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two consecutive incidents of product "identity" disputes have made the live broadcast e-commerce industry very "lively" recently. first, the "fendi casa mooncakes" sold in the "make friends" live broadcast room were exposed to have a brand association with the luxury brand fendi and were suspected of being counterfeit; the "hong kong meicheng mooncakes" that have been hotly sold in major live broadcast rooms in recent days were questioned as being produced in guangzhou and other places and not sold in hong kong.

there is no clear conclusion on the two issues. the jiao ge pengyou live broadcast room has implemented a "refund one and compensate three" policy for consumers who bought fendi casa mooncakes; the situation of the "hong kong meicheng mooncakes" involved is more complicated. the guangzhou huadu city supervision bureau has reported the relevant situation, and the hefei high-tech zone market supervision bureau has filed a case against the three sheep for suspected "misleading consumers" during the live broadcast.

controversy over products in livestreaming is not uncommon. however, most of the previous disputes revolved around product quality, authenticity, service, price, etc., while the two recent disputes arose from doubts about the "identity" of the products, which is particularly special.

it is not easy for a product to enter the live broadcast room of a top anchor. the first thing it has to face is product selection. product selection is regarded as the core link of live broadcast e-commerce. top anchors are equipped with large and professional product selection teams. merchants usually take the initiative to mail samples to anchors for trial, and the anchor team will also select suitable products to enter the live broadcast room according to their own standards.

however, in the past, anchors’ verification of products mostly focused on the quality of products and services, with authenticity and legality as the premise. after this basic condition is met, the value, function, consumer group, etc. of the product will be considered.

live streaming is now a mature industry, and most anchors will focus on checking the various qualification documents provided by the brand to avoid "failures" after selling goods. however, the two recent cases have put forward new challenges for the selection of products by live streaming e-commerce.

in both cases, the brands were able to provide relevant qualifications. behind the "fendi casa mooncakes" is indeed a company named fendi casa registered overseas, and its sellers have also clearly stated that they have obtained authorization from the company; the entity behind the "hong kong meicheng mooncakes" is indeed registered in hong kong, china, and holds the corresponding trademark.

for anchors, if they rely solely on the qualification documents provided by the brand, they will indeed conclude that these products are authentic and reliable, and even use them as selling points. however, these two "failures" may indicate that top anchors need to work harder on product selection. there should be more methods and higher standards for product selection in live e-commerce.

for example, if you are promoting a mooncake that claims to be "made in hong kong", should you conduct an on-site inspection of the production plant and investigate its sales in hong kong? if you are promoting a product that claims to be closely related to the fendi brand, in addition to looking at the documents provided by the merchant itself, should you also verify with the real brand fendi whether the product was produced?

another example is the "wild ecuadorian white shrimp" that caused "identity controversy" in some live broadcast rooms. whether this type of shrimp is farmed or wild, the anchor cannot just judge based on a piece of paper provided by the merchant, but should go deep into the factory and carefully understand the origin of the product.

at present, in the above-mentioned products that have caused "identity" disputes, what the brands want to highlight, what consumers value, and what the anchors focus on promoting are actually the same information points. for these "core selling points", anchors should invest more in the product selection process.