news

if there is a problem with the product purchased in the live broadcast room, who should be held accountable? who among the platform, anchors and businesses can be “independent”? as the new regulations take effect, live streaming e-commerce will usher in an era of standardized development. the "regulations on the implementation of the consumer rights protection law of the people's republic of china" (hereinafter referred to as the "regulations"), which officially came into effect on july 1 this year, clearly regulates consumption chaos in live broadcasts.

the "regulations" particularly emphasize the transparency requirements for live broadcasts to bring goods, and clearly stipulate that anchors must clearly explain to consumers "who is bringing goods" and "whose goods are being brought."

in terms of improving platform management, the "regulations" stipulate that live broadcast marketing platform operators should establish and improve a consumer rights protection system and clarify consumer dispute resolution mechanisms; in terms of regulating the behavior of anchors, the "regulations" stipulate that live broadcast room operators, live broadcast marketers if the published live broadcast content constitutes a commercial advertisement, the obligations of the advertisement publisher, advertising operator or advertising spokesperson shall be fulfilled in accordance with the relevant provisions of the advertising law.

faced with the endless controversies in the live broadcast e-commerce industry, the entry into force of the regulations seems quite timely. the "regulations" elevate the relevant content in the normative document "online live broadcasting marketing management measures" to legal obligations, clarifying that "everyone is responsible" for the platform, live broadcast room and anchor. this also means,live streaming e-commerce has ushered in a new stage of standardized development. in the future, live streaming e-commerce will move out of the "traffic-only" barbaric growth stage and return to an era where quality products and professional anchors win.

data disclosed by the state administration for market regulation shows that in 2023, the increase in complaints and reports from emerging e-commerce, mainly live-streaming e-commerce, will be significantly higher than that of traditional e-commerce platforms. in the past five years, the scale of the live streaming e-commerce market has increased by 10.5 times, and the number of complaints and reports about live streaming has also increased year by year, with an increase of 47.1 times in the past five years.

in 2023, the national 12315 platform received 337,000 complaints and reports about live streaming, a year-on-year increase of 52.5%. the top three problems were after-sales service, quality problems, and unfair competition. the fastest growing problem was unfair competition. the problems reported by consumers mainly focus on the fact that the purchased goods are "three no's" products, the performance of the goods they received is inconsistent with the goods displayed in the live broadcast room, and the difficulty of returning or exchanging goods.

product quality issues and false publicity have always been two important bottlenecks that have plagued the development of live streaming e-commerce. some netizens discovered that some of the high-end mooncakes sold in live broadcast rooms belong to the "pang da brand", the "original cut beef" is actually spliced, there is no sweet potato in the sweet potato powder, and children's shoes that have been repeatedly found to contain toxic substances are still on sale. behind the frequent quality problems are serious hidden dangers in the quality management of many live broadcast rooms. the anchors who bring goods urgently need the support of more professional retail capabilities.

when interpreting the "regulations", the relevant person in charge of the state administration for market regulation stated that the "regulations" stipulate that operators of live broadcast marketing platforms should establish and improve consumer rights protection systems and clarify consumer dispute resolution mechanisms. if a consumer dispute occurs, the live broadcast platform operator shall provide necessary information such as information about the live broadcast room operator and live broadcast marketing personnel, as well as relevant business activity records according to the requirements of the consumer. the "three no products" are often the operator's name, address, there is no contact information. the platform should strictly implement identity verification and daily management responsibilities. when consumer disputes occur, actively assist consumers in safeguarding their rights and effectively improve the after-sales experience.

this also means that quality pallets are also one of the core competitiveness of live broadcast e-commerce. live streaming e-commerce platforms should allow more good products to reach consumers, eliminate "three no products", and continuously optimize supply.

many live broadcast experts and brands told reporters that except for a few leading anchors who have the ability to build their own supply chains, a relatively better model is for the platform to support brand merchants to supply goods to the live broadcast room.

the relevant person in charge of make a friend told nandu reporter that one of the important reasons why make a friend settled on taobao two years ago is that taobao’s pallets are rich and of high quality. “taobao’s pallets have been accumulated for more than 20 years, and many of them are seasonal hits may only be found here.”

make friends live broadcast room

taobao live can use the "live broadcast selection" function to directly supply brand products from tmall flagship stores to the live broadcast room. this not only helps ensure the quality of products sold by experts, but also establishes a product selection channel for platform anchors for brand merchants.

the relevant person in charge of the bathroom brand hengjie said in an interview: "relatively speaking, taobao live broadcast will be of higher quality. in addition to selling goods, it also plays an important role in brand promotion. the anchor of the content platform has a more most of them are for selling goods, so there will be things like movement deformation, so from the perspective of final order efficiency, taobao live broadcasting should be the best at present."

during last year’s double 11, the relevant person in charge of skin care brand lin qingxuan once pointed out that behind tmall’s live broadcast is actually tmall’s shelf e-commerce: “for consumers, tmall has the dual guarantee of brand and platform, and for brands, tmall has the double guarantee of brand and platform. , the operations, anchors, and services are more professional, and the user stickiness is high and the repurchase rate is high."

zhou rong, the manager of happy twist taobao live broadcast, also mentioned that after joining taobao, he found that taobao's pallet has a more open ecology, "taobao also integrates cross-border e-commerce, local life, etc. so we can sell movie tickets in the live broadcast room , ele.me, fliggy travel products, etc.”

while being interviewed by nandu reporters, zhou rong also conducted an inspection at the 1688 product selection center. zhou rong revealed that happy mahua has tried to bring products from the 1688 product selection center before, and achieved good results. “the products carefully selected by 1688 are all reviewed by the 1688 team themselves at the factory, so we bring these products.” the product also has quality assurance and is very cost-effective. when we launched the 1688 doll storage box, we used it as an adult wardrobe. it was interesting and very cost-effective, and consumers recognized it."

in addition to product quality issues, some platforms have insufficient supervision, and some anchors are excessively pursuing profits and lacking professionalism. this is one of the reasons why live streaming has become the hardest hit area by complaints. according to industry insiders, as the "regulations" come into effect, anchors who lack professional capabilities and have no after-sales capabilities will be eliminated.

the professional capabilities of e-commerce anchors are first reflected in the product selection process. the relevant person in charge of make a friend told nandu reporters that a leading live broadcast room like this needs to carry out professional product selection capacity building, which first includes qualification review and quality review. if it is imported goods, they must also read customs declaration documents; after passing the qualification , the product must be tried, eaten, and worn to evaluate the experience; the material of the product must also be checked to see if it matches the description in the ingredient list. the entire product selection process still takes at least one to two weeks.

the relevant person in charge of make a friend revealed that in each category, make a friend will ask relevant professionals to check. "for example, when selecting products for the beauty category, we will ask colleagues from the cosmetics factory to be responsible. the focus is on the selection of beauty products. regarding the source of the channel and the category of wine, we also found professionals from the winery. he could tell what the wine was like at a glance.”

make friends live broadcast room

another manifestation of the anchor's professional ability is in the explanation of products. when professional anchors explain products, they must not only explain the selling points clearly, but also attract consumers to watch, so as to achieve a balance between obtaining traffic and completing sales.

however, in many live broadcast rooms of internet celebrities, what really attracts the audience is the interactive entertainment atmosphere of the live broadcast room, while the essence of business and sales is ignored. previously, some platforms even had an extreme model called "quick payment". each product was only displayed for less than 30 seconds, but it received high-traffic recommendations, and the anchor's sales exceeded 100 million in a week.

from "golden 7 minutes" to "golden 3 minutes", the industry's introduction time for a single product is generally getting shorter and shorter. this not only requires the anchors to have professional qualities, but also requires the platform to adjust the incentive mechanism to balance entertainment and sales requirements, so that quality anchors can stand out.

zhou rong, the manager of happy twist taobao live broadcast, told nandu reporters that in july this year, happy twist completed its first live broadcast on taobao. the combination of "wolong and phoenix chu" appeared in the live broadcast room and attracted many consumers. "we want to prove that happy twist the delivery method can also be very professional. this immersive way of explaining products makes users happy while watching the live broadcast content, and also extends the length of time users stay in the live broadcast room. we have strengthened our hope. the idea of ​​​​combining content creation and live streaming on taobao."

happy twist "crouching dragon and phoenix chick" combination

judging from the platform’s traffic mechanism, happy mahua’s first live broadcast on taobao was viewed more than 1.3 million times. this type of live broadcast content that reflects professional capabilities can also be recognized by the platform.

guosen securities recently released a research report stating that live broadcast e-commerce will return to the essence of e-commerce and enter a new stage of development. “in the future, the live broadcast e-commerce industry will move out of the barbaric development stage, gradually return to the essence of e-commerce, and improve the efficiency of high-quality products in reaching consumers. rather than opening the door to the production and sale of counterfeit goods."

with the "regulations" taking effect, anchors and platforms cannot be "invisible" after product problems occur in the live broadcast room, and they all need to bear their respective responsibilities. according to the "regulations", if the content released by the anchor constitutes a commercial advertisement, the obligations of the advertising publisher, advertising operator or advertising spokesperson shall be fulfilled in accordance with the relevant provisions of the "advertising law".

nandu reporters learned that many top anchors have actually taken the initiative to assume the responsibility of "covering the bottom line" for the after-sales service of the live broadcast room. in september this year, the make a friend live broadcast room issued a statement saying that it found that the "fendi casa mooncake souvenirs" sold were not actually related to the real luxury brand "fendi" (including the fendi casa series), and the suspected brand counterfeit. after the company conducted an investigation, it stopped selling the relevant products and compensated all purchasers in advance, with one refund and three indemnity.

in addition, in the opinion of many people in the industry, with the end of the era of barbaric growth of live broadcast e-commerce, the past price-only status quo will also end. the relevant person in charge of make a friend told nandu reporters that price is not the only factor in the core competitiveness of the live broadcast room. it must be combined with product quality. “if the price is too low, it will inevitably lead to a decline in quality and service. radical price cuts will definitely at the expense of suppliers, he will achieve it through worse raw materials or worse processes, which we believe is unsustainable."

in the new stage, consumer trust will become the core value of the live broadcast room. trust needs quality products, professional anchors and good services to achieve. the person in charge of make a friend told nandu reporters, “with the trust of consumers, the live broadcast room can get better products and provide better services to consumers. , this is a positive cycle, so we have insisted on paying compensation before, because the trust of consumers is still there.”

zhou rong also mentioned the importance of trust to nandu reporters, "without the trust of consumers, you won't even have the opportunity to explain the product."

in the opinion of many industry insiders, the removal of head ip from live broadcast e-commerce is also a future development trend. in fact, make a friend has already established a head-free ip-based live broadcast room on taobao and is still growing steadily.

guosen securities also analyzed in a research report that since the beginning of this year, the gmv of top anchors on various live broadcast e-commerce platforms has generally declined. “as the government and platforms strengthen supervision of goods delivery experts, some top anchors have stopped broadcasting or reduced their live broadcasts. number of events, the growth space of live broadcast e-commerce will be further compressed. we expect that the era of high growth of live broadcast e-commerce is coming to an end, and e-commerce competition will return to the shelf market."

interview and writing: nandu reporter wang chenchen