TikTok e-commerce aims to address the 'water and soil incompatibility' faced by durable consumer goods.

In the complex business world, order, standardization, and systematization are often seen as effective solutions to deal with uncertain environments.

Whether it's production operations on the assembly line or macro-level organizational management, standardized process mechanisms can maximize the stability of business quality, economic benefits, and timely rectification of weaknesses, thereby fostering robust risk resistance capabilities.

TikTok e-commerce's recently released CORE business methodology is also a standardized system of business practices designed for platform merchants.

Based on the deep integration of the platform's content and shelf scenarios, TikTok e-commerce has consolidated its methodology, which originally addressed individual, isolated issues, into a systematic CORE business methodology. This guides merchants to improve operational efficiency and achieve predictable business growth through a 'systematic perspective' and 'standardized actions.'

To a certain extent, the CORE business methodology is an inevitable outcome of TikTok e-commerce entering the new era of ubiquitous interconnectivity. Unlike broad theoretical guidance, the CORE methodology attempts to chart a more specific course of action for merchants, providing clearer growth paths for all, including the durable consumer goods industry, which has historically struggled to gain traction on e-commerce platforms.

01: Solving the "E-commerce Water and Soil Incompatibility" of the Durable Consumer Goods Industry

Over the past four years, TikTok e-commerce has undergone three stages of development, gradually addressing the 'water and soil incompatibility' faced by the durable consumer goods industry.

At its inception in 2020, TikTok e-commerce positioned itself as an interest-based e-commerce platform centered on content, with user attention focused on short videos and live streams that directly drive consumption scenarios. At that time, most merchants were attempting to capture traffic and stimulate consumption through content, but this approach naturally favored fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) such as apparel, food, and beauty products. Durable goods like electronics and furniture, however, struggled to gain traction.

A live streamer promoting products | Image source: Visual China

FMCGs, with their focus on 'low price and high frequency,' have low consumer decision-making costs and are easily swayed by quick, engaging content. In contrast, durable goods are 'high price and low frequency,' with complex decision-making chains that are less influenced by fleeting emotions. Furthermore, traditional durable goods merchants prioritize product development and channel distribution, lacking the ability to create compelling content and build content matrices, making it difficult for them to find business breakthroughs in a content-driven consumption model.

It wasn't until 2022 that TikTok e-commerce began expanding its shelf scene, integrating 'search + mall + store' to accommodate users' round-the-clock active consumption needs. This laid the groundwork for durable goods merchants to enter and thrive in the refined e-commerce landscape.

Since then, more merchants have focused on shelf operations, gradually cultivating user awareness and habits for making large purchases on TikTok e-commerce, thereby opening up market space for durable goods. Simultaneously, the dual-wheel growth of content and shelf scenes has provided greater inclusivity for durable goods merchants, enabling them to adapt to platform rules and playstyles, finding suitable growth paths amidst diverse human-goods matching models.

During this stage, merchants gradually learned to approach high-traffic areas, but the specifics of acquiring traffic still required continuous exploration.

TikTok e-commerce continued to evolve its platform ecosystem, fully integrating content and shelf scenes, entering the third stage of ubiquitous interconnectivity. It's crucial to note that 'ubiquitous interconnectivity' not only refers to smoother user behavior flow between content and shelf scenes but also signifies significant changes in platform traffic attributes, directions, and distribution mechanisms.

TikTok e-commerce states that merchants can now simultaneously receive traffic distribution from both the platform's 'transaction pool' and 'content pool.' Distribution from the transaction pool is more precise, leading to better e-commerce conversion rates. Distribution from the content pool, on the other hand, depends on whether the content aligns with user interests. Merchants must capture user interests, create appealing content, optimize interactive experiences, and continuously accumulate followers to sustainably acquire traffic from the content pool.

Compared to the transaction pool, the content pool offers greater potential and higher traffic ceilings. This requires merchants to not only secure traffic from the transaction pool but also continuously mine traffic from the content pool, leveraging 'high-quality content' to unlock broader business growth opportunities.

TikTok e-commerce believes that the essence of e-commerce lies in satisfying user needs. Those who meet these needs deserve more traffic. In other words, the flow of TikTok e-commerce traffic is closely tied to user need satisfaction – merchants must optimize all aspects of the user behavior chain, responding to user needs with correct operational actions to secure more predictable platform traffic.

Formulating this traffic distribution mechanism requires merchants to comprehensively consider all operational aspects and adopt standardized, systematic methodologies to enhance development efficiency and predictability.

Against this backdrop, TikTok e-commerce further introduced the new CORE business methodology, providing systematic, ubiquitous operational guidance to empower merchants with control over their businesses. For the durable goods industry, which craves predictable growth, TikTok e-commerce operations have essentially become an 'open-book exam': By adhering to the CORE methodology, merchants can achieve efficient and stable business growth.

02: 'Stable Productivity' Stemming from the CORE Business Methodology

From a tool perspective, the CORE business methodology resembles an integrated system with clearer production standards, more distinct development paths, and more predictable growth outcomes. It guides merchants from 'locally optimal solutions' towards 'globally optimal solutions.'

Overall, the CORE growth model comprises four key sections: Cost vs Quality (value for money and comprehensive product offerings), Omni-Content (omnichannel content), Reach (marketing amplification), and Experience (enhanced user experience). Value for money, marketing amplification, and enhanced user experience correspond to 'transactional power,' while omnichannel content aligns with 'content power.' Merchants should focus on these four areas to meet user needs, execute operational actions, and prioritize enhancing 'content power' to maximize traffic competitiveness.

'Cost vs Quality' (represented by C) serves as the foundation of merchant operations. 'Comprehensive product offerings' increase the likelihood of successful human-goods matching, broadening the merchant's audience reach. Meanwhile, 'value for money' enhances product competitiveness, making it easier to persuade users and facilitate transactions. During this year's 618 shopping festival, Midea specifically launched nine cost-effective, exclusive products on TikTok e-commerce, achieving 'comprehensive product offerings' through diverse selection. Additionally, by offering exclusive subsidies, trade-in incentives, and multi-tier buy-one-get-one promotions for its best-selling Panda and Cool Power air conditioners, Midea maintained high visibility and conversion rates during the event, ranking first in the home appliance industry.

In TikTok e-commerce's ubiquitous interconnectivity phase, high-quality content remains crucial to transaction volumes. 'Omnichannel Content' (represented by O) remains key to unlocking business potential. However, simplistic 'hard-sell' content is gradually losing its appeal, with users favoring engaging, narrative-driven content that fosters strong interactions.

Increasingly, merchants on TikTok e-commerce are creating branded content through factory tours, celebrity appearances, CEO deals, and self-created festivals. They collaborate with influencers who excel in both content creation and transaction facilitation, experiment with innovative content formats such as short dramas, variety shows, and product launches, and actively leverage trending topics to capture traffic. In 2023, TikTok short dramas' views increased by 350%, while platform-produced variety shows and branded runway shows witnessed exponential traffic growth. Examples include Linshijia's fashion show in its live streaming studio, transforming its 'bag chair' into a fashionable accessory among influencers, and inviting top influencer Wang Qiye for a runway show. These innovative content initiatives consistently generate organic traffic and differentiated marketing value for merchants.

'Reach' (represented by R) acts as a business amplifier. TikTok e-commerce's marketing ecosystem, including regular mall channels, platform promotions, advertisements, and various IP-based marketing campaigns, offers opportunities to scale businesses and contribute to merchants' overall marketing value. Xiaomi, a seasoned player in internet marketing, emphasized TikTok e-commerce marketing investments during the launch of its Mi 14 series. By leveraging the platform's New Day marketing IP, Xiaomi successfully propelled its new products to virality across the site, achieving over 80 million in transactions and accelerating business momentum.

'Experience' (represented by E) sets the baseline for business operations. User satisfaction determines whether merchants can transition from one-time transactions to sustainable growth, both online and offline. On TikTok e-commerce, the 'Experience Score,' calculated based on product, logistics, and service experiences, serves as a crucial metric for assessing store service capabilities. It not only influences merchants' access to traffic but also serves as a basic threshold for participating in platform activities. For instance, during peak sales periods, Midea's customer service team maintained an average response time of 15 seconds and a shipment time of 15 hours, ensuring exceptional service standards and experience optimization that helped the brand better retain its customer base.

TikTok e-commerce's Compass also provides a series of specific metrics centered around C, O, R, and E. Merchants can leverage these quantitative indicators to assess the effectiveness of their operational actions in each section and achieve predictable business growth by targetedly optimizing weaknesses.

Upon examining the essence of business operations, it becomes evident that while the CORE methodology is divided into four sections, they are not isolated but interconnected, mutually reinforcing, and promoting each other in actual operations. This holistic operational ecosystem not only strengthens the structural stability of durable goods merchants' e-commerce businesses but also presents opportunities for 'single-point breakthroughs leading to overall explosions' in business growth.

03: 'Predictable Growth Strategies' Tailored to Different Types of Merchants

As an intuitive 'predictable growth strategy' for merchants, the CORE business methodology can be applied comprehensively or flexibly disassembled for use. Merchants operating in different sectors, stages, or with varying needs can selectively focus on one or two sections to enhance efficiency before gradually expanding to cover all sections and scale their operations.

For durable goods merchants with varying levels of online development experience, driven by products, services, or branding, this approach offers significant value. TikTok e-commerce notes that before launching the CORE growth model externally, the platform spent six months running case studies, developing products, and building tools. Currently, several typical durable goods industries, including mobile phones, furniture, and home appliances, have already seen brands validate the model's feasibility and practicality.

As a seasoned internet marketing veteran, Xiaomi is no stranger to various e-commerce marketing tactics. Nevertheless, by comprehensively advancing across the C, O, R, and E sections, Xiaomi has achieved efficient business growth.

For instance, Xiaomi routinely focuses on a matrix of new, popular, and existing products on its shelves, with prices spanning low, medium, and high ranges to ensure value for money and comprehensive product offerings. During key launches of flagship models like the Mi 14 series and Redmi Turbo3, Xiaomi chose TikTok e-commerce for their premieres. The Mi 14 was launched alongside an exclusive Qualcomm-branded gift box, while the Redmi Turbo3 came with a complimentary gift box worth 300 yuan. Coupled with direct discounts on popular products during the same period, these initiatives laid a solid foundation for the launches' success.

During the traffic accumulation phase for new products, Xiaomi prioritized 'Omnichannel Content.' For instance, it collaborated with top influencers to showcase the Mi 14 in immersive 'virtual showroom' content, propelling search volumes to industry-leading levels. During the Redmi Turbo3's launch, Xiaomi executives interacted with users live on TikTok, generating over 650 million exposures for related topics and rapidly boosting the product's visibility.

In terms of marketing amplification, Xiaomi views TikTok e-commerce as its primary marketing hub. It regularly enrolls popular and existing products in channels like Super Value Deals, leverages platform subsidies and traffic support effectively, and actively participates in IP-based marketing campaigns like New Day during phone, tablet, and home appliance launches to fuel business growth. Additionally, by offering services like trade-ins, average 8-hour expedited shipping for all models, and compensation for late shipments, Xiaomi continuously optimizes user experiences and enhances user satisfaction.

Compared to Xiaomi, which emerged from the internet era, traditional furniture brand Linshijia faces a more pressing need to break through in e-commerce. Following the CORE methodology, Linshijia has transcended the traditional furniture industry's marketing mindset, leveraging 'value for money and comprehensive product offerings' and 'omnichannel content' as primary pillars to create a phenomenal hit product, the 'Bag Chair,' achieving growth from 'single product explosion' to 'store-wide explosion.'

Firstly, Linshijia combined market trends and user needs to create the 'Bag Chair,' a portable, affordable chair priced at just a few hundred yuan. It positioned the Bag Chair as a lead product, extending its reach through a series of complementary new products like the 'Big Black Cow Sofa' and 'Cloudy White Horse Bed.' While emphasizing both hard pricing and soft benefits, Linshijia ensured its entire product lineup could effectively capture traffic generated by the Bag Chair.

Subsequently, Linshijia leveraged the Bag Chair's inherent scenario appeal, topic potential, and viral potential to create innovative, eye-catching, and easily shareable content. For instance, instead of relying solely on live streaming sales pitches, it incorporated office scenes and narratives into product showcases or staged fashion shows in its live streaming studio, collaborating with top influencers. Concurrently, concentrated omnichannel content releases, including influencer live streams and short video 'seed planting,' swiftly transformed the Bag Chair into a trending fashion accessory. Linshijia experienced a remarkable surge, achieving 70 million in sales and adding 20 million new customers within just 14 days, rocketing to the top of the furniture industry.

It's evident that the CORE business methodology's value lies in its systematic approach and flexibility. Whether mature brands like Xiaomi with extensive e-commerce experience, traditional brands like Linshijia seeking to break through e-commerce development bottlenecks, or small-to-medium-sized durable goods merchants in their initial stages, seeking to enhance business efficiency through single-point breakthroughs, all can selectively focus on different operational aspects within the CORE methodology to achieve targeted growth.

The business environment is unpredictable. The standardized and systematic guidance provided by the CORE operation methodology is an easier-to-use operation efficiency tool for businesses to face the uncertain external environment and internal development.

Following this line of thinking, with the continuous evolution of Douyin's e-commerce ecosystem and the continuous innovation of platform methods and tools, business operating efficiency will continue to be optimized upwards, and the business growth potential of the global interest e-commerce will also be more thoroughly released.