4 underlying logics for brands to engage in Douyin e-commerce

Some of these brands that entered the market did make a lot of money, but some performed mediocrely.

The reasons for this are of course some of them are related to the actual execution capabilities, but more of them are related to some underlying logic. Today, let’s talk about some underlying logics that brands need to understand when doing Douyin e-commerce .

01. Cutting leeks is not a long-term solution, but increasing differentiated channels is

Tmall, JD.com, Pinduoduo, WeChat mini-programs, Douyin stores, Kuaishou stores, Xiaohongshu, Dewu, own platforms... I have to sigh that it is really not easy to do e-commerce nowadays. The platforms alone are dizzying.

Faced with so many emerging channels, the first thing brands should consider is whether they can achieve differentiated channel growth, rather than simply moving a store from one platform to another.

Many brands only saw Douyin’s 600 million DAU and various exaggerated figures in other brands’ battle reports, but did not consider whether Douyin could become an incremental brand from the perspective of the platform characteristics and their own brands. Most of them were just trying to reap the first wave of profits.

So, how do we evaluate whether Douyin can become an incremental growth for a brand? Generally speaking, we can look at it from two dimensions:

The first is the dimension of differences in consumer groups. We need to see how much overlap there is between the brand’s consumer group labels on Tmall and Douyin? The overlap is low, which is the prerequisite for increasing the volume;

The second dimension is the difference in product structure. This is to look at the brand’s own internal inventory situation. Can the brand provide a different batch of products to sell on Douyin than other channels, and whether this product matches the Douyin consumer group? If there is no difference in product structure, there will be no potential for growth in the long run.

Because think about it, when buying the same things, will consumers go to traditional e-commerce platforms like Tmall or entertainment platforms like TikTok?

02. Douyin product selection is very important, either with a story mindset or with discounts

We have already mentioned the importance of selecting products for Douyin in point 1, so let’s talk about it in more detail here.

When selecting products for Douyin, many brand merchants only base their selection on internal efficiency and profit maximization, or even directly sell products from other channels on Douyin without any changes. The results are often very bleak.

Because in fact, the potential audience of many brands on Douyin is very different from that on Tmall. For example, the core consumer group of some brands on Tmall is urban white-collar workers in first- and second-tier cities, so their main products are those with more expensive orders. However, the real consumers on Douyin may be people from third-, fourth- and fifth-tier cities. They may just buy it because of the brand’s fame, but in fact, they just want to buy the entry-level model.

It is obviously not feasible to continue promoting various high-order products on Douyin at this time.

In addition, Douyin also pays great attention to two types of goods in product selection:

One is to extend the mind with stories, such as some products with built-in effects, or co-branded products with a celebrity/designer, etc. These can be excavated and packaged, extended into story content, and amplified socially on Douyin, so that more users can be inspired after watching them.

The other type is promotional items with big discounts. To put it bluntly, most of the time when we buy things on Douyin, it is because the price threshold is not high. This kind of promotional item with big discounts is very helpful in increasing the peak of live broadcast viewing, attracting traffic to the store, and completing sales.

03. The premise of Douyin e-commerce is that content comes first, then e-commerce

This is also the fundamental reason why Douyin e-commerce can compete with traditional e-commerce platforms without having a shopping mentality. Therefore, to do e-commerce on Douyin, creating good content is a prerequisite.

Here, the content landing on Douyin mainly includes two parts:

One is the content operation of Douyin Blue V accounts, which is the core position for brands to obtain platform traffic and attract fans in the Douyin ecosystem. Regardless of whether the official TikTok gives you traffic or ordinary users follow you, the most fundamental thing to look at is the short video of the Blue V account released by the brand.

However, the content here is definitely not that kind of high-end brand TVC, but is more in line with the overall aesthetic style of Douyin. Therefore, it is recommended that when a brand opens a Douyin store, it is best for the e-commerce department to open a Blue V account on its own. This can avoid conflicts with the marketing department that pays more attention to brand tone. The positioning of this account can be more like a content channel specially opened by the brand for its Douyin store.

The content in Douyin is very important, and it is also reflected in another aspect: the content in brand store broadcasts.

The biggest difference between Douyin live streaming and live streaming on traditional e-commerce platforms is that it does not start with a hawking-style selling. You just need to find a small room of a few square meters and the host can sell things by talking non-stop.

Tik Tok live streaming focuses more on the fun of the content and the immersive atmosphere created by the brand/product.

For example, the layout of the live broadcast scene must be coordinated with the corresponding theme for scene-based decoration. For example, the Douyin live broadcast room may be a layout of New Year's goods scene, or a layout of two-dimensional culture. Then there is the host's personality. He is not just a person who sells goods, but more importantly, he needs to be integrated into the theme and scene. For example, the host may be a detective, a fashion buyer agent, etc.

So, why does Douyin Live pay so much attention to the creation of content scenes?

This is because when Douyin promotes live streaming, it puts live streaming on the same stage as all other short video platforms to compete for traffic.

Think about how we come across a live broadcast on Douyin. If we see a regular sales clip that just shows people buying, we will probably leave immediately because we instinctively think, "I come to Douyin to kill time and have fun. I don't have time to watch your sales pitch."

Therefore, only when the content of the live broadcast is interesting enough can you maximize the chance of obtaining a larger traffic pool when pushing the stream.

04. Douyin relies on the logic of “goods find people”, and paid “pitchers” are particularly important

The reason why Douyin is inherently lacking in shopping mentality is that in most consumption scenarios of traditional e-commerce, consumers come with shopping needs and simply search for the products they want on the shelves of the channel e-commerce platform. This is what we often call "people looking for goods."

However, for TikTok, I believe that the core usage scenario for most people is to watch short videos to kill time. Then they may come across some interesting content embedded in the video, which fully stimulates their potential shopping desire and then place an order.

On the other hand, from the underlying logic of Douyin itself, the search function is also weakened, and recommended content is distributed more based on the degree of matching of crowd labels under big data, that is, "goods find people."

Therefore, users cannot find products through search, resulting in the fact that most ordinary consumers may not know how to find where the brand’s Douyin store is.

At this time, the "pitcher" responsible for the brand's paid placement in the Douyin ecosystem becomes particularly important. Because how many people your product can eventually "find" is mostly determined by paid advertising.

However, the delivery logic here is different from that of traditional Diamond Ads and Through Train. A good "pitcher" can achieve a very high ROI, so it is very important for brands to have such a role when operating Douyin stores.

Summary

This article summarizes several underlying logics that brands must understand when doing Douyin e-commerce:

Before opening a store, it is necessary to clarify whether Douyin can become a differentiated channel for the brand to increase growth; to the content-level planning in the preparation stage, and the differentiated product selection that is different from other channels; and then to the emphasis on improving the paid "pitchers" who help "goods find people" during the actual Douyin e-commerce operations.

I hope the above is helpful to you.

Author: Pulang

Source: Pulangne