Paris Olympic Economic Review | Quan Hongchan becomes the “sales king” of the Olympics, and the “three small balls” are selling like hot cakes
2024-08-18
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The 33rd Summer Olympic Games is coming to an end. In the past half month, while athletes have been fighting hard in this sporting event, exploring "Olympic business opportunities" has also become an invisible competition outside the stadium. Whether it is traditional e-commerce, live broadcast e-commerce or cross-border e-commerce, all are involved.
Looking back at this Olympics, despite the six-hour time difference, Chinese people are still full of enthusiasm for the Olympics. In the past two weeks, Douyin's "Olympics" related searches have accumulated more than 1 billion times, and an average of nearly 10 "Olympics" related hot topics are generated every day. From live broadcast rooms to e-commerce shelves, the sales of many products have been significantly driven by the Olympic traffic.
According to e-commerce data, domestic users are most enthusiastic about buying "small balls", and Zheng Qinwen has inspired a group of tennis "beginners". Some small and medium-sized businesses have seized the business opportunities of this generation of young people who are particularly fond of athletes' peripherals, and some time-honored brands that have tried live e-commerce have urgently formed a live broadcast team during the typhoon. Cross-border e-commerce has also ushered in new development opportunities.
"Three small balls" are the hottest sellers
Judging from the data from e-commerce platforms, the Olympics has aroused consumers' enthusiasm for sports, especially the "small ball fever" represented by table tennis, tennis and badminton.
The reporter learned from Pinduoduo that in the past week, the search volume of table tennis-related keywords has achieved a triple-digit growth, and the sales of domestic brands such as Li Ning and Pisces have increased. The sales of many badminton brands have increased by 3 times in the past 7 days. Tmall data shows that from August 3 when Zheng Qinwen won the championship to August 5 when Fan Zhendong won the championship, more than 2 million people searched for "small ball" related products on Tmall, and the year-on-year transaction growth of table tennis, tennis, and badminton related products exceeded 100%. At the same time, Pinduoduo's sports equipment such as volleyball, basketball, football, yoga mats, resistance bands, dumbbells, etc. in July all increased month-on-month.
In addition to sports equipment, sports shoes and clothing also increased. Vipshop data showed that as of August 10, the platform's table tennis racket sales increased by 161% year-on-year, table tennis shoes/tennis shoes sales increased by 120% year-on-year, football shoes sales doubled, badminton racket sales increased by 116% year-on-year, and tennis skirt sales increased by more than 53% year-on-year.
Zheng Qinwen has inspired many consumers to get started with tennis. According to Zhang Jianda, head of Tianlong Tennis e-commerce, which supplied tennis balls for the Hangzhou Asian Games and Asian Para Games, on the day Zheng Qinwen won the championship, the brand's official flagship store on Pinduoduo saw a 200% month-on-month increase in traffic, and a 4-pack of match balls saw a 300% month-on-month increase in daily sales.
Zhang Jianda observed, "Our store sells different types of tennis balls, including beginner, advanced, and competition balls. Zheng Qinwen's victory has brought tennis into the eyes of more people and boosted the consumption of tennis equipment and sports peripherals. Most of the new consumers recently are beginners, who mainly buy basic training balls."
From the perspective of the "out-of-the-box products" of this Olympics, they are mainly divided into two categories: professional sports equipment and athlete peripherals. On August 9, Taobao released the "2024 Paris Olympics Same Style Carrying Power List", showing that Quan Hongchan, Zheng Qinwen and Sun Yingsha ranked in the top three in the athlete's carrying power.
Specifically, the ugly fish slippers and turtle pendants made popular by Quan Hongchan, the puppy hairpins of Huang Yuting, and the keychains of Zhang Yufei are all unrelated to sports events, with low average customer prices. They are not endorsed by athletes and there is no pre-match promotion, which tests the sensitivity of merchants. On the day of the women's 10-meter diving final of Quan Hongchan, some Yiwu merchants urgently put the same slippers on the shelves.
Most of these products come from small and medium-sized businesses. A merchant who sells the same slippers as Quan Hongchan told reporters that he had never expected the popularity of this product, and that there were suddenly more customers asking about this slippers and placing orders than before. The owner of a shoe sales company in Quan Hongchan's hometown, Guangdong, told reporters that "hundreds of people have come to ask about this slipper every day in the past few days." Among these products that have spontaneously "gone viral" due to the athletes' personalities and off-field interests, small and medium-sized businesses need to be keen on discovering trends, respond to supply chains in a timely manner, and quickly put products on the shelves if they want to "get in on" business opportunities.
On the other hand, brands that "bet on" the Olympic champion are more proactive in seeking to maximize the value of "champion endorsement". While the sales of "Zheng Qinwen's same style" professional tennis balls on Wilson's official flagship store on Tmall have skyrocketed, Nike's "The only souvenir I want to take away from Paris is the gold medal" souvenir T-shirt has also become popular because it appeared on the sidelines of Zheng Qinwen's competition. More than 4,000 people added it to their shopping cart within 48 hours of Zheng Qinwen's victory. Speedo, which sponsors the Chinese swimming team, included Pan Zhanle's autographed photo in the member lottery benefits. After Pan Zhanle won the championship, the number of views of his same style swimming goggles on the Speedo official flagship store on Tmall increased by more than 100%, and the transaction volume increased by nearly 150%.
For brands, tapping into "Olympic business opportunities" is closer to a complete operational chain, from "betting" on potential athletes before the game, to selling similar products and autograph draws at points during the game when athletes advance or win, to brand communication after the game. This Olympics has clearly become a "big test" for many sports brands to boost sales and spread their brand professionalism.
Brands urgently set up live broadcast rooms
In the field of content e-commerce, live-streaming celebrities and brands related to Olympic topics have experienced a rapid increase and gradual decline in popularity and sales.
According to Douyin data, from July 20 to August 2, searches related to the Olympics totaled over 1 billion times, with an average of nearly 10 hot topics related to the Olympics generated on Douyin every day. The transaction volume of Douyin Mall increased by 83% year-on-year, and the search transaction volume increased by 68% year-on-year. According to Kuaishou data, from July 26 to August 8, the GMV of Kuaishou e-commerce badminton products increased by more than 130% year-on-year, the GMV of outdoor bicycle products increased by nearly 120% year-on-year, and the GMV of tennis equipment increased by more than 100% year-on-year.
The popularity of live e-commerce comes from both Olympic athletes and Olympic peripheral products. According to Chanmama data, the Douyin account of Olympic diving champion Quan Hongchan's brother Quan Jinhua had an increase of 744,000 followers on August 7 and 560,000 on August 8. So far, the number of followers is 2.266 million. Previously, the sales of Quan Jinhua's live broadcast room ranged from 100,000 to 500,000. Since the start of the Paris Olympics on July 26, the sales of Quan Jinhua's live broadcast room have risen sharply, and the sales on August 8 were between 5 million and 7.5 million.
In addition, the Olympic Games' popularity has brought a unique impact to Xiangxing (Fujian) Bags Group Co., Ltd. ("Xiangxing Group"), a time-honored brand established in 1992. In the past, Xiangxing Bags' main online sales channel was traditional shelf e-commerce, including Tmall, Taobao, Vipshop and other platforms. In 2021, Xiangxing Group joined Douyin and began to explore content e-commerce.
On the eve of the Olympic Games, a reporter from China News Service interviewed a Spanish reporter carrying a media backpack from the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games on the streets of Paris. The reporter said that the backpack had been with him for 16 years and was still intact. The international report quickly spread on social networks. The staff of Xiangxing Luggage did not notice it at first, but netizens left messages on Xiangxing Luggage's Douyin account to remind them of the matter. Douyin Mall notified the company immediately, and "Looking for the same backpack as the Beijing Olympics on the entire network" also made it to the Douyin hot list.
As an old brand that has tried live e-commerce, Xiangxing Luggage had originally chosen to temporarily suspend broadcasting in 2023 for internal adjustments. The popularity of the Olympics has brought them new hope. Chen Haining, general manager of Xiangxing Group's marketing center, told reporters that early in the morning of July 26, a typhoon was still blowing in the area, but many colleagues still ran from home. They quickly transferred personnel from various departments to urgently form a Douyin live broadcast team. This matter itself was relatively hasty, but the popularity and sales increase it brought were significant.
According to Chanmama data, on July 26, Xiangxing's live broadcast room had a total of 3.485 million viewers, 3.638 million viewers on the 27th, and 3.395 million viewers on the 28th. The sales on the three days were between 2.5 million and 5 million. The data began to gradually decline on the 29th. The number of fans of Xiangxing's Douyin account also increased from 57,000 on the 25th to the current 862,000.
Chen Haining told reporters that in order to fully grasp this hot spot, the team first took out the pallets with sufficient inventory depth to meet the hot demand products first. Then they fully organized production and worked overtime to speed up procurement and production progress. The company's internal technical research and development department originally had many veteran employees with decades of rich experience, and this time they also joined the production to meet the most anxious batch of products for netizens first.
Regarding the decline in popularity, Chen Haining told reporters that from an operational perspective, Xiangxing plans to produce in large quantities on the one hand, while paying attention to the preferred products in netizens' comments, adding new products, and continuously optimizing the fine operations on Douyin e-commerce to maintain and achieve retention of fans and consumers as much as possible.
Cross-border e-commerce makes money both on-site and off-site
According to data from cross-border e-commerce platforms, overseas consumers' enthusiasm for sports has also been boosted by the Olympics. The reporter learned from SHEIN that the number of searches for "Olympic" related sports professional products, clothing accessories, home decorations, and jewelry on the platform began to increase a few weeks before the Olympics. The owner of a smart watch company in Shenzhen revealed that the sales of a smart watch with a sports mode in his SHEIN store has increased significantly in the past month, with more than 4,700 pieces sold in a single month, and the sales of a single product reached 820,000.
Different from the fact that domestic users are most concerned about "ball games", data from AliExpress shows that during the Olympic Games, the sales of water sports, cycling equipment, and outdoor hiking related products on AliExpress increased most significantly. On the opening day of the Olympic Games, the sales of cycling glasses increased by 3 times compared to normal days.
At the same time, Chinese merchants have also found business opportunities from overseas consumers watching the Olympics. Data from Cainiao shows that in July this year, the number of shipments from Cainiao's European warehouses increased by more than 200% compared to May. The sales of Paris Eiffel Tower key chains and desktop ornaments, small fans for cooling off, etc. increased significantly. The sales of small fans on AliExpress increased nearly five times month-on-month in July. The overseas sales of lazy sofas also increased significantly during the European Cup and the Olympic Games.
Some cross-border merchants even "sold" their products into the Olympic venues. At the Olympics, the chair that Pan Zhanle, who broke the world record, sat on while preparing for the men's 100-meter freestyle final was from Zhejiang Taizhou Donghong Furniture. "It was very exciting to actually see our own products on TV!" Wang Yuqi, general manager of Zhejiang Taizhou Donghong Furniture, excitedly told Yicai.
Wang Yuqi introduced that in this Olympic Games, Donghong Furniture of Taizhou, Zhejiang Province provided more than 4,000 chairs and 400 tables. The chairs produced appeared in almost all indoor venues and competitions. From swimming pools to gymnastics halls, from table tennis courts to badminton and diving areas, it provides a comfortable resting space for athletes, coaches and referees. Although the specific number of competitors is unclear, considering that there are many manufacturers of plastic chairs at home and abroad and the competition is fierce, Wang Yuqi believes that there were at least more than 10 manufacturers competing at the time, and Donghong Furniture finally won with its original design and quality. After delivering 3,400 chairs in January this year, the organizers subsequently added an order for 800 chairs.
Wang Yuqi revealed that many customers have been looking for the "Olympic chair" recently, and there have been constant inquiries and orders. Since this product is mainly used in some institutions or engineering orders, the negotiation cycle is relatively long. Currently, there are many orders that are being discussed, and the estimated value of the goods is up to one million.
Han Zengzi, the head of Shandong Olympic Basketball Sports, has also received an order from the Albanian Olympic Committee to produce ball products for them. This is the third consecutive year that Han Zengzi has received their orders. As the Paris Olympics fever sweeps the world, Han Zengzi is actively negotiating cooperation with the Thai Olympic Committee to further expand the business territory in the ball field. It is expected that in addition to Albania, more ball products made in China will shine on the Olympic stage.
In addition to the official events of the Paris Olympics, overseas consumers are also paying more attention to emerging sports. Pad tennis has developed rapidly in recent years and became an official event of the European Games in 2023. Some believe that padel tennis is expected to become an official event of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
The reporter learned that "paddle tennis courts" are selling well overseas. Wu Yanshan, general manager of Guangzhou Youge Artificial Turf, told China Business News that the turnover has nearly doubled year-on-year this year, and orders from Europe and South America have grown rapidly. "During the World Cup, the main market was the Middle East. This year, orders from Europe have increased significantly, especially from France and the UK." Now "paddle tennis courts" have surpassed artificial turf to become Youge's main product, and the growth rate has reached more than 60% for two consecutive years.
Since March this year, Wu Yanshan's company has been in a state of overwhelmed orders, and the factory has had to work overtime to produce. Wu Yanshan revealed that an order from a company founded by football star Koscielny is worth about 700,000 yuan. "Panel tennis started in South America and is now popular all over the world. It will explode in 2023 and is expected to continue to explode for three years. When we are busy now, we can't keep up with the inquiries. Last year, we made 1 million in sales a month, and now we make more than 6 million a month."
Although the Olympics are coming to an end, the "sports fever" brought about by the sporting events is still spreading.
(This article comes from China Business Network)
