Retail Management

Section B

Beryl: E-commerce Live

Streaming Strategy

Group 9

TEAM MEMBERS
PGP/25/334 KHUSHBU DAWAR
PGP/25/335 KORRA KALYANI
PGP/25/337 KRISHNA GOPAL MAHOR
PGP/25/356 SANTHOSH KUMAR C
PGP/25/363 SUKRIT SHUKLA
1. Should Beryl focus on developing Livestream e-commerce to boost sales? Why?

Yes, Beryl should focus on developing Livestream e-commerce to boost sales.

● Upstream, midstream, and downstream components make up the Livestream Ecosystem. The
upstream Livestream e-commerce industry chain consists of brand owners, factories, or
industrial bases; midstream consists of live streamers and internet celebrities; and downstream
consists of consumers.
● Beryl entered the Livestream e-commerce market to reach its Chinese audience. It formed a
partnership with Viya, the leading live-streaming platform on Taobao. The immense
popularity of Viya served as the impetus for Beryl's best-selling product, and the company
was able to repeatedly break sales records. Nonetheless, Viya's popularity came at a cost, and
Beryl ultimately possessed no negotiating leverage for Livestream sales. After deducting sales
commissions for the live streamer, Beryl had a negative profit. This foray into the Livestream
e-commerce market resulted in a loss, making it difficult for Beryl to establish brand loyalty
and repeat business.
● Beryl had not yet established a partnership with a top-tier live streamer, so they had to rely on
once-famous individuals and live streamers of a lower caliber. Beryl simultaneously
established its own in-house Livestream team and organized a series of Livestream events that
involved its offline salesforce.
● Beryl should not compromise the brand image and superior quality of the goji berry products
they sell. In addition, they should avoid incurring losses by offering high sales commissions
to leading live streamers. If they can promote their flagship products with other top live
streamers who believe in promoting quality products, they can generate enormous returns and
profits for their business. Nonetheless, they should not skimp on product quality, as this is
their long-term competitive advantage.

2. Which business models does livestream e-commerce involve? How does it change people
product- place” What are its strengths and weaknesses?

Models involved - B2B & B2C

It changes the people product place by:

● The clients may virtually preview things from the comfort of their living room if they so
want. Both the Converse AR Sampler and Sephora Virtual Artist are excellent examples of
recent consumer experiences that are now available to customers. Customers can "test" things
"virtually" using online services, simulating what they could previously only do "physically."

● Taobao is a complete e-commerce platform with strong supply chains and abundant shop
resources.
● While ecommerce tasks like ordering, payment, and logistics are primarily handled by
relevant third parties (like Taobao, Pinduoduo, and Youzan) or processed through the video
platform's internal ecommerce side, short video platforms are in charge of diverting traffic
and marketing products through livestreams.
● The emergence of this brand-new livestream sector also sparked the MCN sector's explosive
expansion. MCNs work with media platforms to provide marketing, supply chain
management, brand management, and other services in addition to producing content for
online celebrities and live streamers.

Weakness Strengths

Customers are price sensitive Customer journey is enhanced

Discounts are for a limited time Variety of products have increased

Competition within the live streamers Increasing competition offers more values to the
has increased customers in terms of discount and user
experience

3. What does the relationship between live-streamers and brand owners look like? Is it
healthy -sustainable and win- win relationship? What are the demands of consumers
who watch livestreams? What do live streamers and brand owners expect, respectively?
How should one create a sustainable live stream models that leads to win -win
outcomes?

Relationship with brands and live-streamers:

1. Based on the live streamer influence the terms and conditions with the brands change. Highly
influential streamers command a higher say in what they promote.
2. Viya - A leading influencer - has a team of 200 to select the products to promote them. Only
1% are selected from a list of 150000 products.
3. Brands has to maintain the balance between the margins to the influencer and the discounted
price that they sell. Products that satisfy this will be beneficial for the brands.
4. Sometimes to maintain the customer base influencers demand low discounts which are turned
down by the brands.
5. Commission to the influencers involves the two components a slotting fee and the sales
commission. For low level influencers only commission fee is paid and high level both
slotting fee and commission is paid.
6. A minimal sale performance clause is maintained and commissions are based on a guaranteed
threshold.
7. The target audience of the influence and the brands should match for win-win. But if there is
mismatch then brands lose money through the collaboration.
 8. The presence of only small number of high-level influencers creates unsustainable situation
for brands that don’t satisfy the influencers terms. Also, there is no authority for the content
used by the influencers.
9. The customers are influencer loyal and not brand loyal resulting in sale spikes and not
consistent sales.

Demands of the customers:

1. Most of the customer purchase order lies in price range of 30 - 50 Yuan.
2. Impulse buying with low product service associated with it.
3. Purchase based on influencer recommendation not the brand benefits.

Way Forward:
In current situation influencers gain most out of the process rather the brands.
For the relationship to be sustainable the discounts and the commissions sharing need to arrive on a
win-win basis.

4. How does Beryl maximize profits from its three major product lines through live
stream? (Top live streamers Vs second -tier live streamers Vs an in-house livestream
team?

Beryl launched three flagship products to match premium positioning.

Product First-crop goji berries Guo Xiao Fan goji Fresh goji berries
berry juice

Package 6g/bag * 36bags* 2 30ml*7(210g) 80g

(432g)

Shelf Life 365 days 180 days 90 days

Price 89.9 yen 99 yen 99 yen

The three Beryl flagship goods are all expensive and high-quality, as can be observed. Fresh goji
berries are the item with the shortest shelf life and the highest price. Beryl can partner with live
streams for products that have a short shelf life and yield the highest earnings. This will enable fresh
goji berries to reach a wider population and speed up consumption. Furthermore, by doing this, Beryl
will be able to sell more Goji berries and prevent any stockpiling of this commodity.

Guo Xian Fan goji berry juice can be traded for the inferior live streams. This has a 180-day shelf
life. Despite the fact that second tier live streamers do not have as large a supporter base as top ones
and goji berry juice has a longer shelf life, it may take some time before any cash is generated.
For First-crop goji berries, which have a 365-day shelf life and may last longer, Beryl can employ its
internal staff. The internal live streams won't have large customer bases, and it can take them some
time to generate sales and earnings. The cost of the First Crop Goji Berries is somewhat less than that
of the other two premium goods.

In consideration of the above, Beryl may choose a different strategy for interacting with live
streamers depending on the kind of products and their attributes.