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It is learned that according to domestic media reports, the e-commerce live broadcast service platform Wahool has recently completed two rounds of financing, with a total financing amount of nearly 10 million US dollars. This is a company that started with Amazon Live and is expanding to a global celebrity live broadcast platform including TikTok, Instagram and Facebook. By integrating supply chain resources, Wahool can provide sellers with one-stop digital services including product selection, marketing, quality control, and after-sales. Many sellers may be unfamiliar and surprised by this news. Why does this seemingly unknown company attract so much attention from investors? What are the characteristics of the suddenly emerging e-commerce live streaming? Cross-border e-commerce has diversified its gameplay, sparking a live broadcast craze After the explosive growth of cross-border e-commerce in recent years, the competition in traditional platform e-commerce has become extremely fierce, and the advertising costs are getting higher and higher. Take Amazon's in-site advertising as an example. In 2014, the cost per click of the advertisement was about 14 cents, but now the average cost per click has risen to 1.6 US dollars. In other words, the cost per click has increased more than 10 times in the past 8 years . In addition, traditional promotion methods are becoming less effective. Deal platforms are expensive and low-profit, and social forums cannot fully display products. As Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Tiktok and other overseas social media have become e-commerce platforms in recent years, some keen people have smelled business opportunities - promoting products through live broadcasts . ▲ Picture from Facebook Live According to a McKinsey study , the conversion rate of live shopping reached 30% , nearly 10 times higher than that of traditional e-commerce! The survey showed that in terms of audience, 70% of European consumers said they were interested in live shopping. France is particularly receptive, with 2/3 of the French showing interest in this sales channel. This way of selling products has actually been mature in China for a long time, but overseas consumers are not familiar enough with this "live streaming" method. The new audio-visual interactive experience will attract their curiosity and make it easier to promote orders. This blue ocean has attracted a large number of domestic live broadcast groups to choose to expand their overseas business, and cross-border sellers who have been operating for many years will certainly be unwilling to give up this market. Live broadcast e-commerce has quickly become popular, and this new field is expected to become a new outlet. A new source of wealth? The advantages of cross-border live streaming e-commerce As the saying goes, "Be the first to try something new." Those who enter the market first often gain the most. Cross-border live e-commerce is an opportunity for sellers. Live e-commerce has many significant advantages, which are summarized as follows: 1. Wide audience and cheap traffic Traditional promotion channels have limited traffic, and it is impossible for platform users to pay attention to online shopping information all the time. Communities and forums target a narrow audience, mostly young people, so efficient promotion will inevitably cost a lot of money. However, live streaming e-commerce is different. Nowadays, social media has become an indispensable part of modern people’s lives , which has brought a wide audience to live streaming e-commerce. At the same time, the cost of operating live streaming is also cheaper than in-site advertising. 2. The epidemic has catalyzed changes in consumer habits Against the backdrop of the global epidemic, the consumption habits of foreign users are changing, and home isolation policies have led to a significant increase in people's Internet usage time. They have paid more attention to social media, and the downturn in foreign manufacturing has also made overseas consumers more inclined to online shopping. The overall environment has created an excellent combination of social media and cross-border live e-commerce. 3. Rich domestic experience, and dimensionality reduction strike overseas During the epidemic, China's live broadcast industry has become an important pillar of economic recovery. With the rise of the "live broadcast with goods" consumption model, the development of China's Internet celebrity economy and the increase in the number of MCN agencies, China has taken a leading position in the e-commerce live broadcast industry in the world, and super anchors have repeatedly set new transaction records. ▲ The picture comes from the Internet Although overseas live streaming e-commerce has developed rapidly in the past two years, it is still in its infancy overall. For fledgling overseas live streaming e-commerce companies, the Chinese team's sophisticated operational experience will cause a "dimensionality reduction attack" on them, allowing them to easily seize the market. If the "paper talk" based on analysis is not convincing, then many e-commerce live streaming platforms have proved the superiority of the industry with practical actions. TikTok is booming, and live streaming e-commerce has a bright future In recent years, the popularity of TikTok overseas has been witnessed by sellers from all walks of life. According to App Annie data, as of the first half of 2021, the total number of downloads of TikTok and Douyin worldwide has exceeded 3 billion, surpassing Facebook to become the world's largest non-game application . The massive user base has laid the foundation for TikTok's huge commercial potential, which is also the reason why it is trying to replicate the successful live e-commerce model in China in the cross-border e-commerce field. As China's overseas brand, many domestic sellers who have operated Douyin Mall are already very familiar with TikTok's model. If TikTok can successfully develop into a leader in overseas live streaming e-commerce, its business model will inevitably be adopted by other overseas platforms, which is another advantage for Chinese sellers. In addition, other live streaming e-commerce platforms have also begun to emerge. Since the beginning of this year, many live streaming e-commerce platforms in the United States have received intensive financing. Talkshoplive, an American live streaming e-commerce platform, announced that it had completed a total of US$6 million in financing, and Popshop Live also announced that it had completed a total of US$20 million in Series A financing. The company's valuation has now reached US$100 million; Whatnot, an American second-hand trendy toy live streaming trading platform, received US$50 million in Series B financing... Although the situation seems promising, rash investment in this industry may not be smooth sailing. There are still some issues that need attention in cross-border live streaming: Problems faced by cross-border live streaming First, overseas consumers do not have a full understanding of live shopping, and some of the more complicated gameplay in China cannot be directly copied to overseas live broadcast rooms.
Second, differences in national conditions, policies and culture can easily lead businesses to misjudge the local market.
Third, even if the domestic sales myth is successfully replicated, can the local logistics withstand such a large-scale delivery? Although there are many negative factors, overall, the prospects of cross-border live streaming e-commerce are still very worth looking forward to.
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