The Essence of Content Commerce: A Replicable Methodology for Meeting User Needs

I’ve always been pretty quiet on WeChat Moments, but recently I posted: The essence of influencer economics is the ability to provide replicable methodologies—that’s what really hits the pain point for ordinary people.

When building a product, there’s a very basic principle: your product must solve a problem. If it doesn’t, then the product has no reason to exist.

The products that ultimately die either never solved a problem to begin with, or they were just too weak at solving it to keep up with competitors.

Think about the hundreds of WeChat public accounts you follow—how many have you since unfollowed? On the surface, it might seem like you dropped them because the content got worse or the ads multiplied. But if you dig deeper, you’ll find the real reason: the only reason you followed them in the first place was that, at some moment, they offered you a solution to a specific problem.

For example, you needed to check your exam results. You lived in a fixed place, so you needed local information services—you followed that account specifically to look up scores. Once you passed that stage, unfollowing felt completely natural, no hesitation at all.

Everyone complains that WeChat has become too heavy, hijacking your work and personal life, and they uninstall it. But you’ll notice these same people usually end up running two or three WeChat accounts anyway. Ask them to delete WeChat entirely? Only if their clients, colleagues, and friends all stop using it too.

WeChat’s real strength is that it binds your social relationships—clients, users, friends, family—so you can stay in touch at a lower cost and with greater convenience. That’s exactly what makes WeChat an irreplaceable product.

So the fundamental logic of any product is to solve user problems. When you can accompany users throughout their entire lifecycle, your product becomes very hard to kill. (WeChat basically won’t die as long as communication and contact management exist as a foundation.) A great example here is Renren and Facebook—both started as campus social networks. Renren could acquire university students as quickly as Facebook, but it failed to manage user lifecycle well. Four years in college is already the absolute limit; after graduation, career demands pull users away and they delete Renren. Facebook, on the other hand, evolved alongside its users’ life stages, keeping their social connections locked in even after they left campus.

Renren is nearly dead; Facebook is conquering the world.

Back to running a public account: what was your original motivation for following? Maybe it offered useful resources for a keyword you searched, or one particular article convinced you the account could help you in some area.

That’s how trendy content economies work—especially content-driven e-commerce. Recommendations, shopping guides, reviews, and product placements all succeed because content itself is a methodology.

Last year, one of the biggest trends in WeChat circles was “straight-guy makeovers.”

Now everyone building accounts is pivoting toward “planting grass”—that is, seeding desire and driving sales.

The accounts that actually make it all provide one essential thing: a methodology. If you learn it (or buy it), you’ll become the version of yourself I’m showing off.

My favorite product brand is IKEA.

If I had to write IKEA’s own introduction, it would go something like this: Home, clearly visible.

The first time I learned about IKEA was in college, when a professor praised its offline experience. The second time, an article recommended bringing a date to a place that feels like home—and I completely agreed. After visiting once, I found it genuinely comforting. Looking at IKEA’s products, I couldn’t help but imagine what my own home should look like.

IKEA has tons of loyal fans because it gives you a blueprint for your own home. Don’t know how to furnish? No problem—it offers abundant products and plenty of ready-made layout plans. When you walk into its store, you’re not just seeing furniture; you’re seeing what your future home could look like.

IKEA is the original blueprint for content-driven e-commerce, offering an entire home-decoration system.

Today’s sales-focused accounts follow the exact same logic: they provide a complete solution to a problem.

Users don’t want the product itself—they want the solution.

That’s why people follow fashion and beauty accounts: they want to learn how to dress better or apply makeup so they can look more handsome or beautiful. If you just push products without teaching them how to solve that problem, you have no value to them. Why should they follow you? You’re only after the money in their wallets, yet you haven’t helped them solve anything—why would they pay you?

The essence of content e-commerce is that content provides problem-solving solutions—it’s really a service. The products being sold are merely one component of that solution.

I have a workable plan for looking better, but you’ll need to buy my product. Look, here’s the plan—take it or leave it.

DeDao sells well not because it peddles anxiety. Quite the opposite—it sells solutions to anxiety.

Content e-commerce is essentially selling a proposal: identify the user’s pain point, offer a free solution (a plan, a methodology), and within that plan, the product you want them to buy is simply included.

Consider the story of razors and blades.

Whether you’re creating content or building a product, the guiding purpose should always be solving problems—that’s how you stay close to your users.

The essence of content e-commerce: delivering replicable methodologies that meet user needs.

My blog: renzhishengji.cn

My WeChat: lixuehanoffice