With the development of social e-commerce, many new ways of playing have emerged. Platforms such as Douyin, Kuaishou, and Xiaohongshu have made a number of Internet celebrity brands popular. Compared with micro-businesses operating on WeChat, these Internet celebrity brands have their own backgrounds, their products are more high-end, and their premium ability is stronger. For example, the monthly sales of bubble masks on Douyin reached 1 million pieces, the 66-yuan Zhong Xue Gao sold 1 million pieces through social e-commerce, and AKOKO cookies sold 5,000 boxes a day on Kuaishou. So, what are the product strategies of social e-commerce?
(1) Hot product attributes
In social e-commerce, the more popular products almost have the same characteristics, that is, high premium and strong spreadability. The high premium is relative to the cost of the product. For example, the cost of the iPhone 12 is about US$370, and the selling price is about US$750, with a very high gross profit margin. Even so, many people are still flocking to the iPhone 12. They believe that the operating experience of this phone is good, which is also one of the competitiveness of this phone.
Spreadability is relative to the social attributes of a product. If a buyer gains emotional resonance through a product, then the product itself may not be important to the buyer. What is really important is the social attributes of the product. For example, many people buy Heytea not just to drink milk tea, but to get the attention of their friends by posting photos of Internet celebrity milk tea to their Moments.
(2) Precision delivery
The bubble mask was not popular as soon as it was launched, but it finally became popular on Douyin after multi-channel testing. During the delivery stage, e-commerce companies can consider multi-channel testing, and then focus on a certain channel when they see an explosive trend. This is more conducive to product sales.
(3) Cross-border thinking
In many cases, products do not need to be completely innovative. An unexpected cross-border may hit the buyer’s pain point, such as the floral water cocktail, White Rabbit Toffees lipstick, and Fortune Cleansing Oil, which were jointly launched by Liushen and RIO. Under the guidance of cross-border thinking, even if the product itself is not innovative, it can stimulate consumers’ desire to buy.
(4) Integration of product and effect
The birth of a hit product requires not only creativity, but also sophisticated quality control. The reason why many popular online products fail midway is because of poor quality control. For example, a certain brand of double yolk ice cream was found to have excessive total bacterial count and coliform bacteria in a random inspection. It was only popular for a few months before it ended in failure.
Tips
In social e-commerce, buyers have a dual identity, namely “consumer + operator”. They are both the end user of the product and the promoter and disseminator of the product. Therefore, when purchasing products, e-commerce companies should not only pay attention to the product’s spreadability and premium ability, but also always control the quality of the product to accumulate reputation for the brand.