Recently, Pangqiu Data released a list of TOP50 live streamers by GMV in July. In this list, these 50 live streamers’ total GMV fell from 12.498 billion yuan in June to 8.034 billion yuan in July, with an MoM decrease of 40.92% [1].
Most live streamers suffered from two-digit decrease either in June or in July. Here is a table to show details [1]:
Even the most popular live streamers, viya and Austin Li, faced the same problem.
Reasons behind the phenomenon
First, July is a slack season for e-commerce. In June, there was a big e-commerce promotion, 618 shopping festival, during which consumers show high zest in online shopping. As the shopping festival wrapped up, the e-commerce entered the off-season.
Second, after several months of market education, many people have become more rational about live streaming. Before the epidemic, many people found using live-streaming to sell products novel. The outbreak of the epidemic allowed live streaming to make frequent appearances and gain more exposure. Then, after the epidemic basically stabilized in July, more people, including consumers and merchants, have learned a lot of lessons from live streaming in the past few months and knew the problems in the live streaming. Even the government launched a guideline to regulate the whole industry. All these contribute to the cooling down of live streaming.
What we should notice
It seems that live streaming has gradually become a regular but unnecessary shopping method for consumers. There are still some points we should take notice:
- The beauty category is still the king category in the live streaming
The beauty category, which has always been the main character in live streaming, appears to be particularly strong in this wave of decline. The "2020 China Live Streaming E-commerce Trend Insights and Operational Analysis" released by ECdataway in August shows that in the Taobao live streaming, the beauty category has the highest penetration rate. From January to May this year, the sales of beauty care in live streaming reached 11.557 billion yuan, and the sales volume reached 70 million pieces, with a penetration rate of 10.49%. The beauty category also accounted for the largest proportion of the sales of top live streamers, such as Viya, Austin Li, and Xinba [2].
- Small brands are beneficial from long-tail micro live streamers (live streamer only with a small number of fans)
In July, some long-tail micro live streamers and small brands cooperated to achieve excellent sales. @Graffiti Brother, who only has 3,000 followers on Douyin, achieved 1200+ sales of a facial mask product from a small brand, Fan Zhen. At the beginning of July, Fan Zhen spent five days and cooperated with nearly 4,500 tail broadcasters to promote products, which drove 120,000+ sales in just one week on Douyin [3].
- The ability of celebrities to do live stream E-commerce needs to be questioned
As production delayed and endorsement opportunities dried up, many celebrities flocked to the live streaming to stay in the spotlight while generating income. However, most celebrities, including actors, actresses, singers, etc., with millions of fans, failed to improve sales. Only three celebrities entered the TOP50 list. For many celebrities, doing live-streaming is just a temporary job, so they don’t put much effort into it. Unlike other professional live streamers who want to provide their consumers with products with good quality and prices, many celebrities don’t know how to pick good products and sell products, which leads to their failure.
The crazy about live streaming is cooling down after several month’s developments. It has become a normal shopping channel for Chinese consumers, which is good for both consumers and merchants.
