4 major categories, 8 cases, what can we learn?

The cancellation of presales in the "first year" of major promotions has led to a tangle of anxiety over traffic and sales, looming like a dark cloud over merchants. Whether it's the women's wear track that was pushed to the top of the hot search due to a "return rate of 80%," or the small and medium-sized merchants who are "selling more and losing more" to cooperate with the platform's full refund policy, all show a sense of fatigue. In the research interviews of "Yi Cai Business School," some light food and women's wear merchants expressed that based on the low profit estimate after the launch of the automatic price comparison mechanism by Douyin, they decided to give up participating in the Douyin 618.

However, by observing the ranking of merchants in the four major core categories of clothing, underwear, beauty, jewelry, and food and beverages during the Douyin 618 period, we found that the leading merchants have the stable layout of traditional regular brands, as well as the clever tactics relying on personal IP and brand stories, and the successful experience is particularly valuable. "Yi Cai Business School" hopes to inspire more merchants' operations by dissecting the operational strategies and traffic layout of these representative merchants.

Advertisement

1. Clothing and Underwear | Cool Sense - The "God" of Selling Goods in Summer

The apparel industry is one of the most intense categories in e-commerce promotions. Compared with the sales list of clothing and underwear during the Douyin 618 period in the past two years, the stability of the men's wear list is higher than that of women's wear. In addition to changes in rankings, brands such as Heilan Home, Luo Meng, Shanshan, and Pierre Cardin have been on the list for two consecutive years. Vancl, relying on the "Lei Jun same style," has returned to the public eye again and entered the top 10 of men's wear, and its best-selling single product is still the classic "pure cotton round neck T-shirt" and "casual polo shirt."

In the women's wear list, in addition to group brands such as Bai Jia Hao, Zhen Wei Si, and UR, Caoben Chu Se has attracted much attention with its "ultra cool" underwear as the main product.

1. Woodpecker: Copy the product selling point, but not the method

Woodpecker (TUCANO), which has been in the forefront of the Douyin men's wear brand list for two consecutive years, has focused on the Douyin platform since it began to lay out online sales channels. Currently, its Douyin official flagship store has nearly 900,000 fans, compared with only 22,000 fans in the Tmall flagship store. Half of the brand's sales on Douyin come from high-frequency live broadcasts. Taking the flagship store as an example, from May 24 to June 15, within 23 days, the "Woodpecker Official Flagship Store" broadcasted 28 times, with a duration of more than 10 hours each time.

Previously, Yi Cai Business School had a detailed analysis of "Ice Silk Polo, the 'Power Suit' of Chinese Men," this "hit" men's wear category, and the brand that ranked first was Woodpecker. During this year's 618, Woodpecker won first place in the women's wear category, which seems to have copied the successful experience of the men's wear category, but in fact, the two have a high degree of differentiation.

In terms of people and scenes, the main user group of Woodpecker men's wear is fathers, and the real consumers are children, emphasizing the gift-giving scene; while women's wear is aimed at middle-aged and young women, launching products such as cool sun protection clothing and ice silk sports pants that can be worn in work and sports scenes. In addition, Woodpecker women's wear has also taken on the new traffic code of this year, "New Chinese Style." A new Chinese-style straight tube pants priced at 109.9 yuan, in the "Woodpecker Official Flagship Store," has reached a million-level live broadcast sales in half a month in June.

2. Caoben Chu Se: All-round accumulation of "cool sense" impressionThe "cooling sensation" continues to be one of the key points of competition for major merchants during the summer season. A TikTok store with a brand of sun protective clothing that achieved 600,000 followers and a monthly GMV of 1 million told Yicai Business School that this year's sun protective clothing fabric has been upgraded to Ice Titanium Filament (i.e., incorporating titanium dioxide composite particles into the fabric to assist in absorbing ultraviolet rays), enhancing the product's comfort and the cool sensation upon touch.

The best-selling "Ultra-Cool Soft Support Bra" from the brand Herbal Initial Color also caters to women's demand for lightweight and breathable underwear in hot weather, selling 750,000 units during the 618 shopping festival. Despite the abundance of similar products emphasizing "cooling," Herbal Initial Color achieves differentiation through the following points:

(1) Improving fabric and craftsmanship. By using ice silk fabric and a special weaving technique that leaves more than 1,000 tiny holes, their underwear products have a visually transparent effect.

(2) Strengthening language and visual effects in live broadcasts. Nearly 70% of Herbal Initial Color's sales come from live streaming, with half of that from the brand's own broadcasts. In their own live broadcast room, they create a virtual scene of "breezing by the seaside in summer" by setting up a green screen and digital virtual scenery, and expand the promotional content of "ice skin, ultra-thin," allowing people to visually feel "coolness."

II. Beauty | Short dramas open up a new path for product promotion, amplifying mature strategies

Overall, this year's TikTok 618 beauty category has seen a slight decline in momentum. Since the start of sales on May 24th, only three beauty special live broadcasts by Jia Nailiang, Guangdong Couple, and Bai Bai Ye Ye Couple have broken the 100 million yuan sales mark. Qi Er's nearly 20 live broadcasts only had one that broke the 25 million yuan sales level, and Pan Yu Run's sales have dropped to the 100,000 yuan level. Beauty has always been a marketing pioneer. When the main force of sales from live broadcasts in previous years cooled down, leading brands began to explore new paths and started trying to promote products through short dramas.

1. Han Shu: A 50 million yuan investment in local-flavored short dramas for product promotion, a new attempt at "brand effect unity"?

In March of this year, when Shangmei Shares released its performance report for 2023, it showed that the annual revenue was 4.191 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 56.6%. The significant increase in performance can be attributed to its brand Han Shu. In the first quarter of 2024, Han Shu's GMV on major e-commerce platforms was 2.186 billion yuan, with TikTok accounting for 2.007 billion yuan, surpassing the same period last year by nearly three times.

During the 618 period this year, Han Shu continues to explode. In addition to the regular cooperation with live broadcasters such as "Guangdong Couple," "Qian Hui," and "Guo Yue," Han Shu seized the opportunity of "local-flavored short dramas," investing 50 million yuan to cooperate with the short video broadcaster "Jiang Shi Qi," who has 37 million followers and nearly 150 million cumulative video views, to shoot five short dramas.

Unlike traditional TV dramas that are produced first and then have commercial ads inserted, these short dramas are tailored for the brand from the title, stills, dialogue, and plot. These short dramas usually have compact plots and dense highlights, with each episode lasting about 3-4 minutes, in which Han Shu's product exposure and plot dialogue account for 20%-30%.Unlike traditional short video sales, short videos can be directly ordered through links—belonging to performance advertising. In contrast, drama series sales can be seen as a combination of brand advertising and performance advertising: they showcase the brand image and can embed selling points and skincare scenes within the plot. Viewers can jump to the brand's store or live broadcast room through links or "little blue words" below the series.

According to public information, Han Shu's investment in short drama marketing has leveraged 5 billion video views across the network and a total transaction amount of 3.34 billion yuan on Douyin for the year, with the main product "Red Waist Set" seeing an increase in sales during the broadcast period of the short drama series and becoming a hit during the 618 period this year.

2. Kefu Mei: High-priced facial mask breaks through the circle with medical device number

As the only skincare brand focusing on efficacy in this year's Douyin 618 beauty list, Kefu Mei mainly relies on two major products to break through the circle, one is the collagen dressing patch, and the other is the "disposable" collagen stick. As a brand under Juzi Bio, in 2023, Kefu Mei contributed 79.1% to the company's total revenue of 3.524 billion yuan (official prospectus of Juzi Bio).

It was mainly aimed at medical institutions in the early stage. As the parent company continues to transform towards the C-end, Kefu Mei has become more and more well-known among consumers with skin repair needs. Kefu Mei's medical device number collagen dressing patch comes in a box of 5 patches, with a unit price of 188 yuan per box, and the average price per piece is around 37.5 yuan—a high-priced facial mask. The brand can break through the circle and maintain high prices and profits, mainly by doing a few key points correctly:

(1) Aim at the medical beauty crowd, focusing on the selling point of repair. The number of people in China's medical beauty crowd is increasing, and the demand for related postoperative products is also rising. Kefu Mei has launched two types of facial masks, one with a medical device number and the other with a cosmetic number. The former is used for the healing of post-laser treatment wounds, to inhibit and alleviate skin inflammation, and to reduce post-inflammatory pigmentation, etc. The latter is used for daily repair. Its collagen stick is also mainly aimed at scenarios such as post-beauty project, weak barriers, seasonal sensitivity, temperature changes, extreme outdoor sports, and poor rest, etc.

(2) Innovative marketing selling points, squeezing into the popular skincare formula of "early C late A". "Early C late A" is a popular skincare method in recent years, and a large number of skincare brands design products according to the formula. Kefu Mei has seized the opportunity that the skin is prone to sensitivity due to contact with fruit acids, salicylic acid, A retinol, A aldehyde, etc., during such skincare processes. Combined with the product's anti-sensitivity effect, it is recommended for consumers to use it as a "base" before "brushing acid" and "early C late A" skincare processes to prevent skin intolerance.

(3) Binding with big anchors. The collagen stick was one of the popular products in Jia Nailiang's 618 beauty live broadcast this year. According to the data from Feigua, during the 618 period, Kefu Mei's top 5 live broadcasts, 4 of them were Jia Nailiang's live broadcasts, with a total sales exceeding 50 million.

III. Jewelry Accessories | One item, one shot & standard blind delivery, two paths of jewelry live broadcast

Since the second half of last year, international gold prices have risen significantly, and the domestic gold retail market has also risen, with a return rate of about 13% so far. On this year's 618 jewelry list, brands such as China Gold, Chow Tai Seng, Chow Tai Fook, and Chao Hongji, which mainly sell gold jewelry products, are relatively stable, in line with the consistent characteristics of gold products.In addition to the aforementioned jewelry brands, most of the other merchants on the list come from industrial belts, such as Ruan's Pearls, Angel's Tears, and Jia Bai Li, all of which are from Zhuji, Zhejiang. "YiCai Business School" compared these three pearl brands and found that although they all mainly rely on live streaming sales, their specific strategies are not the same:

(1) High customer order value, relying on self-operated live streaming; medium and low customer order value, relying on influencers to sell goods. The data shows that Ruan's Jewelry has a customer order value of over 1400 yuan, which is basically all from the brand's own live streaming—beyond the most basic information such as origin and luster, the product value mainly depends on the brand's own hosts to continuously convey. Angel's Tears and Jia Bai Li have lower unit prices, with a price of around 300 yuan that is within the acceptable range for most consumers, especially for pearl jewelry that highlights "temperament" and "luxury," which aligns with the public's consumption mindset of "reducing prices."

(2) A combination strategy of high and low-priced goods makes consumers feel that they are getting their money's worth. Ruan's Pearls' high customer order value mainly comes from its combination strategy of high and low-priced goods. For example, their live streaming room will sell pearl necklaces priced at tens of thousands of yuan and around a thousand yuan at the same time. By creating a psychological price anchor with the ten-thousand-yuan pearls, consumers are more likely to accept the thousand-yuan pearl price.

IV. Food and Beverages | Safety, quality, and convenience are still the biggest selling points for food.

On the food and beverage list, due to recent news of price reductions, Moutai has replaced Dongfang Selection as the TOP1. However, in the long term, Dongfang Selection's self-operated attempts are gradually consolidating its position as a food category destination. On June 19, Dongfang Selection disclosed the business situation for the second half of the fiscal year 2024, with self-operated product GMV breaking through 3.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 108%, and a quarter-on-quarter increase of 74%.

In addition, this year's list features new tea brands such as "Li Mo Tea"—unlike traditional tea brands like Ba Ma, it relies on short videos and new product packaging to win.

1. Dongfang Selection: Self-operated brand independent sales of 100 million

(1) Expand the self-operated product account independently. Over the past two years, Dongfang Selection's Douyin account has accumulated more than 30 million fans with "cultural live streaming," while its account matrix's "Dongfang Selection Self-operated Products" only has more than 3.4 million fans, with strong sales capabilities and fans with a strong repurchase rate and stickiness. According to official information, the Dongfang Selection self-operated product Douyin account has broken through 100 million yuan in GMV for several consecutive months, making it the third account with a monthly GMV of over 100 million yuan on Douyin for Dongfang Selection. Currently, there are more than 400 self-operated products, 80% of which are food and agricultural products, with an official repurchase rate of 59%.

(2) Refine products based on consumer feedback, creating 12 SKUs from a slice of toast. In the food and beverage category, the fierce competition in the "healthy ingredients, clean additives, low calories, and low sugar" dimension is no longer news, and the intensity of competition among similar products is gradually increasing.

Taking "Dongfang Selection Self-operated Toast" as an example, this toast product, which focuses on clean ingredients and a short shelf life (21 days), has launched 12 SKUs based on consumer feedback in dimensions such as slice thickness, toast flavor, and product combinations. According to data from Chan Mama, the sales volume of this product alone during the 618 period this year reached the level of 2.5 to 5 million, ranking 12th in sales among Dongfang Selection's self-operated products.Similarly polished selections include edible eggs within 48 hours, grilled sausages inspected 1,000 times, and oligomeric silicate mineral water from the Changbai Mountain source, among others.

2. Li Mo Tea: Leveraging the "Three Sheep" for tea sales through short dramas

According to the Anxi County People's Government website, in November 2022, Li Mo Tea achieved a monthly sales figure of 700 million yuan. Starting from the second half of 2023, it quickly "shot to fame" on Douyin, and for six consecutive months, it ranked first in sales within the tea beverage category. The main paths to its popularity include three points: First, the traffic boost from "Three Sheep" — one of its partners and Douyin broadcaster "Kang Kang Tea Villa" is the CEO of the Xiamen branch of Three Sheep; Second, the portable small tea cakes; Third, reducing the decision-making threshold for tea consumption through creative short videos.

(1) Making tea cakes smaller. Traditional Pu'er tea is usually pressed into cakes about 18cm in diameter for easy transportation and storage, which is not convenient to carry. Li Mo Tea has made Pu'er tea into small tea cakes of 5g each, about the size of a coin, which is not only convenient to use but also eliminates the need to consider the amount of tea for brewing. One cake at a time reduces the "learning cost" for beginners to drink tea. In addition, Li Mo Tea has named this product "Once a stranger, twice a friend," echoing the classification of raw and ripe Pu'er tea, increasing the chances of the product being remembered. They also promise a free trial of three infusions (cakes), with the option to return and refund if unsatisfied, and the individual packaging does not affect secondary sales.

(2) Accumulating customers through Q&A-style short videos. During the Douyin 618 event this year, the average customer order value for Li Mo Tea was 100 yuan. Taking its best-selling SKU "Sun-dried Small Green Tangerine Tea" as an example, 298 yuan gets you 500g (about 38 pieces) of tea balls, with an average price of about 7.84 yuan, which does not have a strong price advantage.

However, this single product of small green tangerine has become a "web celebrity" in the tea industry around 2016. The reason it is still so popular is mainly due to the accumulation of fans for the product through short videos in the early stage. Among the three core accounts, "Kang Kang Tea Villa" mainly ties in with Xiao Yang Ge to shoot humorous videos, while "Xiao Yin Has Good Tea" and "Qu Qu Has Good Tea" engage in dialogue with the seller from a first-person perspective, and incorporate tea beverage science popularization and product placement into the conversation. The filming backgrounds of the three accounts are mostly in front of factory shelves, and the plots are basically centered around the source factory, tea product efficacy, and price, usually in the form of chat. The questioners are often quite sharp with questions like "What if it's not enough to drink, what if it's not durable, what if the goods don't match the description," which to some extent lowers the consumer's decision-making threshold and also gives a sense of "watching a drama."

V. Summary

According to reports from LatePost, Douyin e-commerce's Q1 sales in 2024 exceeded 700 billion yuan, with a year-on-year increase of over 50%, although the growth rate in March fell below 40%. However, for some mature merchants, Douyin is a second growth curve outside of shelf e-commerce; for new Douyin brands in the growth stage, this is the main battleground.

"Best-selling" single products are still effective. The successful methodology of creating "best-sellers" cannot be entirely replicated, but there will definitely be experiences that can be extracted. Caoben Chu Se focused heavily on the demand for coolness and performed excellently in the summer clothing market. When a single product is qualified and capable of breaking through the circle, it can bring the brand not only profits but also the decision-making power of market trends.

Make good use of the advantages of content e-commerce. Han Shu, who seized the short drama opportunity, and Li Mo Tea, which continuously accumulates daily videos, are both using the irreplaceable content of content e-commerce, which is constantly updated and ferments quickly, to accumulate voice. No one can guarantee that a few placements will bring considerable returns; both vision and patience are indispensable.Low prices are not the only compass for consumption. The era of consumerism has passed, and "sacrificing profits for growth" will only lead to more involution and anxiety, which is not conducive to the healthy development of businesses. Kefu Mei, which does not have low unit prices, has seized the traffic brought by medical beauty facial masks and quickly expanded its product line.

POST A COMMENT