The hardest 618 video number in history to lie flat or quietly exert force?

Text丨Li Jinjin

Editor丨Dong Jinpeng

[Yibang Original] used to be a buzzing market, but now it is quietly ending, and the 618 promotion seems to be moving from a downturn to a complete failure. You must know that this year, all major platforms have made great moves, in addition to the low prices that are quite concerned, including the cancellation of pre-sales, the introduction of new businesses and the improvement of experience, etc., but they have failed to reverse the so-called most "difficult" 618 in history.

It's hard to say that the 618 promotion is completely over, but there is indeed a situation of still water flowing deep. First of all, the platforms have their own "difficulties", such as Xingtu data shows that this year's comprehensive e-commerce fell by 6.9%, and live e-commerce increased by 12%. Secondly, due to the double killing of volume and price on traditional platforms, merchants have to look for emerging platforms and new operating logic.

Previously, Ebang Power had exclusively disclosed that this year, many brand merchants still use Douyin and Tao as the main channels, but more and more have begun to test the water or increase the size of emerging platforms, such as video accounts, Xiaohongshu, Dewu, etc. However, a large number of small and medium-sized businesses have migrated on a large scale, especially those with scale and no profits, who go to the video account to find growth and profits. (You can refer to reading "Escape from low prices to find profits, merchants enter the video account on a large scale, "you can't do this if you don't make money")

Since 2024, Channels has been moving forward at a breakneck pace, and is often seen as the new force with the most potential to challenge Doukuai. However, during this year's 618 period, the video account is still low-key, not rolling low prices, but updating various merchant capabilities. Continuing the incentives of the previous big promotion, the platform has added a special area for selected top 100 brands, a special area for surprise prices for seckill, etc.; Focusing on short videos and live streaming, Tencent Advertising has launched small store link advertising and the ability for global traffic to lead to live broadcast rooms.

So, what is the overall situation of Video No. 618 this year? What are the new trends and new ways to play? What are the new faces on the official promotion list? Recently, Ebang Power has communicated with merchants, experts and officials, and will talk about them one by one.

01

The dominant categories continue to strengthen

A group of new merchants got good results

Compared with last year, this year's video account 618 promotion has made great progress, including incentive policies, infrastructure improvement and series of operations. However, compared with the previous New Year's Festival, the intensity was roughly the same or slightly increased. According to the survey of Ebang Power, it mainly comes from two aspects: one is structural adjustment, and the other is business optimization.

At the end of May, Ebang Power exclusively disclosed that the video number e-commerce will be merged into the WeChat open platform, and will be at the same level as the video account, mini program, WeChat account, etc. Insiders told Ebang Power that the adjustment is to integrate the teams related to WeChat ecological transactions to facilitate the improvement of transaction efficiency and the exploration of new models.

An industry source close to WeChat's management said that the relevant person in charge recently re-mentioned the positioning of the video account, saying that the original intention of the video account was to be a platform where everyone can speak out, rather than a short video distribution platform; You can't copy Douyin when you make a video account, and you can't skip its growth process and directly imitate a very stable and successful product form.

Although the 618 promotion of the video account is a little low-key, judging from the list and merchant feedback, there are still many highlights worth paying attention to. Trendy clothing and fashion and beauty are the dominant categories of the video account, and there is a trend of continuous strengthening this year.

In the TOP 50 of this year's 618 total list, the total number of trendy clothing live broadcast rooms reached 25, compared with 19 last year. In the TOP50 brand list, 31 brands belong to trendy clothing, and 5 of the top 10 trendy clothing occupy 5 seats. Whether it is the overall list or the brand list, the proportion of trendy clothing has increased significantly compared with the same period last year.

It is worth noting that trendy clothing merchants have entered the video account on a large scale to find profit areas, and the trend is quite obvious. Judging from the list of 618 this year, there has been a significant increase in industrial belt white labels, designer brands, Tao brands, and Douyin brands. In addition, some new entrants and additional video accounts of the head brands also have good performance, but due to the short broadcast cycle, multi-account matrix and influencer distribution, they do not appear on the list.

In addition, in the TOP 50 of the total list of goods, 8 appeared in the live broadcast room of food and fresh food, and 3 appeared in jewelry and cultural toys. Compared with the same period last year, the proportion of jewelry and cultural toys decreased, and the fresh food increased, mainly for the official flagship store of Goethe Old Liquor Store, the official flagship store of China Tea, Shengjian Goat Milk Powder and the official flagship store of Dr. Yang.

China Tea's official flagship store has made efforts to develop a video account this year, and has quickly achieved good results through advertising streaming, self-broadcasting and broadcasting. According to the data provided by Xinshi, during the 618 period this year, the unit price of the official flagship store of China Tea was between 100-300 yuan, and the GMV of a single live broadcast exceeded 1.3 million yuan, with a total of 13,000 views and a live broadcast duration of 6 hours.

Dr. Yang's official flagship store is a cutting-edge fresh brand that started from platforms such as Douyin, and it has also been broadcast live on the video account this year, and it has achieved good results during the 618 period. One of the packages priced at 266 yuan has sales of more than 800,000 yuan.

Compared to last year, some brands also dropped out of the list. It can be seen that there are still some forces in the video account that are secretly growing and quietly competing, and if you are not careful, you may fall off the list.

02

I don't deliberately set a benchmark

There may be an upgraded butterfly plan in July

Influencers are a key part of Channels e-commerce, not only providing high-quality content, but also helping brands with distribution. Judging from this year's 618 list, more and more native influencers on the platform are being formed on the video account, and at the same time, the newly settled high-quality talents outside the station are achieving good results after a period of exploration.

First of all, the proportion of talents on the overall list has increased greatly compared with last year. In the TOP50 of the total list of goods, there are 23 talents; Among the TOP20 in the total list of goods, there are 15 talents, and the proportion of talents is as high as 75%.

In addition, on the list of different categories, talents also occupy an important position. For example, in the TOP10 of the "Trendy Clothing" list, there are 9 talents, and in the TOP10 of the "Food and Fresh Food" list, there are also 7 talents, in addition, the TOP1 of the "Fashion and Beauty", "Home Daily", "Books and Audio" and other categories are also talents.

In 2023, the number of video account influencers will increase by 5 times. In 2023, the order size of the preferred alliance will account for 45%, and the GMV of the preferred alliance will account for 26%, while in 2022, the GMV of the preferred alliance will only account for 15%. This means that in the past year, the proportion of influencer distribution has increased significantly.

This year, the video account launched the butterfly plan, introducing foreign station experts with unprecedented strength. In addition to making a friend, Dongfang Selection and Three Sheep Network to test the waters, actors Zhu Yongteng, Xiao Han and his wife, Ye Anan yaa, Ningxia Musa, actor Yang Zi, Zhong Liti and other outstation experts also came to the video number to broadcast live.

Ebang Power has previously disclosed that the data of the top talent is in continuous growth. The image of the master of Qiao Jiao cross-product sports brand special, 6 hours GMV of nearly 10 million yuan. Guo Yiyi brought goods to Yiting Home Textiles Special, with a customer unit price of more than 1,700 yuan and an 8-hour GMV of 26.7 million yuan.

Zhong Liti, who was broadcast for 15 hours on 618 that night, became the first live broadcast room with more than 10 million views on the video account. Ebang learned from the trading team that the live broadcast room has invested millions of dollars in the WeChat bean + ADQ dual-end delivery strategy, and while the paid traffic continues to pull streams, it also improves user acceptance, stay and conversion through large-scale mobile phone lottery and stage-level live broadcast sets.

In addition to these familiar faces, there are also some emerging talents on the video account this year. For example, the "Putuo Mountain Handsome Tour Guide", the main type of goods is jewelry and cultural toys, and it has become the TOP2 on the overall list; Boss Long's jewelry store barely entered the TOP50 of the total list of goods last year, and this year it has become the 7th place in the total list of goods. This also means that there is still room for development of Channels, and the future is not a new blue ocean.

The influx of new merchants and influencers into the video account has made some native merchants and influencers feel the competition. How to balance the interests of new and old talents has become very important. At the end of May, the WeChat Channels account launched the talent growth level system, and for the first time, the hierarchical operation of influencers was carried out, and different levels of influencers enjoyed the rights and interests matched with GMV.

In addition, according to Ebang Power, the WeChat video account will suspend the butterfly program from June 21, and the talents who have applied will not be affected and can continue to sprint for incentive tasks. Tencent said it expects to launch a new incentive policy in July to further encourage new influencers with advantages in the outstation to join the live broadcast of Channels e-commerce.

Although the introduction of high-quality influencers in the outstation has been increased this year, insiders told Ebang Power that the platform has always adhered to the inclusive flow and will not deliberately set up benchmarks or manual intervention. For the overhead influencers formed by organic traffic, the platform has an open attitude and will not intervene.

03

The whole area leads to the live broadcast room

Tencent continues to pour traffic into Channels

Fleeing from low prices to find profits, merchants have entered the video account on a large scale, and some merchants have already enjoyed the platform dividends. The volume of merchants should at least look at the three core supports, namely distribution links, investment capacity and operation support.

Since the beginning of this year, the streaming capacity of Channels has been significantly improved. The trend observed by Ebang is that Tencent continues to open up abundant traffic for merchants through various links on Channels around short videos and live streaming.

On the eve of 618, Tencent Advertising launched the advertising link of the video number store, and advertisements such as video account, circle of friends, official account, mini program, and search can directly jump to the product page of the video number store. In the future, Tencent Advertising will also launch the ability to jump to the live broadcast room of the video account from Tencent News, Tencent Video, QQ and Youlianghui, etc., to achieve the effect of "global access to live broadcast".

With the continuous improvement of streaming capabilities and transaction links, merchants have tools to scale up different types of businesses such as live streaming, short video sales, and direct purchase from video stores. This year, Channels continues to update its ability to improve the transaction efficiency of merchants, and Tencent Advertising is also shortening the delivery jump link step by step, and fewer jumps means better conversions.

Ebang Power learned from Tencent that there have been cases of businesses in many industries such as clothing, toys, food, and education. Lin Qingxuan once participated in the test of the product link of the Moments jump video number store, and the initial ROI of the stream was not high, but after a period of operation, it can achieve more than 1:2.5-3.

We expect that in the early stage of new products, the investment players will be dominated by high-margin categories and merchants, such as tea, seafood and beauty. Danfeng is a service provider of Quanzhou's video number industry belt, saying that this year's investment has become a stable choice for merchants, and the starting number can increase the weight, obtain greater traffic during the layer breaking period, and increase GMV after the stability of people and goods yards.

During the 618 period this year, Lin Qingxuan took advantage of the big promotion node to promote new products and make a new product portfolio for young people. It is reported that a new product of the brand, priced at 197 yuan, has always been sold out since it was launched; Another product aimed at young people is also sought after on Channels.

In 2024, with the gradual enrichment of the content ecology and product supply, Channels will inevitably generate more people to break the circle and derive more industry opportunities. Since last year, there has been a trend of gradually getting younger, for example, Lin Qingxuan's trading user age on the video account has a very obvious downward trend.

"Unlike shelf e-commerce and content e-commerce, I think Channels has the potential to develop into trust e-commerce. This year and next, the general environment will still be in the stock game stage, and the WeChat ecosystem has precipitated a lot of traffic, and it will be a good opportunity for brands as the link of the video number platform continues to open up. Lin Qingxuan co-founder Sun Fuchun said.

Sun Fuchun participated in the operation of Channels, saying that with the help of Channels' personal IP and the fragmented touchpoints of the WeChat ecosystem, the brand value proposition is imperceptibly implanted in the minds of consumers, which is more friendly to the brand's pursuit of long-term high-quality growth.

TOP10 of the video number category with goods: