Marching into Live-streaming on WeChat

Live streaming in general

There are in total of 3 types of Live Streaming solutions available in the WeChat Ecosystem.

1. Template Live-streaming Feature for MP(NEW!)

• Minimum Development required (2 or 3 days)
• Live Streaming on any invited brand MP
• Direct Link to from Livestreaming to Product Detail Page
• EC MP only and need payment on MP in the past month

2. Tencent Live-streaming MP 看点直播

• Minimum Development required (1 or 2 days max)
• Register on Tencent Livestreaming MP and create/schedule event
• Can jump from Tencent Livestreaming MP to brand MP
• Registration and verification is the most time-consuming part, around 5 – 10 working days

3. 3rd party Live-streaming MP

• For example, DuanShu短书，DouYu斗鱼.
• No Development required
• Register on 3rd party live streaming MP and create/schedule event
• Cannot jump from 3rd party live streaming to own MP
• Registration and verification is the time-consuming part, depending on each platform

How can the new WeChat Template Live-streaming feature help?

Many of our retailer clients indicated that they have received the beta invitation for the template live-streaming feature that WeChat had just offered to the E-commerce mini-programs on its platform. This feature is offered to selected EC MPs only by invitation. This is another reach forward by the tech company to the battlefield of the E-commerce traffic.

1. Basic Functions

• watch live streaming and display merchandise
• likes, comments, lucky draw, coupons, etc

2. Marketing Interaction

• The live streaming can be shared as a customized mini-program card which can be DIY from the Mini-program backend.

• Customers are able to subscribe to a live-streaming session if he/she enters the session, the interface of the subscribe screen is open for customization too.

3. Product marketing

• Clicking on the product link in the live-streaming interface, the users can be redirected straight into the Product Detail page in the retailer’s own E-commerce Mini-program.
• The live content and ordering process are connected in the retailers’ own mini-program. WeChat Mini-program backend allows the mini-program to link directly to the E-commerce MP page to proceed with checkout.

• WeChat MP backend offers a simple product management tool in the Mini-program backend to modify the product information displayed on the Live-streaming session.

4. Data capability

Live-streaming data is updated in the user interface in real-time. Both of the live-streaming host and the retailer can review the data in the background.

The action of making purchases from watching live-streaming is trackable with a specific parameter.

5. Sharing interaction

• There is a share button in the live-streaming room, which allows users to directly share the live-streaming session to any WeChat friends or group chat with a customized mini-program sharing card.
• Retailers can add the customized mini-program card in the Official Account posts to invite users to enter into the live-streaming directly.
• When the users enter the upcoming streaming room, he/she can subscribe to the respective live-streaming session. When the streaming is launched, the automated messages can be issued as a reminder to the user.

6. Support playback

• Template live-streaming provides the retailers with existing API to download the playback video for other usages. The API allows the retailer to get the source file of playback video in 10 minutes after the end of the live-streaming. Source video does not include the comments.
• WeChat also revealed that they will provide an interface to download the source video more easily without further need for developers’ support.

Another Conversion Layer for WeChat E-commerce

The annual transaction volume on WeChat mini-programs in 2019 is 800 billion yuan, an increase of 160% year-on-year, and the rapid growth of transaction scale is an indisputable fact.

At the same time, the core elements of e-commerce, such as brand authentication, logistics tools, and order management, of mini-program E-commerce are gradually being improved on the WeChat platform.

It is time for WeChat to embrace the next trendy Ecommerce tool into its WeChat Eco-system.

• Firstly there is a lower return and refund rate for setting up the Live-streaming on WeChat. The average E-commerce industry refund rate is 30%-50%. The refund rate of branded live-streaming on WeChat Mini Program is around 10%, and the more popular the brand is, the lower the refund rate is.
• The second is retention and recall. The brand with an official account can only recall its users 4 times a month, but reasonable use of mini-program live-streaming can naturally get in touch with customers more frequently, depending on the number of live-streaming sessions the brand has monthly.
• There are about 1000 brands that started using the template live-streaming feature on mini-program during the promotion period of the International Women’s date. More than 2000 live-streaming has contributed to 900 hours of live-streaming length.

Upcoming feature

1. Performance data gathering

The upgrade in the tracking ability for the Live-streaming feature in the pipe. WeChat will support sharing with custom parameters in the coming dates of the feature. The specific parameters are as follows:
Able to track redirections from the live room and the source of the audience;
It also supports custom parameters (such as pid) to tag the audience of the live-streaming session, and then pass when sharing or jumping into the PDP.

2. Feed transfer

Template Live-streaming to support feeds from professional equipment such as cameras. This is undergoing development from Tencent. The ETA date for releasing this feature is mid-late March.
With this feature, Brands are able to transfer the feed from the professional equipment directly to the Mini-program in anywhere in the world. This will give the possibility for live-streaming from overseas locations.

Reference :

https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1659229622083041368&wfr=spider&for=pc
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/mKUYvCpfNmJ8N0wfGU_95g
https://new.qq.com/omn/20200217/20200217A0PVMY00.html?pc=
https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1659525046740706456&wfr=spider&for=pc
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/oqNdNEnRblEzwR_61d3vHA
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/TaGdIpwJ_XMx2_bdFlx64w
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/8wmZ7CHoRq_4ysoW_CjSEw
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/ymvD38JoYOUbVHBKJFYSKQ