Since Tera Feng began documenting her enviable lifestyle in Shanghai—highlighting visits to art galleries and fashion events—on Chinese social media eight years ago, she has amassed a following of over 500,000 people. While this number may seem small in the vast landscape of China’s consumer market, Feng and the brands she collaborates with have found that her audience, primarily financially independent urban women, is willing to spend.
A recent pivot to livestream selling on the social media platform Xiaohongshu just three months ago has enabled Feng to sell a wide range of products, from a 15,000 yuan ($2,060) Carven suit to her favorite brand of rice priced at 60 yuan for a 1 kg bag. Xiaohongshu, often compared to Instagram, has been a crucial marketing tool in China. Although the platform made several attempts to boost e-commerce over the past decade, it struggled to find significant success until now.
Consultants report that brands, particularly those offering niche and high-end products, are finally starting to see a breakthrough in sales this year, despite a challenging retail environment. While retailers have been forced to implement heavy discounting on other e-commerce platforms, such as Alibaba’s Taobao and PDD Holdings’ Pinduoduo, Xiaohongshu’s emphasis on aspirational lifestyles is attracting less price-sensitive consumers. “Brands highly value having a following on Xiaohongshu because the purchasing power is significantly different compared to other platforms,” said Suya Wang, general manager at Early Data, a Shanghai-based consultancy.
Some brands, including L’Oreal and Coach (from Tapestry), have established their own stores on the platform. Many brands are also investing in partnerships with influencers who livestream products from various categories. “There is a greater chance for us to be discovered by the right consumers because this is where people go to research female-oriented lifestyle products,” said Melody Zhao, an investor in the period care brand Enya. She noted that Xiaohongshu e-commerce will be a top priority for the brand’s market entry early next year. Although Xiaohongshu was late to embrace the livestream sales trend dominated by Alibaba’s Tmall and ByteDance’s Douyin, it merged its e-commerce and livestreaming divisions in 2022 and incorporated purchasing options into livestreams.
Influencers on Xiaohongshu typically employ a quieter, conversational tone while engaging with viewers, distinguishing themselves from the fast-talking, high-energy hosts on other platforms who use aggressive sales tactics. Ian Hylton, president of Ms Min, an independent Chinese designer brand known for knitted sweaters priced above 5,000 yuan, expressed surprise at the sudden surge in sales after being featured in a livestream hosted by Chinese actress Dong Jie. “We never viewed Xiaohongshu as a sales platform; it was primarily a space for storytelling and brand awareness,” he said. “But when Dong Jie mentions Ms Min, we can sell hundreds of units of an item after just one livestream.”
Ivan Gu of Magic Advertising, an agency managing social media and e-commerce for luxury brands, mentioned that numerous clients, including Max Mara and LVMH, are increasingly considering Xiaohongshu as a potential sales driver. Future plans, still in development, include opening stores, conducting more livestreams, and appointing brand sales associates as livestream hosts on the platform—a concept known as KOS, or key opinion sales, in China.
Xiaohongshu, which translates to “Little Red Book,” is similar to Meta’s Instagram in that it allows users to curate photos, videos, and text to document their lives. In recent years, it has also become a go-to search engine for young women seeking travel tips, anti-aging products, and restaurant recommendations. The company, a privately held entity with over 300 million users and a reported valuation of $17 billion following its latest funding round in July, declined interview requests from Reuters and did not provide updates regarding its sales revenue. Among Xiaohongshu’s investors are Hongshan (formerly Sequoia China), Hillhouse, Boyu, and Citic Capital.
Although Xiaohongshu has been largely secretive about its e-commerce strategy, Jacob Cooke, CEO of e-commerce consultancy WPIC Marketing + Technologies, who works with brands interested in joining the platform, indicated that it has been hiring staff from competitors like Alibaba and ByteDance’s Douyin, signaling its ambitions. “We anticipate triple-digit gains in Xiaohongshu’s GMV (gross merchandise volume, a measure of sales) next year,” Cooke stated, estimating the platform could exceed $100 billion in sales revenue by 2025.
However, others predict that Xiaohongshu is likely to remain a niche player in the e-commerce space and not pose a significant threat to larger platforms like Tmall, JD.com, and Pinduoduo, which dominate the market.