After becoming the king of substitutes, 1688 is eyeing Xiaohongshu-style grass planting

This article explores the new trends of the 1688 platform. It has not only become a popular choice for young people to find alternative products, but has also begun to try to get a share of the Xiaohongshu-style grass-planting field. The article uses real cases to show how consumers find cost-effective products on 1688, and how the platform attracts C-end users through revisions and function upgrades.

"The 8 yuan data cable storage box was transformed into a blind box storage display cabinet. Who can live like me?"

This was Xie Ming's first attempt at desktop transformation, and she was unexpectedly satisfied with the result.

From the time she decided to renovate the old dark brown desk to the time she received the express delivery and officially started to arrange it, it took less than 4 days. Xie Ming finally found a new home for her blind box figures that had been gathering dust, and this renovation cost less than 10 yuan.

"I've always wanted to change the style of my desk, but I didn't think it was necessary to spend too much money, so I put it off until now," Xie Ming said. "Luckily, now everyone relies on 'flat replacement keywords' to buy things."

According to her, she found out when she was doing a guide on Xiaohongshu that many people use "acrylic data cable boxes" as a substitute for blind box storage boxes. One data cable box can hold 2-3 blind box figures, and the transparent box cover can also be attached with a transparent suction cup to hang pendants, which is beautiful and cheap. Then, under the guidance of the blogger, she searched for substitutes on 1688 and found that basically a data cable box with a cover costs 7 yuan, and an uncovered one costs 5 yuan. Including the shipping cost, buying two or three will cost less than 20 yuan.

Although the price is similar to the common blind box storage racks on the market, it has more functions and does not take up much space, so it is more cost-effective.

Xie Ming said that it has become her common ordering process to start from Xiaohongshu and then place an order on 1688. Especially after the "substitute" trend started, she often collected various substitute keywords on the Internet and then placed an order on 1688. So far, she has bought "MINISO substitute sunglasses", "Ajidou substitute ring", "Sam's substitute steam eye mask" and other products on 1688 through various seeding methods. She has also found low-priced substitutes for the things she needs for the subsequent desktop transformation on 1688.

In fact, planting grass on Xiaohongshu and placing orders on 1688 have become a true portrayal of many young people who pursue "extreme cost-effectiveness" when they consume. On Xiaohongshu, searching for "1688 alternatives" will display a variety of derivative keywords such as bags, women's clothing, necklaces, etc. Many bloggers even said that as long as you don't pursue brand logos, not buying alternatives is equivalent to losing money.

And "substitution" has become one of the synonyms of 1688.

However, substitution alone is not enough.

Xie Ming told AI Blue Media that she noticed that the 1688 membership store page has been redesigned recently. In the past, there were big brand substitutes such as Sam's Club and Uniqlo, but now it has become a one-sentence recommendation of different products, and as long as you open a single-month membership worth about 2 yuan, you can get more bargains at a lower price.

At the same time, on many other secondary pages, the shadow of grass-planting is emerging one after another.

Of course, it is not difficult to understand why 1688 wants to do grass-growing. After all, every e-commerce platform hopes to realize the cycle from grass-growing to ordering within its own platform ecosystem. However, everyone knows that too many people have experienced the pain of grass-growing. Although new players like 1688 have quickly become a must-have APP in many users' mobile phones, they still have many challenges to face if they want to challenge the mountain of grass-growing.

So what is the effect of 1688’s promotion?

1. Xiaohongshu recommends you to eat well at 1688

From "only buy expensive things, not the right ones" to "you can buy expensive things, but not too expensive", the consumption concept of users is changing dramatically. In the past, everyone wanted to show off their wealth, but now they feel bad for spending a dollar more.

However, rather than saying that it is a downgrade in consumption, it is better to say that consumers have finally escaped from the PUA of consumerism in the past few years and returned to normal consumption psychology.

This is also why the trend of replacing ordinary women has been blowing on the Internet since last year, and even Xiaohongshu, which has exquisite women as its main force, is no exception.

On the one hand, as mentioned earlier, some "substitute keywords" have become the traffic codes for grass-planting bloggers on social platforms such as Xiaohongshu and Douyin.

The most typical example is that the products searched for "winter JK sweater vest" are basically around 100 yuan, but after changing to "men's sweater vest", similar styles are priced at only around 70 yuan. If you switch to e-commerce platforms such as 1688 and Pinduoduo, the price of some products is even only 30-40 yuan.

On the other hand, a large number of bloggers have emerged. Among them, 1688 treasure hunt and 1688 low-cost OEM factory visits are the new traffic codes. Some videos have tens of thousands of likes, even higher than some beauty sharing videos.

Similarly, if you search for "1688 substitutes" on Xiaohongshu, you will see the "1688 same-source OEM factories" summarized by many bloggers. On one side are the OEM products of Taobao and other e-commerce platforms, and on the other side are the low-priced but same-source white-label products. Although each has its pros and cons, users who search for "substitutes" will naturally choose the latter.

In addition, the same source factories of well-known brands such as COS, CHUU, Jiumu Zawushe, etc. were also dug out by these substitute bloggers. Under these posts, you can see that many users are asking for the corresponding product links, or asking for other product substitute links of the same brand.

Obviously, the demand for substitutes is not rare, and it has become a label that cannot be ignored in the consumer market.

However, even if there are bloggers promoting the product, it is inevitable that there will be cases where the product is replaced by a similar product.

A user who often places orders for substitute products on 1688 told AI Blue Media that she once went to 1688 to find a substitute bag factory based on the recommendation of Xiaohongshu. Although the price dropped directly from more than 300 to more than 100, the printed letters on the inside of the bag were slightly blurred. Although it did not affect the use and appearance, it still made her feel a little bit upset.

"At that time, 1688 did not include shipping fees for returns. If it were now, I would definitely return it without saying a word," she said. "Fortunately, it couldn't be seen from outside, so I had to bear it."

Of course, in addition to Xiaohongshu, the trend of substitutes has also spread to many corners of the Internet.

In the Douban "Stingy Women's Association" group with 660,000 members, people share their experiences on everything from small replacements for nail clippers and shower gel to big replacements for range hoods and tablets. You can save hundreds of dollars by just browsing some of the highly liked and highly collected posts.

This coincides with the theme of the "Poor Happy Night" conference held by 1688 a few days ago.

At the conference, many users talked about the joy they got from buying substitutes through 1688. Some of them either made their first fortune by purchasing goods from 1688 and selling them offline, or were bloggers who found substitutes on 1688. Finding substitutes and recommending substitutes to others has become their hobby in their spare time.

In fact, this also confirms that the current young people's demand for "substitutes" does not come from "being really poor", but a sense of satisfaction after saving money and sharing their money-saving experience and gaining recognition.

You can save money while playing, who wouldn’t be tempted by the substitute?

2. If you want to grow your business on 1688, it’s not enough to rely on just a few entrances

An obvious fact is that as the main force of current consumption, Xiaohongshu and 1688, one is responsible for promoting products and the other completes the order, and they have become a pair of "CP partners".

However, in the increasingly competitive e-commerce environment, Xiaohongshu and 1688 have become the envy of each other.

From selling factory goods to becoming a new choice for the C-end market, the rapid growth of 1688 has allowed Xiaohongshu to see the advantages of selling low-priced, factory goods.

In the past two years, Xiaohongshu has been trying to get into e-commerce, but the splashes made during the two 618 events were not enough to quench its thirst.

To this end, Xiaohongshu has been trying out low prices during this 618 event. Many users have reported that they have seen a lot of low-priced women's clothing and daily necessities claiming to be factory goods on Xiaohongshu recently, such as dresses for more than 20 yuan, T-shirts for less than 10 yuan, or storage sets for 5 yuan. Even some new consumer brands have begun to offer low prices on Xiaohongshu. During the 618 event, six boxes of milk on Adopt a Cow were sold for only 9.9 yuan, which is much cheaper than the usual price of more than 20 yuan.

For 1688, promoting products is also a goal it has always pursued.

Take the 1688 membership page as an example. When you click on the membership page, the top banner has changed from a substitute for brands such as Sam's Club and Uniqlo to a one-sentence product recommendation, such as "high-quality thick, no rough paper" for 7 yuan, "long-pile skin-friendly, high-quality face towel" for 5 yuan, "quick-drying writing, improved adhesion" for 0.9 yuan, and other single products are constantly scrolling.

The low price plus homepage recommendation is naturally the best way to promote the product. On the product page, we can see that the sales volume of face wash towels has reached 14,000+, and the sales volume of carbon black pens has reached 9,000+.

In addition, at the bottom of the member store page, shopping tags are set to popular words of current consumption, such as "Mint Green", "Chinese New Health", "Life Transformer", etc. Many product pictures have also changed from the original "factory flavor" to a more "Internet celebrity flavor".

At the same time, many businesses will also put product promotion videos on the product pages. Some are direct videos to promote products, some are live streaming videos of products, and some are factory visits.

Although the shooting effect is not as good as that of Xiaohongshu bloggers directly selling products, it has finally gotten rid of the previous "industrial flavor" and can highlight the advantages of the products. It is much more friendly to more C-end users than before.

In addition, in the "Experts' Choice" and "Worth Picking" functions on the 1688 homepage, different degrees of promotion are also carried out through the angles of "experts" and "Taobao Douyin hot sales".

It is obvious that 1688 hopes to get closer to the C-end by planting grass.

However, this is only one step towards planting grass. If we want to learn the skills of planting grass on platforms such as Xiaohongshu and Douyin, it is far from enough to upgrade the various modules and functions on the page. The platform should also use various methods to allow factories and merchants to have more space to realize self-planting on the platform.

However, this step is not easy. If 1688 wants to achieve a qualitative leap, it still needs to pay a lot.