The combination of video/social and e-commerce is moving from the logic of traffic drive and technology acceleration to the construction of content, scenarios and interaction mechanisms to stimulate users to further transform from content consumption to commodity consumption.
Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account “Western Entertainment” (ID: EW-Entertainment)< /a>, author of the Digital Research Group.
Whether multiple video/social platforms cut into e-commerce or e-commerce platforms import video content, it can be seen from the above that traffic operations are ushering in a turning point.
For the e-commerce platform that emphasizes centralization for a long time, relying solely on technology to meet the connection, matching, efficiency, and reputation is not enough. The transaction has already derived social and content media; for video/social platforms, advertising There is still a relatively obvious ceiling in the model. As the platform develops into a stable period, the growth rate of advertising slows down, and the search for a new source of realization is also a continuous growth in the post-traffic era.
Overseas has Google Shopping, Facebook Market, Instagram Payment, Snapchat Shopping Channel, Domestic Red Book, Taobao “Amoy Shop”, “Micro Amoy” and WeChat’s new “Good Story”… The combination of video/social and e-commerce is moving from the logic of traffic drive and technology acceleration to the construction of content, scenarios and interaction mechanisms to stimulate users to further transform from content consumption to commodity consumption.
This article is an overview of the perspective, for more detailed research, please continue to pay attention to the social e-commerce series.
01.New e-commerce features for Google overlays, texts, and videos
At the beginning of this year, Google added a “shopable ad” feature to Google Image Search, which is to make the ad “disguise” into a part of the image search, which is a full integration of content and advertising.
Allow advertisers to rely on Google Image Search to deliver, which also makes Google and Pinterest and Facebook’s Instagram a positive competitive relationship: Promote products through visual (picture/short video) waterfall-like advertising Sell and attract users to stay longer on the site. Brand parties and retailers can optimize the display position of advertisements in addition to targeted delivery.
On May 14th, Google announced by Google Marketing Live that YouTube shopping will be available later this year; combined with Google’s previous layout in the e-commerce space, this means that Google’s search around text , image search, video viewing fully built the e-commerce shopping function, by clicking on the ads in the content results, add the goods in the universal shopping cart, you can achieve the purchase.
In accordance with Brad Bender, vice president of product management at Google’s advertising division, “We are making Google more accessible.” As part of its new shopping program, Google also said it will Users create personalized shopping homepages designed to shop and discover all new ways of products online with consumers.
Through years of exploration in the shopping arena, Google already has more than 1,000 retail partners including BestBuy, Costco and Target; allegedly on YouTube And Google Express supports direct-to-consumer (DTC) marketing models that focus more on consumer behavior and consumer lifestyles; or will help co-brands and retailers to advertise and Online transactions are more integrated.
When this new video e-commerce feature is launched, Wall Street is worried about Google’s slowdown. Taking e-commerce as a new growth point may bring a turn for Google.
At the same time as the launch of the new shopping feature, Google also said that it will introduce a new advertising form on YouTube in the second half of this year – “discover” ads; in addition, a news feed called “Discover” will also be in Google’s various applications and mobile websites, emails are displayed below the search area. The purpose is to understand the user’s text search, website browsing, video viewing, application download information, and more accurate target users through Google Matrix products.
However, Google has made it clear that as a comprehensive platform with a large amount of user data, it does not intend to become a real retailer, but acts as an intermediary to ensure that the retail return policy and member customer service can be unified, so that consumers can be more assured. Buy goods from unfamiliar retailers.
Under Amazon’s self-built e-commerce ecosystem, Google does not build a supply chain on the shopping, nor does it need infrastructure investment such as inventory and logistics. It mainly uses traffic as the portal to provide a platform for local businesses and courier services.The service and membership systems are linked to lay out e-commerce in a low-risk manner, but this strategy may also make the platform too passive in transactions, and lack effective control over suppliers and logistics.
02.YouTube Social E-Commerce
As a well-known UGC video community, the cycle between the YouTube platform, KOL, advertisers, brands, and platforms has matured in the form of natural formation and platform intervention. In 2018, the number of YouTube channels with more than six digits increased by more than 40%; in 2019, YouTube became the benchmark for influence marketing and social e-commerce.
Before, the membership system for the higher number of Up owners was promoted, and the product sales platform Teespring cooperated to help the number of fans with more than 10,000 fans to carry out the derivatives sales business, “derived shelves” directly below the video. (Merch Shelf) offers more than 20 derivatives such as t-shirts, hats, and mobile phone cases for fans to buy. This feature is also the first time to make YouTube a platform for shopping.
For example, the creator of “Little Spider Lucas” launched a derivative of the protagonist, and sold more than 60,000 copies in just 18 days, with a profit of more than $1 million.
KOL is especially popular in the YouTube beauty, consumer technology, and children’s toys communities. In fact, looking at all UGC YouTube, the most popular categories must include product reviews, “out of the box”, and shopping sharing. Let video viewing itself have a great “grass” attribute; however, even if KOL is popular, there are still some uncontrollable problems, although the new shopping features are not inconsistent with KOL marketing, but for a wider range of non-KOL Content material offers new possibilities for commercialization.
In the past, the product recommendation in the video was only promoted by means of the product link in the description column. The user needs to jump from the original page, which is highly disruptive to the user experience. According to the plan drafted at the Google Marketing Conference, the new Shopping features and ad presentations are a small box with relevant product information below the video, click to buy directly;
At the same time, in terms of Google’s personalized homepage for users, the platform will allow viewers to filter products according to their favorite brands and functions, and facilitate viewers to read product reviews and watch videos in a unified manner. Google gives examples. Say “If you want to buy a new set of headphones, you can shop at