In the article "Understanding Interest E-commerce vs. Shelf E-commerce in One Article", I argued that the future trend of e-commerce is definitely the integration of interest-based e-commerce and shelf-based e-commerce.

Simply put, the two ways people consume—planned consumption for essential needs and discovery-based consumption for flexible needs—both have ample room for growth, and any platform wants to capture both. Once an e-commerce platform involves both models, it begins the process of integration.

Shelf-based e-commerce has a history of about 20 years since the launch of Taobao, while content-driven short-video and livestream e-commerce (interest-based e-commerce) has only been around for a few years. However, the intense competition and evolution of e-commerce have accelerated the rapid convergence of these two forms.

Reports about a standalone Douyin e-commerce app have been persistent, and Alibaba was recently reported to be testing a trendy e-commerce app called "Taibang" to expand into interest-based e-commerce. Interest-based e-commerce is starting to enter the shelf space, and shelf-based e-commerce is beginning to penetrate interest-based e-commerce—this has been happening for quite some time.

The penetration is not just about launching standalone apps; the forms of e-commerce are already merging.

A Livestream Room Is a Brand Shelf

When livestream e-commerce first emerged, most brands treated it as a promotional tool to boost sales in the short term.

Initially, most brands used influencer带货 (influencer-driven sales), providing a certain amount of inventory to influencers for a period. As brands gained more attention and understanding of livestreaming, many began to conduct short-term self-broadcasts under their official identity.

In the beginning, livestream e-commerce was merely a supplement to conventional shelf-based e-commerce.

Today, most brands have made livestream selling a routine operation, with many broadcasting daily. According to Douyin e-commerce data: As of the end of October 2020, there were over 1.2 million enterprise accounts broadcasting on Douyin, with daily active enterprise accounts growing 400% compared to the end of 2019. In terms of sales, in June 2021, merchant self-broadcast sales on Douyin were over 7 times higher than the same period last year.

Brands selling products via livestream was once a promotional tactic, but as self-broadcasting became routine, brand livestreams gradually integrated into the shelf-based e-commerce model.

Shelf-based e-commerce often has unlimited SKUs, allowing consumers to enter an official flagship store and search through hundreds or thousands of products. Today, brands are doing almost the same in their livestream rooms.

Today's livestream rooms are not limited to a few promotional items; a single livestream room can feature dozens or even hundreds of products. For example, Anta's livestream room has 99 products, covering almost all major categories of their best-selling items.

In Anta's livestream room, the logic is not just promotion but also shelving. The 99 products in the livestream room are essentially a shelf-based e-commerce format, all placed in the shopping cart and introduced in order. If a viewer requests a specific product, the streamer will present it accordingly.

In terms of broadcast duration, some brands livestream for over ten hours a day, meaning they are live for most of their waking hours. Unlimited livestream duration plus dozens or hundreds of products approximates unlimited SKUs, creating a long-term display of these products—essentially shelf-based e-commerce.

In summary, one livestream room ≈ one store.

Moreover, on Anta's official enterprise account, clicking into the store leads to a complete shelf-based e-commerce experience.

For platforms, so-called interest-based e-commerce platforms are no longer relying solely on short videos and livestreams for sales; search will play an increasingly important role in brand sales.

Many media outlets have reported that Douyin is heavily developing search, and more people are using short-video platforms instead of search engines for queries because they are convenient, intuitive, and fast. This is even more applicable to product sales.

For example, searching for "running shoes" on Douyin typically shows videos related to running shoes. If you click on the "Products" tab, the display is very similar to Taobao's shelf-based e-commerce. If you then click on "Livestream," you might see brands currently broadcasting, which could spark your interest. Once you enter a livestream room and find the exact shoes you want are on promotional offer, you might place an order.

In this path, all brands that are livestreaming appear in search results just like in shelf-based e-commerce search, except they are presented via livestream, which makes it easier to prompt purchases.

So for an individual brand, those that operate seriously on Douyin have formed both interest-based and shelf-based e-commerce models.

A user might enter a livestream room through algorithmic recommendations and make a purchase, or further browse the shopping cart in the livestream room to pick products they like, or search for a specific product and complete the purchase from the search results.

A Brand Shelf Is Also a Livestream Room

In 2021, Taobao changed its slogan to "So fun to browse!" (太好逛了吧), which is the most typical manifestation of interest-based e-commerce. It tells users that they don't have to come to Taobao just to buy; they can come to browse first.

Today, the layout of Taobao flagship stores is vastly different from before. Our typical impression of a flagship store is a carousel of featured products at the top, followed by other products arranged like shelves. But if you open a major brand's flagship store today, if they are livestreaming, the livestream will be prominently displayed at the top, and only when you scroll down do you see the products.

It's clear that even shelf-like flagship stores have given livestreaming a very important position. Whether it's a coincidence or not, brand stores on Douyin have the same layout: livestream at the top, products below. I can't determine which platform adopted this first, but it shows a result—a brand flagship store has placed livestreaming in the most important position.

When a user visits a brand flagship store, it's highly likely they will first enter the livestream room to see if there's a product they want. This is because products in livestream rooms are often cheaper, and the explanations are more detailed and intuitive.

Taobao's search has given interest-based e-commerce a prominent position. In the search results, the "Experience" (经验) column mirrors Douyin's种草 (seeding) content. When you click on the secondary menu "Livestream Shopping" (直播购), the results are almost identical to those from Douyin's livestream search.

So even Taobao, a representative shelf-based e-commerce platform, has integrated many aspects of interest-based e-commerce. For brands, they urgently need to manage their shelf stores well while not neglecting content seeding and livestreaming.

How Should Brands Adapt to the Trend of E-commerce Integration?

If the integration of shelf-based and interest-based e-commerce is a trend, brands must adapt. They need to excel in both shelf-based operations and interest-based content.

1. Enrich Shelf-Based E-commerce with Content

At its core, shelf-based e-commerce is search-based. For search, presenting content is more advantageous than presenting products, because everyone likes content, but no one likes ads. Therefore, continuously enriching your content ecosystem around the shelf is a must for brands that primarily rely on shelf-based e-commerce.

For example, on shelf-based platforms, brands can create high-quality seeding content based on their products to attract potential consumers, or use long-duration livestreams to enhance consumer understanding of products.

For shelf-based e-commerce, livestreaming has become a basic feature today. If a consumer enters your store via search for a product and your store doesn't have a livestream, I think the brand is not doing a good job.

By enriching the bare shelf with seeding content and livestream content, brands can make their shelf-based e-commerce more flexible and gain more market space.

2. Perfect Interest-Based E-commerce with Shelves

The core logic of interest-based e-commerce is algorithm-driven. Algorithms can create the "first meeting" between consumers and brands. For brands, the first meeting doesn't mean consumers only see one product.

The logic of shopping in a mall is that a consumer initially enters a store out of interest to buy one product, but due to the appeal of other products and the guidance of salespeople, they may leave with multiple items.

Therefore, when the algorithm drives the "first meeting" with consumers, brands should be well-prepared to show their "full picture."

For example, on Douyin e-commerce, brands should offer a variety of products during livestreams to give consumers more choices, and they should also optimize their mini-stores so that once consumers enter, there are opportunities to introduce more products.

3. Leverage Brand Power for Both

When you're about to buy a pair of shoes on an e-commerce platform, if you search for "sneakers," the results may include ads from Nike—that's public traffic. If you search directly for "Nike," then you're already Nike's private traffic, which is formed by the brand itself.

If your brand is strongly embedded in consumers' minds, the latter scenario is more likely on shelf-based e-commerce, where consumers choose to search for your brand as their first choice.

Additionally, data shows that in livestream rooms, even for impulse purchases, consumers are far more likely to buy from familiar brands than unfamiliar ones.

This is the power of brand. Whether for shelf-based or interest-based e-commerce, building a strong brand and firmly occupying consumers' minds is the most important thing.

Recently, the "Make Friends" (交个朋友) livestream room released its annual report, ranking first in livestream sales on its platform with 5 billion yuan in actual payment sales in 2021. "Make Friends" sells products via livestream, which is a form of interest-based e-commerce, but its multiple livestream rooms broadcasting continuously at different times is equivalent to a comprehensive store, i.e., shelf-based e-commerce.

Source: Xunkong's Marketing Revelations (ID: xunkong2005)

Are you "watching" me?