I sell bracelets on Xiaohongshu, and the girls who play with cultural relics are crazy about them

Selling lifestyles is a personalized e-commerce method. Friends who are interested in this kind of e-commerce method are recommended to read this article, and I hope it will be helpful to everyone.

What kind of changes can 11 years bring to a person?

ENO went to Tibet for the first time in 2013, during the summer vacation of her sophomore year. In order to save money, she set up a stall to sell mobile phone cases for a month. She used the money she saved to buy a hard seat ticket from Shanghai to Lhasa. On the way, she happened to encounter maintenance on a section of the railway, so the total journey took 52 hours.

Later, thinking that Lhasa was not far from Nepal, she took a 24-hour bus ride from Zhangmu Port to Nepal, and accidentally came into contact with Eichhornia. At that time, she was still a hobbyist, but gradually turned her hobby into a business.

After entering the industry, she found that most of the players of cultural relics are middle-aged men. So she wanted to make a piece of jewelry that "girls can also wear and she is willing to wear". In 2017, ENO began to recruit a design team to transform cultural relics into jewelry and trendy designs, and the brand "Yinobennuo" came into being.

Now, 11 years have passed, and ENO has completed the transformation from a user to a businessman and then to a manager, and now has 100,000 fans on Xiaohongshu. For her, this is not only a process of career growth, but also a process of finding herself and being true to herself.

What kind of changes can a platform undergo in 11 years?

Xiaohongshu was founded in Shanghai in 2013.

Recently, Xiaohongshu COO Conan defined it for the first time, "Xiaohongshu e-commerce is lifestyle e-commerce." Conan said that lifestyle e-commerce means that what users buy on Xiaohongshu is not only good products, but also a life they aspire to live.

Immediately afterwards, on July 24, Xiaohongshu E-commerce held the Link E-commerce Partner Conference in Hangzhou with the theme of "Hello, Manager", placing managers in an important strategic position.

Some people may question whether "lifestyle e-commerce" can represent Xiaohongshu, whether it has a future compared to mature e-commerce models, and what its unique value is?

After reading ENO’s story, I believe you will have your own answer.

1. Design a collectible that you would like to wear and sell it like hot cakes

Looking back now, ENO believes that the key turning point for himself and the brand "Yinobenno" came from his "soul-searching question".

After entering the cultural relics industry, she gradually discovered that although the collection value of phoenix eye bodhi is high, she is not willing to wear any of them. She asked the team, "You have sold so many, why don't you wear them yourself?" In the end, the team came to a unanimous conclusion - because although traditional bracelets are valuable and can do business, they are still not good-looking.

That was in 2017, when most businesses in the industry were still in the stage of reselling goods. ENO believes that if it wants to break out of the price war cycle, it can only move towards differentiation. "The only way to compare the same things is to compare prices, but if you can differentiate the products, price is no longer the most important thing."

The changes in users verified her prediction. Also in 2017, when she joined Xiaohongshu, she found that not only middle-aged men came to her to buy bracelets, but also some women, and even young women. However, there were few trendy designs of cultural relics on the market at that time.

So ENO recruited a design team with the mentality of "I can just make it for myself" to design the cultural and artistic accessories that I approve of, that meet my aesthetic taste, and that I want to make. Until now, the design team has accounted for more than 60% of the total number of people in the team.

In the collectibles industry, there was no concept of "collectibles design" before, only collectibles processing and collection, such as processing a cylindrical shape into another cylindrical shape, or stringing different beads together, but ENO has its own requirements and thoughts on product design.

In her concept, "cultural design" should create a completely different visual effect through the new combination of old elements, and make the product a carrier to present one's attitude and thinking. The underlying logic is not to see which material sells well, but to see how to arrange and choose different colors and materials to express different themes and seasons.

At the same time, good design is inseparable from the understanding of the crowd. Designers need to analyze the preferences of different groups of people and listen to the voices of users. Because before the product is made, users don’t know what they want, so no one can tell you how to design. ENO’s philosophy is that designers should spend more time studying users rather than studying their peers.

In the following years, relying on the thinking on the theme and the research on the crowd, the team launched the Rainbow series with dopamine colors specifically for young women, the building block series with Lego colors based on the theme of childhood innocence, and the "Gold Diamond" series suitable for jewelry girls.

Especially the "Gold Diamond" series of products, because they are both collectibles and jewelry materials, with fine details, they became a hit as soon as they were released, and the popularity has lasted for three years. Since the raw materials of this series include gold, diamonds and turquoise, the average customer price is not low, "but the product is never sold within 24 hours, one piece is sold out, and there is always a state of out of stock." ENO said.

"Golden Diamond" series products

Judging from the feedback from the industry, "Yino Bennuo" pioneered the concept of collectible jewelry, and the "Gold Diamond" series has gradually become a common style in the industry. Collectible jewelry is no longer a standard for middle-aged men. On Xiaohongshu, the topic of "collective jewelry girls" has been viewed 2.2 billion times.

For Yinuo, a good business must be related to "people". On the one hand, people here refer to consumers, who are looking for the kind of life they want on the Xiaohongshu platform; on the other hand, they refer to managers, who first complete the construction of self-cognition and lifestyle, and then use content and scenarios to use good products to meet users' different lifestyle needs.

This way of doing business is to attract people without forcing them. As ENO said, "Everyone has a different perspective on products and a different way of living. You just need to be bold and attract others with your true self. Even if your vision is unique, there will always be people who share the same frequency with you."

2. “Good content, differentiated products, and a deal is inevitable”

In fact, ENO had been on multiple platforms. Later, because she found that Xiaohongshu users recognized and tolerated the real personality of the manager, she began to settle in Xiaohongshu e-commerce. She herself also experienced a transformation from not daring to live broadcast to boldly speaking on the microphone during live broadcast.

Compared with traditional e-commerce, Xiaohongshu's "lifestyle" e-commerce has users who are looking for different lifestyles. Users are more tolerant of merchants' personalities and have higher requirements for merchants' content and products. This is also the reason why ENO finally chose to run a business on Xiaohongshu.

Since 2021, many people have asked ENO to start live streaming, but none of them have succeeded. As for the reason for being reluctant to do live streaming, ENO admitted that on the one hand, he believed that the product was not suitable for consumption scenarios such as live streaming.

ENO's products are mainly customized, with limited quantities and styles, and are very expensive, so they are not suitable for impulse purchases. ENO joked that when other live broadcast rooms are "selling at a loss for benefits, others sell for 5,000 while I sell for 3,000", customers who are not familiar with the products may think that she sells them at a high price when they come to her live broadcast room, and they may think that "others sell for 8,000 while I sell for 12,000".

ENO was unsure whether he could quickly educate novice users about the industry, explain the differences of his products, and finally complete the sales during the live broadcast.

On the other hand, ENO, who has always been behind the scenes, suspects that his sharp personality is not suitable for "showing up in public". Live streaming may offend many people, and he may even say things that many users don't like to hear.

After she refused three times in a row, ENO finally agreed to broadcast a show on Xiaohongshu for the fourth time. Before the show started, she was very pessimistic about the show, but the feedback from users and the amount of transactions broke her previous perception.

In the first live broadcast, she did not prepare any products, but she sold 170,000 in just a few hours. Then she broadcasted a second live broadcast, put on the shelves designs with a customer unit price of more than 10,000, and sold 350,000. In the third live broadcast, she sold 430,000. ENO did not expect that she would gain users who appreciate her, understand her products, and are willing to pay for them on Xiaohongshu.

Not only that, ENO also received many messages from users in the background. They told ENO that they had never seen this style of live broadcast, and had never bought such original cultural and artistic designs in the live broadcast room before. They could see the effort the team put into the product. "It turns out that the shortcomings of the most real side can also be tolerated." ENO felt that these words were more touching than love letters.

ENO's Live Room

Users are highly tolerant, but they do not lower their standards for aesthetics and design. They value whether the personality and lifestyle of the manager are in tune with their own, and they also need good products and good content to meet their needs.

3. Integrated number and broadcast, a closed loop for good business

Coming to Xiaohongshu to do e-commerce is just the first step. In addition to product strength and good content, if you want to do good business, the manager’s live broadcast, account operation and group chat interaction are all indispensable.

In Xiaohongshu, the live broadcast room is the main venue for building trust. The manager uses the live broadcast room to build an online store in the Xiaohongshu community. Of course, each live broadcast room looks different and has a different rhythm.

While other livestreamers are still trying to sell at low prices, hot products, and make promises in order to close deals, ENO is used to telling users “why this product is sold at this price” through real descriptions. She doesn’t care too much about “whether it can be sold or not”, but rather “whether I have explained this product clearly to you”. She is even more afraid that her products will be misunderstood as “easy to come by or more expensive than other ‘same products’”.

After she explained the origins of the product and its integration with life scenarios in all aspects and popularized industry knowledge, she found that the products were sold and the repurchase rate was as high as 70%. At the same time, consumers often posted their orders on the platform, "falling into the trap of ENO" and expressing their trust in her.

In addition to ENO's own account, three other team members also opened live broadcasts. The common characteristics of these anchors are: they are all veteran employees with more than three years of experience, have sufficient understanding of the product, and have their own personal charm. "On the basis of professionalism, a temperament attracts a group of people", this is the logic of ENO's selection of people.

However, the reason why managers like ENO can gain more and more fans and business on Xiaohongshu is not just through live broadcasting, but through "account and live broadcast integration", that is, the managers can operate both the account and live broadcast at the same time. Because the products are more refined and the content is deeper, most managers will not broadcast every day. Only by filling the time and content outside the broadcast with pictures, texts and video notes can the managers make their image more three-dimensional and truly integrate into the community.

The content carried in the live broadcast room is limited. In the account notes, you can see a more flesh-and-blood ENO. This is also the differentiation of Xiaohongshu e-commerce. In other content e-commerce, when a host starts live broadcasting, his content will inevitably become a live broadcast slice and a traffic tool.

But ENO uses Xiaohongshu as a circle of friends to share work stories, daily emotions and thoughts. In her Xiaohongshu, you can see her reminiscing about her first trip to Tibet 10 years ago and how she got to know phoenix eye in Nepal; or you can see her blasting unscrupulous colleagues who deceived people online in the name of Yinuo OEM factory; or you can see her mumbling that she is more worried than happy about the rapid increase in followers, and she will also be prepared for danger in times of peace, hoping that she will not get carried away and continue to work steadily.

ENO recalls his first trip to Tibet

Finally, deep interaction is the key to retaining users.

In addition to interacting with fans in the live broadcast room and the comment area of ​​notes, ENO also accumulates private domain users in group chats. She has created 18 group chats on Xiaohongshu, and each group has reached a full capacity of 500 people. Before each new product is released, ENO will post notes in advance and update the new information to the group chat, and the new products will be quickly sold out. She also set up a flash sale group to provide benefits to old customers who have purchased.

Group chat is not only an operation field, but also a conversion field. In group chat, ENO will provide after-sales service, collect user suggestions and comments for product iteration; users will also interact with each other and share their matching and wearing experience. This mutual flow of lifestyle and life philosophy increases the user's sense of participation and will also form more natural conversions.

Leon, head of Xiaohongshu's e-commerce products, introduced that in the past year, a large number of users have joined group chats through various scenarios such as notes, live broadcasts, and post-purchase. The number of active merchant groups on Xiaohongshu has increased more than 4 times, and the proportion of orders contributed by group users has reached 19%. The 30-day same-store repurchase rate of group users has reached 40%.

For ENO, the key to running a business on Xiaohongshu is to have no sense of separation. This is reflected in the closed loop of live broadcast, account operation and group chat interaction, and in the true unity of the three dimensions of people, goods and places.

IV. Conclusion

The managers, buyers and users have jointly created the lifestyle e-commerce of Xiaohongshu. And ENO is just one of the thousands of managers on Xiaohongshu.

Data shows that in the past year, the number of merchants with monthly sales of 5 million or more on Xiaohongshu's e-commerce has increased by 3.5 times, the number of purchasing users on Xiaohongshu has increased by 4.3 times, and the proportion of searches with purchasing intentions has reached 25%.

In order to attract more managers with diverse identities, Xiaohongshu launched the "Treasure Manager Plan", which aims to fully support managers to achieve efficient growth through hundreds of billions of traffic incentives and upgrades to the three major platforms of Dandelion, Qianfan and Chengfeng.

At the just-concluded Xiaohongshu Link e-commerce partner conference, ENO gave a speech as a sharing guest, and after returning, she posted an article on Xiaohongshu.

She wrote, "I am not the one with the highest GMV in our industry. The reason why I was chosen by the platform is largely because we are doing our work with our heart and making this once small category of cultural relics understood and known by more people."

She mentioned that although the team has been running steadily for 11 years, "Yinuo Bennuo" has just begun, and tomorrow will still be a brand new self.

I believe that with the support of the "Treasure Manager Plan", more managers will join Xiaohongshu and become lifestyle consultants for more people.

Author: Su Qi

Source: WeChat public account "Dingjiao"