Is it reliable for celebrities to cross over and start e-commerce businesses?

Shortly after American actress Jessica Alba dominated the Internet industry headlines, today, domestic singer Shang Wenjie, known as the "Queen of Fashion", also made the Internet industry news. Both of these foreign entertainment stars were included in the Internet industry news because of their cross-border involvement in the e-commerce industry.

It is not uncommon for celebrities to engage in e-commerce. The earliest and most widespread form is to open a store on Taobao, of course, excluding luxury goods purchasing agents in the circle of friends. Since 2011, Taobao has launched the Star Store channel, calling those stores with celebrity participation as Star Stores, and giving them special channel promotion and publicity support. The person in charge of the Star Store channel once revealed: "Star store certification requires celebrities to provide identity information and authorization certificates; if they are joint venture celebrities, they need to provide proof of joint venture. We only certify stores where celebrities are wholly owned or shareholders."

This time, Jessica Alba and Shang Wenjie's e-commerce journey is not a small-scale Taobao journey, but they choose to start a business from scratch, just like Li Jing, the founder of cosmetics e-commerce Lefeng.com, and Dr. Dre, the founder of Beats who just joined Apple.

Take Shang Wenjie as an example. She defines herself as an investor rather than a brand spokesperson. The core concept and design of the "ma puce" series of e-commerce brands she founded were completed by her and her team. She said that she does not want to be labeled as "Shang Wenjie", "I hope these products can get rid of the celebrity effect and become a fashion lifestyle brand that the public likes."

Brand building depends on products

When celebrities engage in e-commerce, just like any other ordinary people, they need to rely on products and have their own brands. The celebrity’s own fame and fan effect may be one of the means of publicity in the early stage of entrepreneurship, but if they only want to rely on fame once and for all, they will end up like Yang Lan and Celine Dion jointly launched the "LAN Jewelry" brand in 2009, and the sales volume will always remain at six pieces.

At the same time, the control of product quality, the accuracy of market positioning and the ability of the operation team are all indispensable. It is easy for celebrities to endorse traditional products, but it does not mean that they have the ability to create their own brands. Any celebrity e-commerce that only lends its name but does not participate in the supply chain, team operation, promotion, etc. has no hope of doing well. Similarly, even if the marketing is hard, if the product is not of high quality, it will be difficult to last.

When celebrities endorse products, they usually feel like they are at the top of the world, but when they want to make products, they need to lower their profile and have tedious communications with suppliers, teams, customers and other different groups of people. Not all celebrities can accept this feeling of dislocation. But if they really want to do well in the e-commerce industry, they should first understand the industry and their own products.

Internet thinking is essential

The ability to recognize products and industries is only the first small step in doing e-commerce. Truly integrating into this era of Internet multimedia and social media, being good at noticing subtle changes in consumer groups, and embracing Internet thinking to operate products and build brands are the basic conditions for celebrities to be successful in e-commerce.

A well-known observer in the e-commerce industry once said on Weibo that low prices are the foundation for the development of e-commerce, and are a necessary condition but not a sufficient condition. In addition to seeing that celebrities use the fan effect to sell "luxury goods", seeking regular or even low-priced e-commerce products is the basis for the success of celebrity entrepreneurship. Celebrity e-commerce companies should also give people the impression that celebrities themselves are not easy to reach, but the brand products they create are popular.

This is just as what an e-commerce insider said: "Successful Internet products should focus more on the needs of the 'diaosi group' and the 'grassroots group'. This is an era where everyone calls themselves a 'diaosi' but deep down they think they are 'tall, rich and handsome' or 'white, rich and beautiful'. If your product cannot make users become part of the product and cannot connect with them, your product is bound to fail."

User experience is lifeblood

In addition to publicity, products, and low-price positioning, e-commerce companies that want to do well should also have various supporting measures, including logistics and after-sales services, in order to provide consumers with a complete shopping experience. Celebrities have both advantages and disadvantages in this regard. If the user experience is not good, the speed and scope of negative reviews will be far greater than that of ordinary people; and if they work hard, the brand reputation they gain will also be far more commercially valuable than that of ordinary people.

Moreover, a good user experience should start from the details and run through every detail from the product to the user. A true user experience should be able to make the user feel something, and this perception should exceed the user's expectations and bring surprises to the user. A successful user experience is more like the most direct and unimpeded bridge between the product and the user.

At present, there are not many successful cases of celebrities doing e-commerce. The e-commerce industry may be far from the feeling of being "superior" by celebrities. How to cleverly use the identity of celebrities to deal with the entrepreneurial e-commerce industry and avoid two-way damage between the celebrity image and brand products is what every entrepreneurial star needs to think about.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.