But the days of book e-commerce are still not easy. A live broadcast saved Zhongtu Network, earning 20 million yuan of "life-saving money" traffic in 4 days | Video | Books
Since being hit by floods for a week, the normal living order in Zhuozhou has gradually been restored, and the highly anticipated Zhongtu Network has also shown a glimmer of vitality. After Huang Ping, the founder of the website, launched his first Taobao live streaming sales promotion, the "fuel bag" worth 20 million yuan in just 4 days brought the possibility of self rescue to Zhongtu Network. However, even with the live streaming traffic pool, the "road to revival" of book e-commerce is still blocked and long.
"Highlight moment"
More than 4 million books and 300 million QR codes were turned into nothing in the face of the flood. In the live broadcast room of Taobao's "China Library Bookstore", Huang Ping covered his face several times, "none of the setbacks can compare to the fatal blow of this flood."
Compared to professional book e-commerce platforms such as Dangdang.com and Confucius, Zhongtu Net is very niche and its popularity is generally limited to book enthusiasts. In 1998, Huang Ping founded Zhongtu Net, which was one of the earliest book e-commerce platforms in China. However, with mainstream e-commerce platforms such as Dangdang, JD.com, and Amazon joining the book market, China National Library Network has begun to shift to selling books in bulk, with book prices mostly below 50% off.
As a result, Xiao He was defeated by Xiao He. It was precisely because he chose to position himself as a surplus of books that Zhongtu Network came to life. However, this also resulted in a large inventory, a large number of out of print and old edition books, and invisibly increased the risk of warehouse flooding.
After the warehouse was flooded, public emotions quickly transformed into consumer willingness. In order to accelerate self rescue, Huang Ping made his first Taobao broadcast on the afternoon of the 4th, exchanging information with netizens about self rescue and resuming production. Nearly 100000 netizens watched this live broadcast.
The books affected by the disaster cannot continue to be sold, and Zhongtu Network can only use pre-sale methods to bring goods. The "Zhongtu Network Fuel Pack" book blind box has been launched, with 4 books randomly selected for 99 yuan. The other 99 yuan "Zhongtu Network Fuel Pack - Cultural and Creative Edition" will use 10% of the funds to support peers in resuming production.
With the help of free sales from top Taobao live streamers such as Luo Yonghao and Lin Yilun, Zhongtu Network has ushered in a 25 year old "shining moment": due to high traffic, the website crashed at one point. As of the time of publication, according to the official mini program data of Zhongtu Network, 140000 sets of book fuel packs have been sold, 26000 sets of cultural and creative fuel packs have been sold, and with the sales of nearly 50000 sets on Taobao stores, it is expected that Zhongtu Network will have sales of nearly 20 million yuan in a few days.
Peak traffic
After 25 years of operation, no one knows, but a live broadcast is well-known throughout the world. Live streaming not only pulled China National Library Network back from the brink of extinction, but also served as a lifeline for many primary and secondary book markets.
At present, there are three main models of book e-commerce in China: the book self operation model represented by Dangdang, the third-party service platform represented by Taobao, and the second-hand book e-commerce represented by Duozhuyu. Zhongtu Network is mainly focused on book self operation. Unfortunately, in recent years, books have struggled to become the core business of e-commerce and have mostly become one of the entry points for traffic.
Live streaming e-commerce has become a new channel in the book market, and the scenario based sales method during live streaming makes selling books more attractive. Last June, Dong Yuhui recommended the award-winning work "The Right Bank of the Erguna River" by Mao Dun Literature Award in the Dongfang Selection live broadcast room. In four months, it sold about 710000 copies, with sales exceeding 10 million yuan, equivalent to the total sales of the novel in 17 years after its first edition in 2005.
A novel that is not a best seller has become popular in Tiktok, and the influence of live broadcast e-commerce can be seen. The 2022 Annual Report on Book Retail Market released by Beijing Open Book also shows that sales of physical stores and platform e-commerce books have declined by 37.22% and 16.06% respectively. At the same time, short video e-commerce has emerged as a new force, with a year-on-year increase of 42.86%, becoming an important channel for new book launches. The 2022 Tiktok E-commerce Book Consumption Data Report also shows that Tiktok has sold 250 million book orders in the whole year, and the mall scene has driven GMV's year-on-year growth of 315%.
According to the opening information, after 2020, the online traffic in China's book market has gradually peaked, and short videos have rapidly seized market share. Apart from the direct obstacles of the epidemic to printing and logistics, the fundamental reason is still the peak of online traffic. Live streaming e-commerce, relying on short video platforms for high penetration of user time, is rapidly seizing market share.
The financial report data of the publishing industry also indirectly confirms this point. According to the financial report of CITIC Publishing, the company has strengthened the construction of its own live streaming account system, and the gross profit margin of book publishing and distribution business has increased by 1 percentage point compared to 2021. In 2022, its five accounts entered the top 10 of publishing house self broadcasting, and the advantage of live streaming e-commerce is significant. The new classic financial report also showed that the company's sales revenue in new channels such as Tiktok rose rapidly. The revenue of the book direct sales model was 106 million yuan, up 94.04% year on year, accounting for 11.3% of the total operating revenue.
Profit pressure
Although live streaming has increased the sales of books, the profit pressure on booksellers has actually increased.
This phenomenon is easy to understand. Traditional book merchants generally do not have the ability to incubate anchors, while top sales anchors have excellent communication and cultural backgrounds. Dong Yuhui is the best example. Therefore, publishing companies have low self broadcast sales in short video e-commerce and lack bargaining power in sales channels.
The deteriorating competitive landscape in the book industry also has a hidden factor. A research report by Guangfa Securities analyzed the "lipstick effect" under the epidemic. During the epidemic, book sales in the United States experienced a small peak due to consumers increasing their home time. The relatively low prices of books can well meet the spiritual needs of spare time. However, China is quite different. Based on the richer mobile Internet ecology in China, more leisure time flows to short videos, games and other entertainment content. In addition, the lack of consumer motivation caused by the epidemic has also led to more book sales turning to short video e-commerce channels with lower discounts, resulting in the emergence of the phenomenon of "bad coins driving out good coins".
The insurance difficulties exposed by this flood may become the "last straw" that overwhelms book e-commerce.
Affected by the publishing cycle, high inventory is almost an unavoidable problem for book e-commerce. High inventory not only means a long return cycle, but also increases the risk of goods loss. Especially for products like books, which are flammable, water sensitive, and have a low unit price, there are not many related insurance products.
Comprehensive family property insurance is the most common type of property insurance in the market, which usually covers fire and explosion, falling objects in the air, collapse of external objects, natural disasters, etc., including rainstorm, and claims can be settled after damage. A staff member of an Internet insurance platform told the reporter that home property insurance is usually insured for individuals, not including warehouse commercial real estate. The pricing logic of commercial insurance needs to assess historical loss records, that is, Zhuozhou library was hit by rainstorm, and the premium for future insurance may be more expensive than before.
Zhongtu Network has also encountered similar situations before. A few years ago, when Huang Ping renewed his insurance for the book warehouse, he was rejected by the original insurance company. Other insurance companies had property insurance premiums of up to 1 million yuan per year, which ultimately persuaded Huang Ping to withdraw and led to an embarrassing situation where there was no insurance after this year's catastrophic disaster.
