Xiaohongshu, or “Little Red Book,” is often referred to as the Chinese version of Instagram due to its visual, user-generated content. The app, which combines social media and e-commerce, has long been a key source of inspiration for brands looking to reach and engage with customers in China. However, many retailers may not fully realize or utilize its potential. What is Xiaohongshu? “Xiaohongshu emphasizes original content and user engagement, and encourages users to
“Xiaohongshu allows users to share personal life experiences and emotional connections,” Ashley Dudarenok, founder of China-based digital consultancy ChoZan, told Inside Retail. “Compared to other platforms, it places more emphasis on the quality of texts and images, and has a strict policy on advertising, plagiarism and low-quality content. Xiaohongshu users strive to create valuable, tasteful and distinctive content that resonates with and captivates readers.” Dudarenok said a unique feature of the platform is its close collaborations and relationships with brands, institutions and key opinion leaders (KOLs). The app also offers creative tools and monetization opportunities, encouraging users to realize their creativity and value on the platform. Founded in 2013, the Chinese social platform has more than 300 million monthly active users, 70 percent of whom are female. The community has over 80 million users who actively contribute to the platform, with user-generated content (UGC) making up 90 percent of posts. “Xiaohongshu also sees itself as a trendsetter and often not only curates trends but also creates trends and brings them to maturity with the help of its army of KOLs and amplified trending topics, as well as select traffic,” she said, adding that the platform is behind the popularity of the recent “city walk” trend, which sees people exploring urban areas in a relaxed, thoughtful way. Brands Benefiting from the App Xiaohongshu began as a platform for recommendations on fashion, restaurants, beauty, and travel. One notable example of a brand using Xiaohongshu to grow is Chinese brand Into You. By using multiple accounts to engage with trending topics and promote products, the makeup brand was able to successfully expand its reach and engagement on the platform. Recently, the brand successfully capitalized on the “nude gate” trend, which gained popularity in July and continued to grow. “The results were impressive: In addition to their official store, about 380 Xiaohongshu stores sold Into You products,” said Dudarenok. She noted that over 100 stores made direct sales in the past 30 days, which contributed significantly to the overall sales numbers. Distributor deals accounted for 40 percent of total sales, highlighting the effectiveness of Into You’s multi-account strategy in increasing product visibility and sales. She also mentioned local dairy brand Zhadian’s success in acquiring customers through Xiaohongshu. “Zhadian Dairy’s strategy was extremely successful, expanding their reach from a core audience of 200,000 to 6 million health-conscious users. With a minimal spend of 30,000 RMB, they achieved significant engagement and sales, resulting in millions in GMV conversions,” she added. How can brands take advantage? To fully leverage the platform’s potential, retail brands should adopt a mix of strategies. Dudarenok highlighted five key approaches: collaborating with KOLs, promoting UGC, creating visually appealing content, using relevant hashtags, and running interactive campaigns. “The core of increasing interactions with Xiaohongshu fans is to post interesting, unique, and personalized content. For example, you can share your own insights and thoughts on some hot topics, or some practical tips and experiences,” she said. She also stressed the importance of posting new content regularly. “Xiaohongshu is a platform with very strong interactivity, and the interaction between fans and bloggers is also very important,” Dudarenok added. “Actively responding to comments and private messages can enhance fans’ sense of belonging and loyalty, and also promote interaction and communication between fans and bloggers.” At the same time, it is crucial for brands to be aware of the multiple challenges they face when it comes to creating content on this fast-growing platform to increase their awareness and engagement among potential customers. According to the expert, a significant challenge is the lack of established universal models on Xiaohongshu, which makes it difficult for brands to develop a consistent and effective content strategy. In addition, the platform’s unique algorithm and user behavior patterns add another layer of complexity that brands must manage to achieve their marketing goals. “For example, on other e-commerce platforms, product engagement, brand data and sales data are fully integrated – the consumer’s path from viewing the product content to the final purchase is very clear. The content preferences of specific user groups, such as students, employees or pregnant women, can be clearly identified,” she said. “However, it is difficult to replicate successful logic on Xiaohongshu.” Primarily, this is because high-performing content and high-volume content are not necessarily equivalent on the platform, she said. “Secondly, it is also difficult to summarize the logic behind high-performing content. In addition, the data between Xiaohongshu’s on-platform e-commerce and seeding content is not fully integrated.” What to expect? The platform significantly doubled its e-commerce, eventually reaching over RMB100 million in gross merchandise value through live streaming, and has also made repeated adjustments to its organizational structure. “For Xiaohongshu, e-commerce is a business that can break the platform’s boundaries,” Dudarenok said. “While live commerce may not be the highest ROI method for domestic bloggers right now, the opportunity for a blogger with 100,000 followers to generate between RMB3 million and RMB4 million in a single live stream is still very tempting. “If you ride a trend from the start, the wave can carry you quite far. “People will continue to use this app to look for recommendations on where to go, what to do and how to do it – during the day in their ‘fragmented time,’ just like they used to read magazines and watch TV,” she added. Dudarenok expects the platform to continue to pursue a ‘social commerce model’ and aim to expand this revenue stream. The platform will continue to attract creators willing to populate it as more small businesses and students look for ways to get their products, services and offerings in front of consumers. “Despite the slow start and subdued consumer sentiment across the country this year, Xiaohongshu wants to find a way to sell directly on the platform, across everyone: official accounts, KOLs and UGC content. Here they have a 50 percent chance of success. Only time will tell,” she concluded.
