Live streaming sales, how to eliminate the troubles under the excitement
2024-12-02
Many readers have reported in their letters that while the live streaming e-commerce industry is rapidly developing, it has also exposed some problems. Both buyers and sellers have their own troubles under the lively atmosphere of "buying, buying, buying". The Report on High Quality Development of Live E-commerce Industry (2023-2024) shows that as of December 2023, the number of live e-commerce users has reached 597 million, accounting for 54.7% of the total number of netizens, a year-on-year increase of 15.9%. The reporter interviewed consumers, live streaming hosts, and experts and scholars to explore how to make live streaming sales feel at ease and sell smoothly. Readers have reported that shopping in live streaming rooms has encountered fraud, and their rights have been "kicked the ball", "pure milk purchased in official flagship store live streaming rooms is suspected to have spoiled", "celebrity live streaming, no after-sales service, false advertising activities deceive consumers"... On consumer complaint platforms, many issues involve shopping in live streaming rooms. The "Double 11" Live Streaming Sales Consumption Survey Report "shows that 39.26% of respondents have encountered problems of deceiving consumers and selling counterfeit and inferior products in live streaming rooms. Nowadays, the forms of fraud are constantly evolving, but rights protection is facing difficulties. Zhang Lan (a pseudonym), a reader in Ya'an City, Sichuan Province, is in her 40s this year. "All her friends are watching live shopping, and they feel they are out of date. They just want to buy an electric bike, so they watched it in the webcast room." In the early morning of October 8, Zhang Lan listened to the introduction of a brand anchor in the Tiktok live broadcast room. During the National Day holiday, the store carried out 10 billion subsidies and manufacturer welfare activities. One electric bike of the brand sold for only 399 yuan. It's too cheap, so I placed the order. "Zhang Lan paid 399 yuan according to the link given in the live broadcast room, but couldn't find the order for the electric bicycle. When asked in the live broadcast room, the anchor said it would not be displayed until after 1 pm in the afternoon. By the afternoon, she still hadn't seen the order, so she started contacting customer service, only to find herself in a vicious circle. Zhang Lan said that the customer service of Tiktok Live believed that the order problem should be complained to Tiktok Mall. Tiktok Mall believes that Zhang Lan has no order record, which is not a problem of the Mall. It is recommended to complain to Tiktok Live. "Isn't it the same company? They pushed around and kicked each other's balls when dealing with problems." What made her even more incomprehensible was that "when I played 12345, they told me that when I complained about Tiktok Live, I would play 12345 in Beijing; when I complained about Tiktok Mall, I would play 12345 in Shanghai. Because the addresses of the two companies were different." When I couldn't see the order, where did I pay 399 yuan? Zhang Lan complained to the People's Daily Online "People's Complaint" and got the reply from the Tiktok platform. Zhang Lan found that 399 yuan had become a reward for the live broadcast room. I have a screenshot of an advertisement in a live streaming room, how could it be turned into a reward, and the reward is still from another live streaming room? "However, the platform believes that Zhang Lan's" input error and improper operation caused it "and cannot" transfer services or refund "her. Guangdong netizen 'Fengxing Tianxia' has a similar experience. At the end of June and beginning of July this year, she purchased multiple card removal orders in the "Chengbao Card Removal" live broadcast room on Xiaohongshu, spending a total of 832 yuan. When checking later, she suspected that the anchor had tampered with the card when unpacking it, replacing the cards that were originally difficult to draw with common ones. She complained to the store, but they refused to publicly broadcast and replay the video, nor did they offer a refund. After investigation, the address of the business license for "Chengbao Card Removal" is in Chengde City, Hebei Province, but the live broadcast room is operated by a cultural media company in Shaanxi Province. Netizen 'Fengxing Tianxia' first complained to the market supervision department in Chengde, and law enforcement officers found on site that the address did not have the company. As the shipping address of the live broadcast room is Shaanxi, she also complained to the relevant departments in Shaanxi. The Market Supervision Bureau of Yanta District, Xi'an City replied that the main information of the merchants on the Xiaohongshu platform shows that their business premises are located in Chengde City, Hebei Province. As a live streaming sales base, a cultural media company in Shaanxi only charges venue fees and has nothing to do with live streaming operations. She was very angry and once again verified that the operator of "Chengbao Card Dismantling" was a supervisor of this company in Shaanxi, and the two companies were not just in a leasing relationship. After more than two months of hard work to protect her rights, she only received a refund of 450 yuan from a cultural media company in Shaanxi on September 25th. According to statistics released by the State Administration for Market Regulation, as of 2023, the number of complaints and reports about live streaming sales received by 12315 platforms nationwide has been increasing year by year, with a growth rate of 47.1 times in the past five years. Difficulties in after-sales rights protection are one of the main problems. Professor Zhang Shengjun from the School of Government Management at Beijing Normal University said that the ownership of rights and responsibilities behind live streaming e-commerce transactions is not clear, involving multiple parties such as stores, live streaming bases, live streaming platforms, registration locations or local authorities, which can easily lead to difficulties in safeguarding rights. "Consumers often don't know who to seek compensation from, and their legitimate rights and interests are violated." The anchor said that in some e-commerce platforms, there is high labor intensity, insufficient protection, "traffic anxiety," and reputation crisis. Consumers are not satisfied, and the anchor also has difficulties. Li Nan (pseudonym) is a live streaming sales anchor who specializes in purchasing imported health products. Without signing a contract with the company, she and her husband are the entire team. She usually goes live at 8am or 2pm and broadcasts for at least 3 hours. At other times, it is necessary to shoot short videos, edit live streaming segments, brainstorm topics, write product introductions and promotional copy, and follow platform rules and activities. During this time, they also have to respond to customer and brand messages at every opportunity, often busy until 11 pm at night. I started my live streaming career in March 2022, initially broadcasting every day for at least 4 hours per session, with special sessions lasting up to 6 hours. During the live broadcast, I dare not drink water or go to the bathroom. I am afraid that once I pause, the hard-earned audience will leave. In such a crowded industry, no one is willing to wait for you. This high-intensity lifestyle lasted for a year and a half, and last year I fell seriously ill. There's no other way, traffic is directly linked to sales, and almost every anchor has' traffic anxiety ', "said Li Nan. The store also experiences' traffic anxiety '. Wang Fenglong is the person in charge of a company that sells Shanxi buckwheat flour products. They have been selling through live streaming for over two years. The sales price in the live streaming room has become cheaper, but the sales volume is large and stable, with small profits and high sales volume, earning more than before. If you sell for 30 yuan, about 15 yuan will be used to attract traffic. Because you don't spend money to attract traffic, there is almost no natural traffic. Recently, many top anchors have been "overturned" one after another, with problems such as false advertising and lax quality control frequently occurring. Li Nan admitted that he has seen many products claiming to be of overseas origin, but even the national flag of the country of origin can be printed incorrectly on the packaging, and even prominent non origin text can be printed directly. "These counterfeit products have passed the corresponding platform review and are all shipped from domestic bonded warehouses. Since the platform and live broadcast room have recognized it, and the anchor is just a salesperson, what can be done?" According to the "China Network Audiovisual Development Research Report (2024)", as of the end of 2023, the number of professional online anchors in China has reached 15.08 million, which means that there is one professional online anchor out of every 100 people. The anchor under the spotlight shines brightly, but the real situation is not like that. To earn a high salary, one must put in a tremendous amount of labor. Just broadcasting one or two shows a day is definitely not enough, at least four shows. I can only earn a salary of over 15000 yuan if I have broadcasted up to 6 times a day, in different venues and brands, speaking non-stop for 14 hours, with a weekly intensity of one week in a month Xiaojie (pseudonym) started working as a professional anchor in Hangzhou, Zhejiang in 2021 and has since switched to seven different companies. Most small companies only sign labor contracts with anchors instead of labor contracts, and unless there are special clauses in the contract, the company and employees can terminate the contract relationship at almost no cost. "As for the protection of the five insurances and one fund, I don't dare to think about it." After one live broadcast, many orders were returned, and the actual transaction amount did not meet expectations. The company had to deduct Xiaojie's corresponding amount of salary as compensation. When selling goods for a long time, there is no reward for us, but when there is less, we have to make up for it. Long working hours, high intensity, and insufficient labor protection have made Xiaojie ponder: shouldn't work responsibility and risk be equal to income? How much should a broadcaster bear? Experts suggest clarifying the responsibilities of sales entities, protecting consumer rights, and also safeguarding the rights of workers. In fact, in response to the problem of exaggerated sales and false advertising in live streaming rooms, e-commerce platforms have recently increased their management efforts and achieved certain results. Li Nan stated that platform policies are frequently adjusted, and restrictions on prohibited words are becoming increasingly strict. When selling health products, words such as "brain," "heart," and "liver" cannot be mentioned. Once mentioned, it may result in a decrease in credit score or even account suspension. Wang Fenglong also gave an example, using the buckwheat noodles they produce as an example, the anchor can say that they have a "feeling of fullness", but cannot mention "weight loss". On the one hand, the punishment for false advertising in laws and regulations is not small, but it is difficult for consumers to provide evidence for sales in live streaming rooms Zhang Shengjun said that on the other hand, the platform suspended the sale of illegal anchors, but after a period of time, they changed their company or account and started selling goods again, which reduced the effectiveness of supervision. In addition, cross regional purchases through e-commerce platforms have become the norm, and it is worth paying attention to and exploring how the principle of territorial jurisdiction in market supervision can better adapt to the new situation. Consumers only see the host selling goods in the live broadcast room, but the underlying subject relationships are quite complex In response to the current difficulty in protecting consumer rights in live streaming sales, Lv Laiming, a professor at the Law School of Beijing Technology and Business University and director of the Business Law Research Center, believes that the most important thing in live streaming sales is to clarify who the responsible party is. "We need to clarify who is selling the products and whose products they are selling," Lv Laiming said. Clarifying the responsible party is an effective prerequisite for constraining the platform, live streaming room, and the host themselves, as well as for safeguarding consumer rights and resolving disputes between the host and the company behind it. Many live streaming sales are commissioned by product companies. Lv Laiming believes that it is necessary to distinguish whether the anchor is engaged in false advertising, the product company is unaware, or both parties are aware of the false advertising. Different situations require different handling. Whoever violates the law will be punished and responsible for compensation, which will help consumers better protect their rights, "he said. Zhao Yu, Deputy Director of the Consumer Guidance Department of the China Consumers Association, believes that it is necessary to strengthen the platform's main responsibility. She stated that e-commerce platforms should further improve relevant rules, establish blacklists and whitelists, increase penalties, and crack down severely on behaviors such as fraud in live streaming rooms and difficulties in after-sales rights protection. "We should guide merchants to operate honestly and trustworthy, and require merchants to upload introductions and recordings of each product during live streaming sales, in order to preserve evidence for various disputes that may occur in the future, and strive to solve the problems that consumers may encounter after shopping before shopping." Live streaming sales belong to the platform economy of a new form of employment. In July of this year, online anchors were included in the "nationally determined occupational classification" as new professional workers, but the labor relationship between online anchors and employers is not clear. Platform employment often involves multiple business entities, complex relationships between enterprises, and widespread subcontracting at various levels. In this regard, Zhang Shengjun believes that the principle of prioritizing facts in determining labor relations should be adhered to. Based on the employment facts, the relationship between enterprises and workers should be determined. "If the anchor does not have the right to negotiate personal packaging, live streaming content, performance methods, income distribution, etc., and presents a subordinate characteristic of individuals to organizations in e-commerce companies, they generally tend to recognize labor relations. In this case, the rights and interests of the anchor's workers should be protected." "A social security system that is suitable for new professional workers such as online anchors has not yet been formed, and there are still shortcomings in social insurance participation, payment, and treatment," Zhang Shengjun suggested that relevant departments and public institutions can timely introduce preferential measures in employment training, professional talent training, and expansion
Edit：Rina Responsible editor：Lily
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