This year's fashion brands all use Xiaohongshu as their official website

This article mainly discusses the phenomenon and advantages of how fashion brands currently use the Xiaohongshu e-commerce platform to build their brands and increase sales. The article lists some successful cases, interviews relevant brand managers to share their experiences, and analyzes why more and more fashion brands choose Xiaohongshu as an important sales and promotion channel.

Fashion design is an industry that is never short of new brands.

But as the saying goes, fashion is fleeting but style is forever. In this rapidly changing race, how new brands can be seen and remembered has always been a difficult problem.

E-commerce, which values ​​efficiency and volume, and fashion, which values ​​individuality and niche, have never been a perfect match. But in the past two years, we have found that more and more fashion brands have chosen to start their own businesses on Xiaohongshu, and many of them have directly gone all in on Xiaohongshu and earned their first pot of gold.

For example, the ancient gold brand "Ji Jin Jia Yi", which was transformed from an OEM factory to a brand, achieved monthly sales of one million in three months; the knitted women's clothing brand "Yang Zhi Dao", which started from Xiaohongshu, has set a GMV goal of over 100 million on Xiaohongshu this year; the jewelry brand "monSecret", founded by a designer in 1999, had its offline business affected in 2022. After switching to Xiaohongshu, it achieved sales of one million in three months through cooperation with buyers and content, which exceeded the monthly sales of other platforms in a year.

These are not isolated cases. According to Xiaohongshu’s fashion partner Rishang’s official disclosure last week, as of May this year, the number of fashion merchants with monthly sales of 10 million has increased by 4.5 times year-on-year, and the number of fashion merchants with monthly sales of 1 million has increased by 4.3 times year-on-year.

Why are more and more fashion brands starting to choose Xiaohongshu? What do they value and how do they use Xiaohongshu? We went to the event site and communicated with many operators, trying to answer the above questions and provide reference for everyone.

1. From 0 to 1, two major difficulties for fashion brands

The essence of business is transaction. We believe that no matter what brand it is, at the stage from 0 to 1, the core is actually only one, that is, to build a simple business model: what to sell and to whom to sell.

But when it comes to different categories and industries, the pain points and difficulties are different. For fashion brands, they are mainly reflected in two aspects. First, you can’t sell to anyone. Second, there are certain things to sell.

First of all, this is a question of finding users. Because of their strong personalities and great differences in aesthetics, for fashion brands, the focus is not to find more users, but to find the most accurate ones.

Rita, the founder of monSecret, has a deep understanding of this. monSecret has a jewelry product that received very good order feedback during the Paris Fashion Week, but the effect was not ideal during the initial promotion in China. Until it was spotted by a buyer named "Big Girl" on Xiaohongshu, more than 50 pairs were sold in one live broadcast. "In fact, consumers can accept it, but it requires a suitable buyer to introduce the product comprehensively and truthfully," she concluded.

In addition, for fashion brands, identifying the right users is not only related to sales, but also to brand positioning.

Because user image is also part of brand image. For example, when you mention people who use Guanxia or drive Weilai, some impression words will pop up in your mind. Especially for spiritual consumption categories, the first batch of users is crucial. As Daofa said when he wrote about the jewelry brand "YIN", the first 1,000 high-level users create a high-level brand. Users are the key to differentiate YIN from many jewelry brands.

Now let’s look at the second point. What does it mean to be particular about the things you sell?

First of all, a fashion design brand often carries the self-expression of the designer. If this kind of creation wants to face the market and form a transaction, it often needs to go through a process from work to commodity. In other words, there needs to be a time and space for designers and users to run in and create together.

Secondly, since fashion design is a typical non-essential consumption, it requires both potential energy and kinetic energy, while providing functional value and spiritual value. We cannot wait until we become big before taking the branding course.

This is why Rita mentioned that buyers and fans have described monSecret's products as treasures. "The value of this treasure is that when you know you can hold this item, you have found your own style and can confidently display and express it. A piece of jewelry carries style, and also carries people's recognition and reward for themselves.

In summary, finding the right people and making the right products is equivalent to finding the root of the brand. So, why do more and more fashion brands choose to use Xiaohongshu to solve these two major difficulties? We found that people mainly value four aspects.

First, there are users who understand fashion better and have strong demand for fashion consumption. This depth and breadth allow Xiaohongshu to accommodate a wide variety of styles, and niche styles can also find their favorites.

Jijin Jiayi is a niche brand among gold brands, focusing on ancient gold made with intangible cultural heritage craftsmanship. This concept of promoting traditional culture, in conjunction with the new Chinese style trend on Xiaohongshu, quickly gained favor and achieved monthly sales of one million in three months.

Second, Xiaohongshu has buyers who connect brands and users, bringing both “products” and “brands” to achieve product-effect integration. In our exchanges with brands, the operators almost always emphasize one point - buyers are far more than just a sales channel, they are user representatives and small spokespersons co-created with the brand.

This is why Yang Zhidao chose to cooperate with Dong Jie from the beginning. In the eyes of its founder Qian Haohao, Dong Jie is the concrete embodiment of Yang Zhidao's consumer portrait, which coincides with the brand values ​​of relaxation, self-consistency and a good life.

Third, as a community, Xiaohongshu has a deep interactive atmosphere and rich UGC expressions. This is also what DaoFa has always emphasized, that you can see "real people" here. Only in this way can the space and time for designers and users to run-in and co-create, which is needed by fashion design brands, appear, and complete the transformation from works to products.

Qian Haohao described the consumer portraits in Xiaohongshu as "storytelling-oriented, long-lasting, and able to show love, hate, and vengeance." In this way, brands can see not only scattered single points, but also the social psychology behind purchasing behavior.

After all, what users need is not a piece of clothing, but a solution. For example, the portrait of a mother of one child may be that she has a car and a house, needs companionship, needs to be decent, and needs to improve her figure. Only by conducting a full-link survey of the user's life can we truly touch people's hearts.

Ji Jin Jiayi, who transformed from an OEM factory, was particularly impressed by the power of Xiaohongshu users. The manager James shared that they once launched a cat and flower bracelet, which was intended to be promoted as a bracelet, but a Xiaohongshu user DIYed it into a ring, which was very popular. Many people went to the official live broadcast room to buy the same model. "The anchor was stunned because there was no such style."

Afterwards, Ji Jinjiayi changed the promotion direction and designed several similar products. From this experience of creating a hot product with users, he concluded that "today's hot products are not defined by brands, but by users."

Fourth, Xiaohongshu has a unique business model. For example, the reverse funnel model can not only more accurately locate the target customer group, but also help small investments to achieve big growth for brands that are just starting out, and is more friendly to newcomers. Another example is the self-closed-loop ecosystem, which includes a variety of tools such as store broadcasts, buyers, and notes, which shortens the user link and quickly obtains feedback, so that rapid iteration can be achieved.

In the final analysis, the journey from 0 to 1 for a fashion brand is a two-way, continuous process of running and grinding. First, find users who appreciate you, and then, with the help of users, turn your work into merchandise. Xiaohongshu provides the perfect soil for this.

2. These 3 brands are selling like hotcakes on Xiaohongshu

The fashion ecosystem on Xiaohongshu is already very diverse. According to data released by Cai Lin, head of Xiaohongshu's fashion and trend merchants, nearly 80% of original design brands in the Chinese market are operated on Xiaohongshu, and more than 70% of designer brands earn operating income on Xiaohongshu. There are also high-quality industrial brands such as Jijin Jiayi operating on Xiaohongshu, and thousands of new products and new series from well-known fashion brands are popular on Xiaohongshu.

Different types require different playing styles.

For example, Ji Jin Jiayi, which transformed from an OEM factory to a brand, faced pain points that are also encountered by many OEM factories or industrial belts when they transform their brands: they have craftsmanship but no brand value, and no platform to express brand value; they have innovative designs but no sales conversions, and downstream wholesalers only want hot items and discounts and are unwilling to try selling new models; they don’t know who their target customers are and can only understand users through wholesalers they have cooperated with in the past, which is not direct enough.

Therefore, James particularly values ​​the value of Xiaohongshu as an expression channel. On the one hand, it is a brand's self-expression, communicating with the younger and more verticalized crowd on Xiaohongshu, and promoting the design and cultural concepts of intangible cultural heritage crafts. This has also successfully helped Jijin Jiayi break through the traditional audience of gold and expand the new consumer age group of 20-30 years old.

This is why Jijin Jiayi attaches great importance to store broadcasting in terms of business operations, because it carries multiple functions such as a window for promoting craftsmanship, a space for direct interaction with customers, and a channel for direct sales. At present, store broadcasting accounts for nearly 100% of the brand's Xiaohongshu GMV.

On the other hand, users actively express themselves. These active sharing not only promotes the brand for free, but also opens up new design ideas and plays the role of a small product designer.

There are many related cases. In addition to the above-mentioned hand brand re-creation into a ring, there are also DIY beads into earrings and the buttons of Hanfu costumes are changed into gold. "The ideas of customers in real wear and application are beyond the imagination of merchants. Incorporating these re-creation ideas has helped us attract more customers who may not have the desire to buy before," said James.

monSecret represents many designer brands that started out as offline buyers' stores. In 2022, monSecret's offline store sales were affected by macro factors, and it lost a large number of users, so it began to try online sales. The WindyXin team took a fancy to the brand's peridot necklace and brought monSecret into the world of buyers on Xiaohongshu. At its peak, monSecret cooperated with nearly 180 buyers, smoothly completed the cold start in sales and word of mouth, and ushered in the first outlet on Xiaohongshu.

Many brands that have switched from offline boutiques to e-commerce platforms will encounter the problem of how to balance sales and brand tone. By cooperating with buyers who fit the brand style and laying out the brand's natural and comfortable aesthetic content, monSecret has effectively demonstrated its brand tone and style on the Xiaohongshu platform. For example, every time Dong Jie cooperates with monSecret, she will recommend some items that represent the brand concept; for example, Zhang Li will explain the concepts behind the products and brands. The key is that these sharings come from the buyers' personal experience, which is more convincing.

For original design brands with mature e-commerce operations, you can refer to Yang Zhidao’s business methods on Xiaohongshu. Qian Haohao, the founder of Yang Zhidao, founded the Xiaohongshu advertising agency Se Shang and also created a makeup brand "OUT OF OFFICE". He is a mature content platform and e-commerce operation expert.

Yang Zhidao has been planning for Xiaohongshu since the first day of its establishment. In the first half of its establishment, it only operated Xiaohongshu as a channel. More than three years after the brand was founded, it has continued to plan for Xiaohongshu's business space. This year's sales target for Xiaohongshu e-commerce is to exceed 100 million yuan.

Initially, Yangzhidao used the Xiaohongshu community to calibrate consumer portraits and product pallets. For example, Yangzhidao's first batch of goods was 100% cashmere, but after it was actually put on the market, it was discovered that the price was too high and users' consumption mentality for cashmere was not yet mature. All of this made the brand unable to fully reach the imagined consumers. Therefore, Yangzhidao spent several months to fine-tune the product and brand positioning.

Secondly, join hands with buyers to complete the cold start. The most typical cooperation case is the aforementioned Dong Jie. In the selection of buyers, Qian Haohao believes that the focus should be on the matching under the longer-term accelerated development, rather than the number of fans and sales ability.

After completing the two-way matching, the cooperation with buyers can be regarded not as official cooperation, but as a behavior of user expression, giving enough space to stimulate sparks. "This is the same logic as the separation of psychological topics. The brand side does its best, and how others want to interpret and express you will not affect the brand."

Finally, we started the store broadcast. On Xiaohongshu, being always on is more important than being explosive. We need to have our own axis. After completing the cold start, Yangzhidao also quickly started the store broadcast. This year, we also plan to increase the transmission of brand awareness and focus all content outlets on the same mindset.

In general, although the strategies of the above three brands are different and each has its own highlights, some common features for reference can be summarized, namely the business path of product notes-buyer cooperation-brand store broadcast-private domain closed loop.

Notes are the basic content of Xiaohongshu and should also be the first step for a brand to take in its operations. Buyers can help brands quickly increase their voice and sales. On this basis, brands can slowly transition to store broadcasts and achieve stable operations. In this process, private domains will also grow and settle naturally, and eventually complete the closed loop of operations.

3. Analyst Comments

Looking back, we will find that more and more fashion brands have actually regarded Xiaohongshu as their official website.

This does not only mean that you can buy the latest and most complete products on Xiaohongshu, but also because you can see the most positive and authentic brand expression. In 2024, users no longer need an official website that talks to itself. On Xiaohongshu, brands are fresh and full, and consumers complete their first contact with the brand, cognition and purchase, and even repurchase here.

Xiaohongshu also plans to continue to support the fashion industry. In this event, Xiaohongshu announced a strategic partnership with the Shanghai Fashion Design Association and launched two major initiatives. One is to regularly hold industry exchange activities such as showrooms, workshops, and industry visits. The second is to co-host fashion industry events with the Shanghai Fashion Design Association to provide excellent merchants with opportunities for IP co-branding and appearance on the international stage.

We once said that in the global ecosystem, each ecosystem is like a country, and each has its own "national style". You need to find the country that suits you best, immerse yourself in it, and conduct in-depth and refined operations through a series of actions such as circle resonance and word of mouth.

This choice will be even more important in the initial stage. Only by choosing the right place to raise yourself can your growth be more certain.

Author | Yi Shen This article is written by the author of Operation School [Knife Skills Research Institute], WeChat public account: [Knife Skills Research Institute], original/authorized to be published in Operation School, and any reproduction without permission is prohibited.

The title image is from Unsplash, based on the CC0 protocol.