Brands should look beyond livestreaming sales figures | WARC | The Feed

Brands should look beyond livestreaming sales figures

The success of livestreaming e-commerce in China is understandably attracting the attention of brands but their channel strategy needs to be more sophisticated than simply looking at sales figures.

Context 

Livestreaming grabs a lot of media attention and billions of yuan in sales, but traditional e-commerce platforms still account for the lion’s share (86%) of online retail in China. As China Skinny notes, “Most Chinese shoppers aren’t sitting through broadcasts and making impulsive purchases for the majority of their shopping.”

Why it matters

Brands need to be clear on the limitations of livestreaming e-commerce. Consumers do not have an endless appetite for such shows and, in any case, the format can restrict the number of items that sell well. Then there’s the fact that platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou weren’t designed as sales channels and are still building out fulfilment operations. 

Takeaways

• Marketers should appreciate that short-form video and livestreaming platforms needn’t just be about encouraging trial and driving sales: they can be used to build brand awareness and preference as well. 
• Consumers respond to different drivers at different stages of the customer journey on different platforms.
• Douyin found that user retention and time spent fell if there was more than 10% of traffic dedicated to e-commerce content in a video feed.

Sourced from China Skinny, Rest Of World

Sourced from Ormax Media