At 8 PM on April 1, Luo Yonghao made his debut in the livestream e-commerce world. After Luo announced he would sell products via livestream, netizens' discussions exploded: what trick was Old Luo up to this time? On March 31, Old Luo gave the first officially announced product: the Xiaomi Mi 10 phone. And the night before, when everyone entered the livestream with the mindset of watching Old Luo sell Xiaomi, what they saw was... Old Luo selling nuts again!!!! Just an (April Fool's) joke, albeit late. Don't worry, it's not that. These nuts are not those nuts. This time, he was selling Qiaqia's Daily Nuts. The debt from selling 'Nut' phones is being repaid by selling nuts — Old Luo's move sparked another round of mockery from onlookers. The way Old Luo chewed nuts while introducing Qiaqia Daily Nuts was unforgettable. Luo Yonghao selling Qiaqia Daily Nuts "If you've never bought anything in livestream e-commerce, it's because you haven't seen what we do," said Luo Yonghao. Facts proved he wasn't wrong: 2 million+ bags in 3 hours—that was the result of Luo Yonghao's sales for Qiaqia Daily Nuts. Knowledge-based KOL is one of Luo Yonghao's labels, and his sales style is minimalist, straightforward, and information-dense , without the livestream catchphrases like "babes" or "buy it." This style, which some even mock as a bit boring, brought in 48 million cumulative viewers and over 110 million yuan in total payment transactions in his debut. Image source: Douyin What does the emergence of knowledge-based KOLs like Old Luo mean for livestream e-commerce in the food industry? What changes will it bring? -01- 3 hours, 2 million+ bags, Old Luo finally sold nuts successfully! Who is Old Luo? One of the few remaining "first-generation Chinese internet celebrities" (as he himself says). On March 25, Old Luo opened a Douyin account, and in less than a week, his followers reached 5.4 million. Old Luo is a smart man; he understands that to maintain a distinct persona, he must "add drama." From teaching English with "Old Luo's Quotes" sweeping the internet, to smashing a hammer to create the image of a "fighter" and "craftsman with feelings," Old Luo has used the spirit of "life is endless, struggle never stops" to enrich his earnest persona. Later, when we mentioned Old Luo, the word "idealism" was never far behind. Judging from the livestream the night before, despite selling products to pay off debts, with PPT replaced by whiteboards and crosstalk turned into jokes, Old Luo is still Old Luo. Old Luo had previously declared, "Basically not making money, just making friends," but in reality, the significance of this livestream goes far beyond making friends. Old Luo brought a "triple win" for consumers, big brands, and the Douyin platform. Livestream e-commerce is a 'super group buy,' and I am the 'chief product officer'—he turned livestream e-commerce into Old Luo's Strict Selection. In fact, making this friend was quite tiring; from selecting products among over 2,000 items, Old Luo did it personally. So, among 2,500+ products, how did Old Luo choose Qiaqia's little yellow bag? What moved Old Luo might be Qiaqia's R&D philosophy. Although this livestream was not a product launch, Old Luo continued his approach of introducing tech products. When introducing Qiaqia Daily Nuts, Old Luo's whiteboard listed Qiaqia's 7 raw materials from premium nut-producing regions worldwide, emphasizing "craftsman spirit." The so-called craftsman spirit is just smart people doing things in a clumsy way. For years, Qiaqia has been quietly building its full industry chain. "Mastering key freshness technology" is a selling point Qiaqia has always been proud of, controlling the upstream raw materials layer by layer, and then launching a "freshness strategy" centered on "quality manufacturing." Luo Yonghao selling Qiaqia Daily Nuts Additionally, the product attribute of Qiaqia's little yellow bag as a daily nutritional necessity attracted Old Luo, and this selling point aligns well with the TMT (telecom, media, and technology) crowd that Luo Yonghao belongs to, as such people often value scientific nutritional supplementation. Old Luo's idealism ended with "playing with a hammer," and then restarted with selling Xiaomi phones; The pride shattered by selling "Nut" phones is now regained by selling Daily Nuts via livestream. FBIF learned from Qiaqia's official Weibo that as of 23:00 on April 1, Qiaqia's little yellow bag Daily Nuts had sold nearly 2 million+ bags. Whether from sales volume or the communication of brand philosophy and value, Qiaqia making friends with Old Luo is quite worthwhile. For brands making their livestream debut, the value Old Luo brings goes far beyond just selling products. Wang Xiaochuan, CEO of Sogou, mentioned in an interview with AI Finance and Economics: "We don't value his sales ability; we mainly want to use him to convey AI technology and concepts to his fans." "Old Luo's specialness lies in his craftsmanship and idealism towards technology." -02- Knowledge-based KOL livestream sales: What does it have to do with the food industry? Why did Old Luo say, "If you've never bought anything in livestream e-commerce, it's because you haven't seen what we do"? Let's compare with current top streamers. Whether it's Li Jiaqi's classic "Buy it for me," "OMG," or his interactions with his assistant and the frequent appearances of his dogs, viewers get an experience more akin to watching a variety show. Wei Ya mainly sells high-frequency, low-price daily necessities. With her persona of an inspiring, strong modern woman and warm big sister, she captures the hearts of girls who need a role model for struggle and want to live a quality life on a budget. Li Jiaqi's fans are called 2+7 (Ai Jiaqi), and Wei Ya's fans are called Wei Ya's women. From these titles, it's clear that viewers have a strong emotional dependence on the streamers, and the shopping experience tends to be emotional consumption. But there are many people who don't spend time watching Li Jiaqi and his assistant and dogs, nor are they willing to waste their precious leisure time watching livestreams to get discounts on daily necessities: These people will look up guides online when buying phones and appliances, and will pay attention to the latest nutritional health trends when choosing food. They may not treat livestreams as entertainment or streamers as spiritual role models, and not all consumer goods can make them watch livestreams. But in important categories like healthy food, they also need guidance. The needs of this group were not fully met by the previous livestream industry. Luo Yonghao's entry indicates: The livestream industry is about to explore and cultivate rational consumer groups. Let's look at what Luo Yonghao's team's product selection criteria are: Image source: Luo Yonghao's Weibo Innovation, both design and practicality, and extremely high cost-performance. These are exactly what people demand from products in the context of consumption upgrading. Nielsen research shows that 39% of consumers are still willing to continue consumption upgrading, willing to buy better-quality but relatively more expensive products; only 9% say they are willing to pay more for products that reflect identity and status; while 15% say they are willing to buy products that meet basic functions at relatively cheaper prices. Consumption upgrading also represents cognitive upgrading. Consumers not only need to know that a product is good, but also need to know why it's good. Daily Nuts is a good example. The rise of this category is not due to emotional internet celebrity tactics, but rather cognitive upgrading like "eating a certain amount of mixed nuts daily is good for health." And those who pay for products like Daily Nuts are mostly people who pay attention to dietary structure, with rational eating habits and consumption habits. The concept of Daily Nuts has been hyped up in the past two years. The repeated promotions by major brands have already given consumers initial education: basic points about nut products like "high-quality fats," "protein supplementation," "prevention of cardiovascular disease," and "unsaturated fatty acids" are no longer unfamiliar to consumers. At this time, if there is no differentiated point, and instead they continue to emphasize the basics, it's easy to fall into homogenization, unable to show advantages over competitors, and unable to move the more rational consumers who originally valued product substance and functionality. Qiaqia, as a brand that early on built up Daily Nuts domestically, naturally understands this. Freshness is the lifeline of nuts; stale nuts oxidize, develop a rancid smell, and produce toxic substances. So Qiaqia went to the front lines to observe consumers, and through a "chatting" approach, they identified "freshness" as a consumer pain point. From source planting and R&D to terminal marketing strategy, everything revolves around "freshness." Image source: Qiaqia Nuts official Weibo In addition, to make its product functionality more convincing and to reach these rational consumers who trust professional opinions, Qiaqia has been building a livestream matrix, from self-run livestreams to inviting knowledge-based KOLs. By inviting well-known nutritionists like Gu Zhongyi (4.57 million Weibo followers) and Wang Xufeng, president of the Capital Health Nutrition and Food Science Association, to livestream, they convey health and nutrition concepts to consumers from the nut category perspective. According to statistics, the total followers covered by these livestreams was about 15.1 million, with an exposure completion rate of 151%. Image source: Qiaqia Nuts official Weibo Now partnering with Luo Yonghao is a further expansion of Qiaqia's knowledge-based KOL livestreaming. Choosing Luo Yonghao is not only an expansion into rational consumers but also into male consumers. In Old Luo's livestream yesterday, 80.5% of viewers were male, with 74.4% under 32. Old Luo's male fans are in the majority, mostly rational consumers who are serious about life and work. Ambitious and hardworking tech-savvy men have a huge demand for functional foods, and they are more sensitive to ingredients and origin. Daily Nuts hits that pain point directly. Luo Yonghao's April 1 livestream fan profile Image source: Doudouxia -03- In the 433.8 billion livestream e-commerce market, how big is the slice for the food industry? According to iiMedia Research data, in 2019, the total scale of China's livestream e-commerce industry reached 433.8 billion yuan, and it is expected to double by 2020, becoming a trillion-yuan market. Take Taobao Live as an example. According to Caixin, on March 30, Taobao Live's 2019 report card was disclosed: currently, Taobao Live has 400 million users, over 1 million streamers, and in 2019, Taobao Live guided over 200 billion yuan in transactions, with 177 streamers breaking 100 million yuan in sales, over 40 million products sold via livestream, and merchant self-broadcasting stores growing 268% year-on-year. From these numbers, it's not hard to feel the rapid development of livestream e-commerce and its astonishing sales capability. What exactly is good about livestream e-commerce? It's quite obvious: it increases exposure and brings traffic in a short time, saves the steps of acquiring new customers, activating, and retaining compared to offline sales, and directly sells products, reducing costs. So, in the tempting trillion-yuan livestream e-commerce, how big is the slice for the food industry? 1. What can livestream e-commerce bring to the food industry? Under the exciting "only xx left," "buy it," "miss it and wait xx" calls of streamers, it's easy to place an order. Livestream e-commerce increases opportunities for impulse consumption and random purchases — maybe you weren't planning to buy, but you couldn't resist the streamers' "buy it." Whether through livestreams or embedded links in content, food and beverage have already completed market share grabs: in 2018 alone, over 1.6 billion people "squatted" on Taobao to watch food livestreams; food and beverage categories often rank in the Top 2 on Douyin's browsing and good product lists, and firmly hold the top spot on Kuaishou's 30-day sales ranking. Looking at more specific categories, snacks' sales capability is worth noting. Data shows that in the fourth quarter of last year, snacks accounted for a leading share in livestream e-commerce categories. For the food industry, livestream is like a traffic depression, attracting consumers to watch and buy. For example, Qiaqia Daily Nuts previously led offline sales, and now through livestreaming, it continues to increase its online channels. 2. Why do food and beverage perform well in livestream e-commerce? First, food and beverage have almost no restrictions on consumer groups; the products themselves are universal , so the consumer base is large; Second, food and beverage are not bulky, easy to display , and the introduction threshold is low , unlike digital products with professional information. Streamers often eat the product while describing the taste and texture, and consumers are tempted; Third, the price of food and beverage, especially daily snacks and drinks, is not high , so consumers don't need to think carefully before buying. Many consumers, without planning, see the product while browsing the livestream and place an order. Although the food industry seems to have advantages overall in livestream e-commerce, when companies actually do it, it's not as smooth as imagined. What remains for companies is more of a test. It's not uncommon to see a livestream that lasts nearly an hour and sells only one order. Data from a food company's livestream sales Is my product suitable for livestream sales? Which platform can reach target consumers? Should employees do the livestream or invite internet celebrities? How long should a livestream be? How many products should be listed? What copy and scripts should be used? Livestream e-commerce seems like just opening a livestream room to sell, but using it well is not easy. -04- Conclusion Low unit price, easy display, and high-frequency consumption are the advantages of the food industry entering livestream e-commerce. If done well, it will share a big piece of the trillion-yuan livestream e-commerce pie. And the emergence of knowledge-based KOLs may bring new opportunities to the food industry's livestream e-commerce. Luo Yonghao's entry makes people think about the choice of livestream channels and the presentation of livestream content. This time, Qiaqia making friends with Luo Yonghao also made brands start to pay attention: The livestream industry is about to explore and cultivate rational consumer groups. Compared to impulse-consumption livestreams, Luo Yonghao's Douyin livestream debut cut into a new market gap. And through partnerships with knowledge-based KOLs like Qiaqia and health and nutrition experts, it also represents Qiaqia's ambition to expand in knowledge-based KOL livestreaming and the entire livestream matrix. What new imagination space will knowledge-based KOL livestream sales bring to the industry? What changes will it bring to brand promotion effects and sales conversion? It's worth looking forward to. Source: FBIF Food & Beverage Innovation (ID: FoodInnovation) Authors: Momo, Yanyan, Soso Tips will be paid 400-2000 yuan once adopted.