What helps live-stream hosts sell more products?

Nie Jianru, head of a Chinese professional live-stream marketing team for women’s wear that gained 2.7 million followers in just 50 days, recently shared her experience as a KOL during an interview with People’s Daily, in the form of a live-stream session.

Though quite familiar with what she was about to start with, Nie still led People’s Daily journalists to go through all the routine work before the session kicked off, including product selection, memorizing product features, clothes matching and interaction with viewers.

After meticulous preparation, the session started on schedule at 8:00 p.m.

“Hi, everyone! This is a white blouse made of quality silk. It is snag-resistant, crease-resistant, and durable,” Nie said during the live-stream marketing session, introducing everything about the clothes, from its style, texture, workmanship and design.

However, if she treats every commodity equally and spends the same energy on introducing every one of them, the viewers would soon be bored, she told People’s Daily. “Product selection is vital for live-stream marketing,” Nie said, stressing the importance of selecting “viral” pieces among the clothes. “A great host always selects clothes as a customer,” she explained.

Before the session started, she also told People’s Daily the importance of interaction with the customers, saying attention must be paid to the comments and bullet screen so as to reply the customers timely. For instance, women consumers, who often have a high standard on clothes matching, would always ask the host what kinds of shoes, bags or pants go well with the clothes they have just bought. “You keep the customers only if you answer to the point,” Nie said.

When responding to a follower’s comment asking for matching tips of a blouse, Nie explained that the blouse goes very well with black high heels, and flats and slippers would reduce the class of the garment. “Bags with metal chain strap are great for the blouse, but I recommend you not to match it with canvas bags,” she added.

According to Nie, live-stream hosts for women’s wear often introduce a new product every five minutes. Every time they are about to finish introducing a product, they would offer discount to promote deals, she said.

“If you like this clothes, please type ‘I want it’ on the bullet screen,” Nie said during the live-stream session, after which lines of ‘I want it’ started scrolling on the screen. “The customer service personnel would then distribute coupons according to the headcounts,” Nie told People’s Daily.

By that time, a total of 90,000 viewers had watched the live-stream session, and 5 million coupons had been issued. “Are you ready? Don’t hesitate before you claim the coupons and place orders, because the coupons expire in 2 minutes. Our products are refundable within 7 days, and the shipping is on us,” Nie said. Over 100 blouses were sold in just 5 minutes.

The new business of live-stream marketing does boost consumption desire and drive consumption growth. An hour after the session started, transactions mounted to 200,000 yuan, and traditional offline stores will never have a performance like that.

“In offline models, products are sold based on one-on-one marketing, so the daily number of customers received is limited. However, thousands, and even tens of thousands of customers are received in merely an hour on online platforms,” Nie explained. She said one thing remains the same – to offer authentic products.

“Only quality, proper price and great after-sales services help you keep your clients. Poor products might get refunded. You will lose a customer for good if he or she buys product of poor quality from you, even once.”

“To entertain your followers and think for your customers is the only right way to make your business bigger, rather than only hoping to gain more commission,” Nie told People’s Daily.