Why are there more and more stores on Xiaohongshu?

During this 618 event, two new platforms have attracted much attention, namely Xiaohongshu and Video Account. As content e-commerce ushered in a new trend, Xiaohongshu e-commerce took the initiative.

For new and emerging forces, introducing more supply is an important proposition.

In the inventory stage of e-commerce, there are not many companies that can still create incremental growth.

Although the newly emerging content e-commerce giant has passed its fastest growth period, it still has a growth advantage compared with shelf e-commerce and the retail market.

Data released by Star Map Data showed that the total online sales in 2024 during the 618 shopping festival decreased by 7% year-on-year, but the sales of live e-commerce platforms increased by 12% year-on-year.

Among them, two new platforms also attracted much attention during the 618 period - Xiaohongshu and Video Account.

It is reported that the video account has added a special area for selecting the top 100 brands and a special area for flash sales and surprise prices. Tencent Advertising has launched small store link advertising and the ability to connect global traffic to the live broadcast room around short videos and live streaming.

Xiaohongshu e-commerce released the 618 investment information at the end of April. According to the final battle report released, as of June 18, the number of orders from Xiaohongshu live broadcasts reached 5.4 times that of the same period last year, the number of orders achieved through store broadcasts was 9.4 times that of the same period last year, and the number of buyers in a single game exceeded one million, which was three times that of the same period last year.

Last year, Xiaohongshu e-commerce was seen in the live broadcasts of buyers such as Dong Jie and Zhang Xiaohui. This year, it also entered a new stage of rapid growth in store live broadcasts during the 618 shopping festival. Behind this is not only the new trend of content e-commerce, but also the initiative of Xiaohongshu.

1. Behind the battle report: Xiaohongshu is making every effort to attract merchants

Judging from the experience of various e-commerce platforms in the past, if you want to get the flywheel of "people, goods, and places" turning, supplementing supply is undoubtedly a very important link.

Take Douyin e-commerce as an example. From 2020 to 2021, after establishing the live shopping mentality with the help of live broadcasts by high-profile celebrities such as Luo Yonghao and Jia Nailiang, Douyin e-commerce has focused on how to attract a large number of merchants to settle in. After all, for users, the most important user experience is to be able to buy conveniently after making a consumption decision.

Xiaohongshu and Video Account's e-commerce businesses have just started to make overall efforts. Therefore, in this 618, the core actions of the two platforms are intended to continue to release positive information, hoping to attract more merchants to settle in.

According to multiple media reports, in May this year, WeChat issued an internal announcement stating that the video account live e-commerce will be incorporated into the WeChat open platform, and teams related to transactions such as mini-programs will be integrated together to facilitate improving transaction efficiency and exploring new models.

At almost the same time, 36Kr exclusively learned that Xiaohongshu's e-commerce buyer operation business has been merged with the merchant operation business to form the e-commerce operation department, which is a second-level e-commerce department. The buyer operation and merchant operation are combined into one department to improve operational efficiency.

During the 618 shopping festival this year, Xiaohongshu e-commerce provided 10 times the traffic resources support, which was also distributed in various trading fields such as product notes, live broadcasts, shopping malls, searches, group chats, etc. This is also a clear signal released to merchants.

Cooperative buyers have already been deeply rooted in the hearts of Xiaohongshu e-commerce merchants, but no matter whether they have the ability to cooperate with more buyers, or want to have a more controllable and stable business channel, merchants need more available business tools besides buyer live broadcasts.

It is understood that the growth of merchants on Xiaohongshu has shown two obvious paths: one is to achieve a rapid cold start of the brand through cooperative buyers, and then to form a stable operating situation by opening store broadcasts and taking over the traffic brought by buyers.

In early 2023, the designer home furnishing brand Zhiwu quickly attracted attention due to its cooperation with Xiaohongshu buyer Yike KK. Half a year later, Zhiwu began to conduct store live broadcasts, forming a business path of buyer live broadcasts plus store live broadcasts.

In another business path, the core merchants attract user attention through note content, bring conversions through store live broadcasts, and accumulate private fans through social group chats.

Nye White, a glue-free false eyelash brand located in Guangdong, has accumulated more than 150,000 fans in a year through notes and live broadcasts. Relying on the model of notes + store broadcasts + group chats, its monthly sales exceed one million.

Private domain group chat is a product that Xiaohongshu e-commerce has recently focused on. Li Li, the owner of the body care brand Yujian, gradually discovered that the community has become a treasure private domain for increasing transaction conversion rate. "We also hope to launch more private domain products and gameplay in Xiaohongshu, so that merchants can better settle users in the private domain community."

2. Open up a key link

At the Xiaohongshu 618 media exchange meeting, when talking about entering the Xiaohongshu e-commerce last year, the two participating merchants mentioned that they had the same question, "Is Xiaohongshu serious this time?"

The new product "Qiuchi Sofa" released by the designer home furnishing brand Zhiwu in the buyer's live broadcast room of Xiaohongshu not long ago has gradually become a hot-selling product through the sharing and fission of netizens. This has in turn affected Zhiwu's sales on the shelf e-commerce platform. The user search data feedback shows that many people will directly search for "Qiuchi Sofa" and make a purchase. This shows that users have formed a consumption decision through Xiaohongshu before placing an order.

For merchants, if they can open a store on Xiaohongshu, the conversion efficiency after users make decisions will be further improved.

A gold jewelry brand with a multi-platform presence did not have high expectations for Xiaohongshu at first, believing that Xiaohongshu was more suitable for promoting products.

Later, this gold jewelry brand relied on store live broadcasting to start cold on Xiaohongshu, and achieved monthly sales of one million in three months. "Xiaohongshu live broadcasting has brought good feedback to our team, and conversion can be achieved without tens of thousands of people appearing in the live broadcast room at the same time." The above-mentioned manager said that the young customer base of Xiaohongshu and its high acceptance of high-priced products are important reasons.

Store broadcasts have also become a new growth engine for Xiaohongshu during the 618 shopping festival. Gintoki, head of Xiaohongshu's e-commerce operations, said: "More and more merchants are conducting store broadcasts on Xiaohongshu. During the 618 shopping festival, store broadcast GMV reached five times that of the same period last year. The number of store broadcasts with sales exceeding 100,000 per show was four times that of the same period last year."

Since Dong Jie’s live broadcast broke out last year, Xiaohongshu has been focusing on e-commerce for less than two years. During this process, many merchants reported that they would receive merchant surveys from Xiaohongshu every once in a while, such as “What do you think of the current BK matchmaking?” “What is the biggest pain point of operating on Xiaohongshu?”

This has promoted the release of more feasible solutions. It is understood that a considerable number of merchant learning courses have been launched in the Xiaohongshu Merchant Learning Center, most of which have been launched in batches in the past year or even the past six months.

More and more businesses are finding certainty on Xiaohongshu, growing and making money. The influx of a large number of businesses also means that competition will become fierce, and higher requirements are placed on the content and management capabilities of businesses. In order for businesses to achieve long-term growth, Xiaohongshu needs to do more.