Content Marketing

Launching Your Brand On China’s Xiahongshu Or The Little Red Book?

Kickstart Your Brand On Xiahongshu With A Few Handy Tips

Before you launch your brand on Xiahongshu, you must understand that it is a fast-growing social media and ecommerce platform. It was founded in 2013 to create a community where users could find recommendations about foreign fashion and cosmetics. In only four years, it’s garnered more than 70 million subscribers and developed its own cross-border ecommerce platform called Fulishe (福利社) which is taking a leading role in China’s cross-border ecommerce sector.

Why Launch Your Brand On Xiahongshu?

While the world shops on e-bay, Amazon, Walmart, etc. China and parts of Asia are hooked onto JD.com, Alibaba, Tmall, Suning, Kaola, VIP.com and the newest platform on the block that is grabbing global eyeballs – Xiahongshu

We’ve already spoken about how this popular platform has gained immense popularity among the hottest target segment that is ‘The Millennials’ in our previous Xiahongshu article.

brand on xiahongshu

Before we get into launching your brand on Xiahongshu, we want you to understand what Xiahongshu is all about

A promising fashion e-commerce platform

brand on xiahongshu

On June 6, 2017, Xiaohongshu held a shopping festival to celebrate its fourth anniversary and the sales revenue exceeded 100 million RMB in only two hours, while the app itself hit the top of the App Store ratings in the “Shopping” category, rapidly increasing new users.

Who are the users?

brand on xiahongshu

 

The CEO himself, Mao Wenchao revealed in 2015 that 70-80 percent of the site’s users are female and more than 50 percent of Xiahongshu’s users are students and office ladies from 18-35, living in first and second-tier cities

The app’s co-founder Miranda Qu also mentioned that it had successfully broken into the third and fourth-tier cities and 70 percent of its new users were born after 1995.

What you need to know about the brands already associated with Xiahongshu

Two way e-commerce platform

Think Pinterest x Instagram x Amazon giving way to Xiahongshu. The evolved Chinese consumer is aware of foreign products and many aspirational brands that he/she wants to invest in. However, this platform creates a community of users discovering new brands and to share with other users. The reviews on this platform are not mere 3-4 liners but an actual note that users dedicatedly write to share with the others.

The commission model

Users can post product photos with reviews and tips and other users will read, comment, and save these posts to boards (Pinterest reference). Users who frequently post quality content will start to grow a following of other users who see them as shopping experts and turn to them for advice. These users with large, trusting audiences become influencers on the site and can actually earn a commission from helping Xiahongshu sell products.

Brand Associations

A recent report reveals that the number of mentions of luxury labels such as Hugo Boss and Max Mara by users has increased quickly on the platform. Over the past year, French luxury powerhouse Chanel was mentioned 2.24 million times, with Dior following after at 2.14 million mentions. Meanwhile, Hugo Boss recorded a 271 percent jump in mentions, with Bally and Max Mara both achieving growth of 133 percent.

Is your brand the right fit?

Now that you have an understanding of how the platform operates, you will have already figured out that this platform is solely for those brands that enunciate a ‘lifestyle’. Most of Xiahongshu’s brands are fashion, health, beauty, baby styles and other lifestyle products that consumers are engaged with.

How do I register with Xiahongshu?

If your brand is the right fit and has caught the eye of this e-commerce e-tailer then your brand is likely to be ‘Invited’ to get on board with the platform.

Xiahongshu is always on the lookout for brands to partner with. In order to reach out to them you must curate an email specifying the objective of your brand, target audience, users, details about your products, whether your brand is in China/Not in China and send it across to the Xiahongshu team.

If you hear from them, great! If you don’t, you can still expand your brand in China and reach out to the Chinese with us!

Download our E-book for a detailed guide on launching your brand in China

 

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