One of the manifestations of the growing madness of the world is the abstraction of the way in which goods are sold beyond the reach of non-humans.
The eldest sister in the live broadcast room of weight loss products showed the miracle of "binge eating and not getting fat", and the operation was as fierce as a tiger, and as a result, a bowl of noodles was all used to brush her teeth, and the audience said that we were envious of eating dry and not fat, but not blind; The "rotten face marketing" in the beauty live broadcast room can see you grinning, and in order to show the coverage of the foundation, directly scrape a layer of putty on the pimples that have just squeezed out the blood.
It's not that there are no eye-catching goods: TF cabinet brother is dressed in a formal suit to explain lipstick, and you sigh "Sure enough, there is a specialization in the art industry"; Dong Yuhui once raised the average cultural level of the live broadcast room; When Dong Jie brought the goods, she told the story to make you dream back to the cold autumn era.
A thousand words into one sentence: I don't mind if you make my money, but can you be professional?
In the 21st century, the most expensive thing is talent, and the most scarce thing is professionalism. I have seen a lot of promotional goods, and I have listened to professional people talk about professional things, "such as listening to Xianle Ear Temporary Ming".
When I shouted "9 pieces and 9 get on the car" and only felt noisy, Dong Jie, Zhang Xiaohui, and Yi Nengjing sat on the live broadcast method of chatting with you, and then became a mess. Dong Jie sells goods with "Dong Jie's taste", Zhang Xiaohui doesn't need to mention it, selling eyeshadow can talk to you from poetry to literature, Yi Nengjing sells goods comparable to a healing master, and after placing an order, you are a new person.
The sisters' style of bringing goods makes consumers discover that Xiaohongshu e-commerce is in a class of its own, and then you can find that Xiaohongshu is not only a place where buyers like Zhang Xiaohui are grandmothers, but also managers with their own magical powers, and their way of selling goods is not so much sales as "class".
Zhou Qi himself has done fashion editing and show work, with a professional background and a love of sharing outfits, from a blogger to a brand in 2023, Zhou Qi opened a live broadcast on Xiaohongshu to focus on dehydrated pure dry goods.
Watching the live broadcasts of these managers can really learn knowledge.
Yinuo, who has been in the cultural toy business for 10 years, was worried that her original bracelet was too niche and the unit price was too high, and no one would ask about it in the live broadcast room, but it sold nearly 1 million after the first three shows, and there was no promotion or discount.
This is also the unique feature of the managers on Xiaohongshu, who usually have multiple identities, practitioners in a certain field, industry experts, a skill, or a great passion.
The most important point is that they don't screw their own behavior, whether they wear or store, most of them are out of love and have a strong identity, if even the people who sell the goods feel that it is not worth it, how can the goods be self-consistent.
Other merchants sell products, and the manager of Xiaohongshu sells experience. Scholar Xue Zhaofeng made a good summary: "If you want to buy, a lot of homework Xiaohongshu managers have helped you do it and help you make a choice." ”
As a result, Xiaohongshu has become a pure land for the managers who can't afford to shout and bring goods. Why Xiaohongshu? On the one hand, it's more like an encyclopedia, or the kind that is updated in real time. Users come with the purpose of sharing their life experiences, and leave with travel tips, dressing plans, and beauty tips.
I guess you've heard a lot of voices like this: "I'm basically giving up Baidu now, and using Xiaohongshu as a life encyclopedia and search engine." In an article analyzing the behavior and habits of Xiaohongshu users, Liu Run explained the biggest difference between Xiaohongshu and other social platforms. Traditional e-commerce is commodity-led, while Xiaohongshu e-commerce is scenario-led.
For example, why do you search for and then buy "four-panel plates"? Working backwards, we hope to improve the nutritional structure of each meal, which creates a "question-answer-product" shopping path.
Traditional e-commerce is shelf e-commerce, which only provides the step from the answer to the product, and the step from question to answer is what Baidu, Zhihu, and Xiaohongshu do. Xiaohongshu becomes a question answering center, you can search for "how to improve your diet", and then you can see the solution and related products around the problem, which is called the purchase demand triggered by "life scenarios".
It is estimated that only in the comment area of Xiaohongshu notes, you can often see the strong desire to "ask for links" and "ask for purchases". At the just-concluded Link e-commerce partner conference, Xiaohongshu revealed that in the past year, e-commerce "merchants with monthly sales of 5 million or more" increased by 3.5 times year-on-year, the number of purchasing users increased by 4.3 times, and the number of searches with purchase intent accounted for 25%. The number of live broadcast purchase users increased by 6.3 times year-on-year, and the unit price of live broadcast customers can be stable at more than 400 yuan.
Users naturally regard Xiaohongshu as a lifestyle book, so the managers hit it off, and through notes, live broadcasts, and communities, they just help users solve life problems, and even co-create products.
A manager expressed his willingness to do live broadcasts on Xiaohongshu, the core reason is that "they can talk, and people can communicate with each other on specific issues".
Compared with the larger but more homogeneous brands, Xiaohongshu merchants are more individual, like a creative market on the side of the road, where consumers walk around and have a "realistic" boss who can listen to your opinions and give you feedback.
It is precisely Xiaohongshu's business model that creates the soil for the manager to maintain a "sense of authenticity".
When today's live streaming is developing in the direction of cyber magic, the anchor can be replaced with AI dummies and slicers.
Good goods may be good prices, good selling points, and good-looking but not knowledgeable robot anchors can be replaced at any time, because "realism" not only includes explaining the product, but also sharing knowledge, providing emotional value, listening to user feedback, and then giving personalized suggestions.
For example, Yinuo, who has a strong sense of awe for the entertainment industry, also has strict requirements for employees who bring goods through live broadcasting: first, they have worked in the company for at least three years, secondly, they have personality charm, and the most important thing is that they are professional enough to be able to tell things about the product. Comparing why it is cheap, Yinuo wants to explain to the viewers who want to buy or are just interested in playing bracelets, what materials are used, how to design, and how much trial and error costs to make a product.
Xiaohongshu's business model of "integrated number and broadcast" provides support for "realism". Because the owner's brand account and live broadcast are complete, the brand account manager creates valuable dry goods; The live broadcast room directly talks to users to answer questions. The user has a real sense of the manager, which can be traced, and there is also a multi-layer sense of steadfastness when placing an order.
After transforming from a blogger to a manager, Zhou Qi did not let his notes and account become "a drainage tool that only posts live slices". She will continue to share the unique secrets of wearing "one clothes and multiple wears" as a blogger, continue to interact with users, and most of the time of the live broadcast is also "teaching" matching schemes.
The insistence of the manager allows Xiaohongshu to maintain a "content atmosphere". Although content e-commerce platforms are proposing "integration of number and broadcast", in actual operation, when the manager starts to live broadcast and bring goods, the originally fresh account will inevitably become a "zombie account" for replaying live slices.
"Realism" continues to attract managers who pursue personalized expression, because they can "earn money while standing" in Xiaohongshu.
Zhou Qi was the "stereotyped cognition" of live streaming that was reversed by Xiaohongshu after watching Dong Jie's live broadcast. "Why is it not on other platforms on Xiaohongshu? Because I'm a very flat talker myself, you let me shout at me that I can't do it. It wasn't until I watched Mr. Dong that I found that the live broadcast could tell the content in a calm and eloquent tone, and broadcast live with the mentality of narrative and sharing. This suits me perfectly. ”
Adults do not change, only screened. The manager of "realism" also allows consumers to see the true temperament behind the screen, and fate is tied by a thousand miles.
Yinuo thinks that he is a straightforward and sharp person, and feels that "doing live broadcasts may offend many people". On the contrary, after doing a live broadcast on Xiaohongshu, she helped her screen out more like-minded target users.
"Many users send me fragmented thoughts in the background, which are more touching than love letters, they say that they have not seen this style of live broadcast, and they have not bought such an original cultural game design in the live broadcast room, and they can understand the effort we put into the product."
In the era of indifference, users and merchants can still reveal their true feelings and go in both directions, and Xiaohongshu has finally become a utopian existence for managers.
On July 22, Xiaohongshu COO Conan and economist Xue Zhaofeng in a conversation, for the first time put forward the positioning of Xiaohongshu as a "lifestyle e-commerce", and two days later, at the "Hello, Principal" theme link e-commerce partner conference, Xiaohongshu further explained the concept of "lifestyle e-commerce", and released the business path of lifestyle e-commerce for the first time, business product upgrades, etc.
What is lifestyle e-commerce? To put it simply, it is to let users buy in Xiaohongshu, which is not only a good product, but also a kind of life that they yearn for.
Commodities may be homogeneous, but people are not, and a thousand people represent a thousand ways of life.
Continuing to break it down, there are strange but real "scenes" for each lifestyle, you may have just become an honorable migrant worker and need to change your outfit, plan to hike and want to know the route equipment, and be scared by the medical examination report to start a fitness program.
The role of the manager is that, as an expert in a certain lifestyle field, he not only understands the needs of users, but also can work backwards on the supply chain to help you solve specific problems.
This is an incremental market for merchants and e-commerce entrepreneurs, because in Xiaohongshu's view, any personalized demand has the potential to become a big business.
Seeing the demand gap for women's bracelets, Yinuo introduced the gold and diamond colored gems in the jewelry, and launched the "gold diamond" products that can be said to subvert the cultural toy market, creating good-looking and fashionable original cultural toy beads for more women with unique aesthetics.
Caption: Yinuo shared at the meeting
In Xiaohongshu, a win-win situation for all three parties is being achieved. The manager realizes stable operation and users find satisfactory solutions. With their deep industry experience, strong content and product power, and long-term business perspective, the managers coincide with the rich, diverse, and personalized lifestyle ecology that Xiaohongshu is committed to creating.
In Zhou Qi's view, if a person has more industry experience, it is recommended to come to Xiaohongshu as the manager. "If you have your own ideal aesthetics, you come to Xiaohongshu. Xiaohongshu is a platform that can show you as a manager more comprehensively. Xiaohongshu is not like a shopping mall, it is like a creative marketplace, not a standard assembly line product. ”
In the video of the conversation with Conan, Xue Zhaofeng mentioned the concept of "local knowledge" in economic theory, that is, the empirical knowledge scattered in ordinary people, and Xiaohongshu activates this knowledge.
In a conversation with Xiaohongshu COO Conan, Xue Zhaofeng accurately summarized the typical pain points of contemporary consumers, now is the era of surplus goods and brands, "It is too difficult for you to match it yourself, and you may lack the corresponding knowledge time." Xiaohongshu is the way people act as lifestyle advisors for you. ”
Only when the commodity is homogeneous does it need to be priced, Xiaohongshu has entered the next level, behind each personalized demand, to run a good business, so that a way of life can be seen and aspired to by more people.
Author | Pageant
Design | Fat Rabbit cover image source | Stills from "Hometown, Don't Come Unharmed".