they are interested in, and this quick positioning function can help consumers save time and accelerate purchasing decisions.

④ When the product list is presented in JD’s live broadcast , the live video will automatically shrink and be placed on the top of the product list. The live broadcast rooms of the other two platforms do not have this function. When users view the products, the live content will be blocked. Mogujie 's product details page adopts a semi-transparent form, which makes up for the shortcomings to a certain extent.

(4) Content switching

①Taobao Live

Swipe left and right to switch pages, and up and down to switch live rooms

② JD Live

Swipe left and right to switch pages, and up and down to switch live rooms

③ Mogujie Live

Swipe left and right to switch live broadcast room

(5) Fan Interaction

①Taobao Live

• The pink reward dynamic pops up at the top of the comment area
• Fans' purchase and entry dynamics pop up at the top of the comment area (one item is displayed at a time)
• Fans' comment area, scrolling to display user comments

Phrases : Iron fan 1 xxx is here, xxx and 17 others are on their way to buy

② JD Live

• Swipe horizontally to see fans' purchase and attention dynamics
• Fans come in, bring friends, and the likes and comments of users are displayed at the same time
• The pink reward dynamic pops up on the left side of the middle of the screen

Terminology : xxx is buying item No. 1, xxx adds item No. 2 to the shopping cart, xxx is going shopping, xxx follows the anchor, xxx gets a coupon, xxx brings his friend xxx, xxx participates in 10 purchases and is awarded the title of "Shopping King", xxx and 14 other people come, xxx likes 58 times and is awarded the title of "Like Maniac", (shows whether it is JD Plus),

xxx please tell me which baby number

Features : There are many interactive forms. After watching for a while or clicking "like", animations of "sending flowers" and "toasting" will pop up;

There is no set fan level. Commentators are only shown with titles such as "plus member", "shopping spree", and "like maniac", which is a reinforcement of purchasing and liking behaviors.

③ Mogujie Live

• The purchase dynamic pops up at the top of the comment area: xxx just bought something
• The comment area scrolls to display fan comments, following, adding to cart, placing orders, and receiving coupons
• Comments: fan avatar, user name, fan level, number of purchases<, comment content
• The anchor assistant answers fans' questions and releases important information<

Phrases: xxx came into the room ready to shop, xxx quietly added items to the shopping cart, xxx couldn’t wait to place an order, xxx received a 5-yuan coupon for new members, xxx followed the anchor, and xxx happily took a photo with the anchor

Features: Rich user status display, lively language style, highlighting user's purchasing behavior

4. Summary of Competitive Products

Taobao Live ranks first in e-commerce live streaming in terms of both traffic and sales. Taobao's main competitors are JD.com, Suning, and Pinduoduo, but Suning and Pinduoduo have not yet launched the live streaming function. Therefore, in addition to JD.com Live, competitors also chose Mogujie Live, which was the first to launch the "watch and buy" mode.

JD Live has the simplest functions, and has the fewest live broadcast rooms and the least number of viewers. However, judging from the traffic of the e-commerce platform itself, JD Live has huge potential for future development.

Because JD.com's product positioning is self-operated, fast, and authentic, it can form a complementary market supply with Taobao Live through live broadcasts of larger items such as electrical appliances and automobiles, and activate its own user assets. In particular, the usage of electrical appliances and household items can be more clearly demonstrated through live broadcasts, so it is very likely to stimulate greater consumption power through live broadcasts.

Mogujie's live streaming function is unexpectedly comprehensive and complete, especially in terms of fan interaction and product shopping guides. The personified and lively verbal prompts make consumers feel more involved. They shop instead of buying, and quietly enter the live streaming room instead of saying xx is coming. Such language is warmer and makes fans feel psychologically close to the anchor.

The horizontal expansion of product display allows the page to accommodate more product information, shortens the user's purchasing process, and is conducive to improving the conversion rate and purchase rate.

Mogujie Live itself has complete functions and appropriate positioning, but the popularity of the anchors is much lower than that of Taobao Live, and the fan base is naturally weak, so it is still inferior to Taobao Live in terms of traffic and scale. In the future, it can attract fans and traffic to the platform by attracting big Vs and celebrities.

5. Reference and inspiration

Through comparative analysis with JD Live and Mogujie Live, we found that the most important function that Taobao Live should improve is the fan interaction function. The specific optimization suggestions are as follows:

1. By adding fan ranking information, users’ ambition and vanity can be stimulated, thereby increasing their viewing time and purchase frequency, which is more effective for old fans.
2. Like the live broadcast rooms of Mogujie and JD.com, they display more of the user's purchasing and viewing status. For example, xx follows the anchor, xxx shares the live broadcast room, xxx adds items to cart, xxx gives a good review to the product, etc., which quickly crosses the screen through barrages to create a purchasing atmosphere for users.
3. Users can chat with each other, and a social circle exclusively for store fans can be added at the bottom of the live broadcast room (similar to the fish pond of Douyu Live), where users can see which fans have bought what, ask for their opinions, and communicate with each other. In order to avoid the trouble of too much information and respect the preferences of users, a switch button for the social circle can be set. If it is turned off, no information will be received, and naturally no information can be sent. The anchor can give some rewards to fans who actively answer questions, such as spiritual rewards such as unique identity titles, or material rewards such as prizes and coupons.
4. In order to facilitate users' purchasing, users must be able to find the product as soon as they want to buy it. Therefore, the product being live-streamed should be displayed at the top of the page or at the top of the product list, rather than asking users to ask the host which product the anchor is introducing. This problem exists in Taobao live-streaming now, which seriously affects the efficiency of live-streaming.
5. In terms of interaction, Taobao Live switches between live broadcast rooms by swiping up and down, which can easily lead to accidental swiping, and the live broadcast content that suddenly appears may not be what you want to watch. If you want to return to the original live broadcast room, you need to exit and re-enter. More importantly, you cannot switch back and forth between the live broadcast rooms that the user is following. Therefore, if the user enters the live broadcast room from the "Follow" tag, swiping up and down will switch to the live broadcast room that the user is following.

In addition to fan interaction, Taobao Live has some other features that can be considered for addition or improvement:

1. When entering the Taobao Live entrance for the first time, an options page can be added, similar to various content platforms, such as Bilibili and Zhihu. Users can first select the module they are interested in. For example, girls can choose clothing and beauty, and boys can choose cars and shoes, etc. Otherwise, if there is no content they like when entering Taobao Live for the first time, users will easily be lost.
2. When you enter each store or anchor's live broadcast room for the first time, if the viewing time exceeds two minutes, new user coupons will be automatically issued. For those who are not new users, coupons of different amounts and quantities will be sent according to their levels. It does not have to cover all of them, but will be drawn in proportion.
3. Most live broadcast rooms have very long live broadcasts and carry a large number of products. Taobao Live can add a navigation interface for short videos. Each anchor can capture the products with the highest sales and the best response during the live broadcast, make them into short videos, and display them on the anchor’s personal homepage, or add a category label under the live broadcast channel to expand the influence. Short videos are also more likely to attract users to watch and reduce user decision-making time.
4. Live streaming celebrities usually announce the time and products of the live streaming on their Weibo. Taobao Live will push the product preview information of the hosts followed by the users to the top of the users' Weitao. This way, consumers can make strategies in advance, watch the live streaming on time, grab product coupons, and it also leaves time for consumers to convey the live streaming news to their friends.

Author: Liu Yuxuan

Source: Liu Yuxuan