"think tank roundtable" promotes high-quality development of live e-commerce
2024-09-08
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in recent years, the market size of the live broadcast e-commerce industry has continued to expand, live broadcasting has rapidly emerged, and more and more consumers choose to place orders and shop by watching online live broadcasts. during this year's "618" period, the sales of live broadcast e-commerce on douyin, kuaishou and diantao reached 206.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12%. as an important part of the digital economy, the live broadcast e-commerce industry has shown a rapid growth trend and has played a positive role in releasing consumption potential, expanding employment and entrepreneurship space, and enabling industrial transformation and upgrading. this issue invites experts to discuss related issues.
new business model of live e-commerce stimulates new vitality
how is the development of my country's live streaming e-commerce industry? what impact does it have on economic and social development?
du guochen (director of the e-commerce research institute of the ministry of commerce's international trade and economic cooperation research institute): in recent years, my country's live broadcast e-commerce industry has developed rapidly, from the number of platforms to the number of employees, from participating industries to product categories, from live broadcasts to sales amounts, the overall momentum is rapid growth, showing strong market vitality. the "statistical report on the development of china's internet" released by the china internet network information center shows that as of december 2023, among the 1.092 billion netizens in my country, the scale of online live broadcast users is 816 million, accounting for 74.7% of the total netizens. among them, the scale of e-commerce live broadcast users is 597 million, accounting for 54.7% of the total netizens. with the increase in the number of users, the scale of the live broadcast e-commerce market is also expanding rapidly. it is estimated that the scale of my country's live broadcast e-commerce market will be 4.9 trillion yuan in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 35%.
live streaming e-commerce is a combination of "live streaming" and "e-commerce", which refers to the transaction behavior of selling related goods through live streaming on the internet, so that the audience can understand the various performances of the goods and then purchase the goods. compared with traditional e-commerce, live streaming e-commerce is highly interactive and immediacy. on the one hand, the strong interactivity of live streaming can well release commercial potential. when the anchor broadcasts live, it will form an aggregation effect of people, goods, and venues. at the same time, through real-time interactive feedback, it can deeply understand user needs and has certain advantages in customer acquisition and conversion. on the other hand, the anchor fully mobilizes the enthusiasm of users by creating low-price scenes, shopping links on countdowns, etc., creates a purchasing atmosphere, and allows consumers to complete the process from "planting grass" of interest to placing orders in a short time, which can bring about immediate consumption conversion.
after years of development, live streaming e-commerce has become a new business model in the e-commerce industry, playing a positive role in releasing consumption potential, enabling industrial transformation and upgrading, expanding employment and entrepreneurship space, assisting rural revitalization, and building a high-quality consumer supply system.
inject new impetus into expanding domestic consumer demand. the interactivity and intuitiveness of live e-commerce, as well as the brand effect and customer loyalty formed by internet celebrities, have further expanded potential consumer groups including the "silver generation" and stimulated consumers' hidden needs. compared with traditional graphic e-commerce, live e-commerce can form more dimensional information reach, further lower the threshold for new products to enter the market, and form new trends such as the rise of national trends, the revival of old brands, and the hot consumption of agricultural products, thereby promoting the development of domestic consumption to a wider and deeper level.
create a new model for developing the cross-border e-commerce market. relying on my country's strong supply chain, high-quality products, and rapid demand response, live e-commerce has broken the dilemma of poor communication, complicated communication, and information asymmetry in traditional international trade. cross-border live e-commerce has become a new model to promote the transformation and development of international trade. data shows that the total transaction volume of goods on the live e-commerce platform tiktok shop will increase from us$4.4 billion in 2022 to us$16.3 billion in 2023. live e-commerce anchors help consumers understand the functional characteristics and cultural details of products across language differences through real-life factory explanations and real-time interactions, and fully demonstrate their technical strength and supply capabilities to overseas customers, thereby improving sales service levels, reducing trade communication costs, and seizing more international market share, helping to achieve the predetermined goals of stabilizing and improving the quality of foreign trade.
provide more new options for the job market. with the rapid development of live e-commerce, many new professions and positions have emerged, such as anchors, assistants, product selectors, and operators, providing platforms and opportunities for entrepreneurs in vertical e-commerce, data services and other fields. with the rise of cross-border live e-commerce, the demand for compound talents who are proficient in foreign languages and proficient in live broadcasting is increasing. the "cross-border e-commerce + small language" model has become an important direction for the cultivation of e-commerce talents in the future.
to explore new paths for implementing the rural revitalization strategy. live streaming has entered the countryside, successfully turning mobile phones into "new agricultural tools", data into "new agricultural materials", and live streaming into "new agricultural activities". in 2023, the national rural online retail sales will reach 2.49 trillion yuan, and a total of 289,000 village-level express logistics comprehensive service stations and 190,000 village post offices will be built. the coverage rate of postal and express cooperative villages will exceed 70%, and a rural e-commerce and logistics distribution system has been initially formed. live streaming e-commerce has, to a certain extent, broken the previous situation of lack of rural sales channels and difficulty in guaranteeing farmers' income, turning the previously unpopular "local products" into "hot products" with high quality and low prices. at the same time, it has promoted the full standardization and modernization of the rural industrial chain from production, processing, packaging to sales, thereby effectively driving the prosperity of the industry and promoting farmers to get rich with the prosperity of the industry.
at present, breakthrough technologies represented by artificial intelligence are profoundly changing the live e-commerce industry. generative artificial intelligence has shown great application potential in product selection, marketing, display, customer service, operation, logistics and other links. live e-commerce achieves precise connection between domestic demand and supply chain in a more efficient way, and has become an important track for leading consumption innovation models and promoting technology applications. with the continuous deepening of technological innovation and application, the deep integration of cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, and the metaverse, the development of live e-commerce is becoming increasingly diversified, which will create a highly interactive and immersive virtual shopping environment for consumers, greatly enrich the user's sensory experience, effectively improve business operation efficiency, and enable the high-quality development of the live e-commerce industry.
"village broadcast" has made agricultural products popular and broadened the road to revitalization
what are the advantages of live streaming e-commerce in agricultural product sales? how is the development of live streaming e-commerce in rural areas?
li mingtao (president of the china international electronic commerce center research institute of the ministry of commerce): traditional e-commerce sells agricultural products mainly through static display of pictures and texts. agricultural products are non-standard products with large individual differences. consumers are easily disappointed after receiving the goods, resulting in a high return rate of agricultural products. live e-commerce has unique value in tapping the market potential of local agricultural products. it directly connects consumers through the application of internet technology, links rural areas with the national and even global markets, and allows consumers to "see what they get" in the live broadcast room through all-round real-time display. at the same time, through the host's introduction, the various added nutritional values of agricultural products can be explored from multiple angles and in depth, enhancing consumers' willingness to consume and their acceptance of product differences, thereby increasing the added value of agricultural products and promoting the transformation and upgrading of rural industries.
it can be said that live streaming e-commerce has irreplaceable advantages in selling non-standardized agricultural products, and has quickly become one of the main channels for e-commerce sales of agricultural products in my country. in 2023, douyin helped the industry belt to sell more than 4.7 billion orders of agricultural products. taking the ningde edible fungus industry belt in fujian as an example, with the support of douyin e-commerce to help the agricultural industry, the sales of goods increased by 122% and the number of merchants increased by 91%. dongfang selection, which mainly sells agricultural products, will have a transaction volume of 10 billion yuan in 2023, with a total order volume of 136 million orders.
the rapid development of live e-commerce in rural areas is due to the relatively complete e-commerce infrastructure. as of december 2023, the number of internet users in rural areas of my country reached 326 million, the internet penetration rate in rural areas was 66.5%, there were 192 million rural broadband users, and 5g networks basically achieved township-level and some administrative village coverage. at the same time, with the advancement of the "express delivery to the village", "one village, one station" project and the e-commerce into rural projects, most administrative villages can already send and receive express delivery, which greatly facilitates the delivery needs of e-commerce packages. by the end of 2023, the e-commerce into rural projects have cumulatively supported 1,489 counties to build nearly 3,000 county-level e-commerce public service centers and logistics distribution centers, and more than 158,000 village-level e-commerce service stations, and established an e-commerce public service and logistics distribution system covering counties and villages.
on the other hand, it has benefited from the fact that major live-streaming e-commerce companies have increased their investment in rural areas. douyin launched the "mountain products on the headlines" project, leveraging the advantages of global interest e-commerce, uniting local new farmers and small and medium-sized businesses, and using a variety of rural short videos and live-streaming content to increase the attention of the agricultural products market. taobao live's "village live plan" has trained more than 110,000 new farmer anchors and carried out more than 3 million agricultural live-streaming sessions. kuaishou launched the "public welfare happiness lecture hall", providing more than 200,000 free new media professional skills training for rural anchors, retired soldiers, young entrepreneurs and other groups. by 2023, cainiao will build more than 1,460 county-level joint distribution centers and nearly 50,000 express comprehensive service stations in villages and towns, opening up the upstream channels for agricultural products and the downstream channels for consumer goods.
as the e-commerce environment in rural areas is increasingly improved, the new employment group of rural e-commerce represented by "village broadcast new farmers" is growing rapidly. data shows that from january to june 2023, kuaishou trained 100,000 village broadcasters, driving 250,000 jobs, and kuaishou village broadcasts have covered nearly 26,000 townships. relying on the massive market appeal of live e-commerce, "village broadcast new farmers" have become an important direction for young people to return to their hometowns to start businesses. fields, breeding bases, and processing workshops are their live broadcast rooms, using e-commerce platforms to promote agricultural products and drive rural economic development. in this process, "village broadcast new farmers" have become the product selection officers of fan groups, the recommendation officers of agricultural products, and the spokespersons of local cultural and tourism resources. agricultural products have become the carriers of local cultural characteristics, and value-added has been achieved in live broadcast experiences. on the basis of opening up sales channels for agricultural and special products, "village broadcast new farmers" can develop models such as village broadcast + farmers/cooperatives, village broadcast + production bases/processing plants, improve the product supply chain system, improve quality control capabilities, jointly create agricultural and special product brands, and continuously develop new products based on customer needs, thereby forming a consumer-guided customized production model, promoting the large-scale development of agricultural and special products, and continuously enabling the coordinated transformation of the entire industrial chain.
the combination of live e-commerce and agricultural products has driven rural areas to speed up the improvement of supporting industrial facilities, such as sorting, packaging, cold chain, warehousing, logistics, etc., which supports live e-commerce, and plays an important role in promoting rural industrial development and promoting employment and entrepreneurship. this year's central document no. 1 proposed to implement the rural e-commerce high-quality development project, promote the construction of county e-commerce live broadcast bases, and develop rural local specialty online sales. the "implementation opinions on promoting the high-quality development of rural e-commerce" issued not long ago proposed that in five years, about 100 rural e-commerce "leading counties", about 1,000 county digital circulation leading enterprises, about 1,000 county live e-commerce bases, and about 10,000 rural e-commerce leaders will be cultivated across the country. this brings huge opportunities for live broadcasting to help farmers, but also puts forward higher requirements.
in the future, it is necessary to further fill the gaps in the supply chain, enhance the continuous supply capacity of agricultural products, supply chain quality control capabilities, and cold chain logistics capabilities, optimize the rural express logistics service network, enhance the level of coordination, and further reduce delivery costs; by improving laws and regulations and standards, and strengthening industry self-discipline, create a healthy development business environment, put an end to irregular behaviors such as blindly lowering prices, selling inferior products as good ones, brushing orders, false propaganda, and skirting the law, and strengthen compliance operation guidance for rural and agricultural products live broadcast anchors and institutions; around the main line of leveraging the advantages of live e-commerce to empower rural industries, guide live e-commerce platforms, mcn institutions, new farmer anchors, supply chain service companies and other entities to continuously improve the consumer experience of live streaming of agricultural products, bring more genuine and high-quality products to consumers, actively build a supply chain system for self-operated brands and products, and build a collaborative, innovative and efficient new rural live e-commerce ecosystem.
live e-commerce moves towards refinement and compliance
quality control is crucial to increasing live broadcast sales and runs through the entire live broadcast chain. how to control the quality of live broadcast products?
deng chuanzi (deputy director of the live e-commerce research center of the institute of technology innovation of the shenzhen national institute of metrology): at present, the business model of the live e-commerce industry has shifted to the "second half" of focusing on refined and compliant management. product quality defects, product injuries, false propaganda, etc. will have a negative impact on the reputation of live e-commerce platforms. therefore, it is crucial to improve the professionalism of live product quality control, enhance user stickiness, and continue to provide users with high-quality live streaming services.
quality infrastructure such as standards, metrology, inspection and testing, and certification provide important technical support for the compliance, refinement, and high-quality development of live e-commerce. in recent years, relevant national departments have successively issued a series of normative documents and regulatory measures for the live broadcast industry, formulated policies to guide and support the development of the industry, and played an important role in safeguarding consumer rights and regulating the live broadcast e-commerce market.
the national standards in the field of live e-commerce cover e-commerce dispute resolution, product quality risk assessment, supply chain management, product quality monitoring, live sales quality management and other aspects, including "live e-commerce information monitoring and service quality evaluation specifications", "social e-commerce platform management specifications", "business-to-consumer (b2c) e-commerce platform user terms preparation guidelines", "e-commerce product quality assurance related traceability information sharing guidelines", "live e-commerce product selection evaluation technical specifications" and other standards. guangdong, shandong, zhejiang, heilongjiang and other places have actively carried out special actions to build rules and standards for live e-commerce. according to incomplete statistics, as of august 2023, 5 national standards, 2 industry standards, 11 local standards, 20 group standards, and 12 enterprise standards have been issued. the content of the standards involves platform management, user management, anchor behavior norms, product quality, after-sales service, base construction and other aspects.
the market environment and user needs of the live e-commerce industry are changing rapidly. major live e-commerce platforms have responded quickly and flexibly through self-regulation, and have timely updated and revised governance rules, effectively enhancing industry self-discipline, improving user experience and trust, and promoting the sustainable development of the industry. some platforms have carried out special governance activities to target illegal behaviors such as false propaganda and vulgar hype, and severely punished illegal merchants and anchors, promoting the standardization of the industry.
e-commerce companies have actively made efforts in platform standardization. based on the update of various regulatory laws and regulations and the improvement of platform rules, they have introduced management specifications, negative lists, penalty regulations and other detailed rules to promote compliance operations of all parties. the leading live e-commerce companies have cooperated with professional quality inspection and technical institutions to build a "live + quality inspection" product quality assessment system. taking the beauty industry as an example, e-commerce companies will refer to the safety reports provided by the brand, select products in coordination with the quality management department in accordance with laws, regulations and industry standards, and cooperate with external third-party professional institutions to select matching test methods based on the different characteristics of the products. the leading companies that have been deeply involved in the live e-commerce industry for many years have taken the lead in carrying out standardization construction in the industry. combined with years of live broadcast practice, they have actively participated in the formulation of relevant standards, covering e-commerce product selection, platform management, anchor specifications and other live e-commerce related content areas. live e-commerce institutions have put forward higher inspection and testing requirements for brands, prompting them to strengthen their control over product quality, pay more attention to product compliance and reliability, and provide more protection for consumers. by cooperating with live e-commerce institutions, brands can obtain actual feedback from consumers and product selection teams, thereby optimizing innovative products and better improving user experience.
in addition, the delivery feature of live e-commerce is the concentrated outbreak of fragmented orders, which provides an applicable scenario for an efficient integrated warehouse and distribution model. in recent years, some leading live e-commerce companies have gradually implemented an "inspection, storage and distribution integration" quality inspection and distribution model. in this model, the delivery warehouse provides quality inspection services, and the inspected goods are shipped directly from the base and no longer returned to the merchants, thus achieving standardized management of the entire process from quality inspection to warehousing, packaging and logistics delivery, forming a comprehensive quality monitoring system.
for the live streaming e-commerce industry, both standards and regulations are becoming increasingly strict, which puts forward higher requirements for the standardized development of the industry. live streaming e-commerce organizations need to take product and service quality as the basis for long-term development; brand companies need to deepen cooperation with live streaming e-commerce platforms, focus on user experience, and improve user satisfaction and loyalty; live streaming e-commerce platforms need to strengthen consumer protection measures, provide comprehensive after-sales service, product quality inspection, return policy, protect consumer data privacy, and further increase user stickiness. (source: economic daily)
