The "Chinese old money trend" popularized by Xiaohongshu was also wiped out by Taobao and Pinyin

Recently, the new Chinese style of dressing has become popular on Xiaohongshu, and the volume of related notes has increased wildly. However, although Xiaohongshu has helped consumers to complete the behavior of planting grass, when it comes to placing orders, many consumers turn to Taobao to seek cost-effectiveness. In fact, many buyers still only regard Xiaohongshu as a traffic-generating tool.

A "new Chinese style" dressing trend has flooded Xiaohongshu.

Shi Jingjing wanted to dress uniquely and decently for her baby's first birthday party, so she did some research on Xiaohongshu a month ago. Xiaohongshu recommended a set of "new Chinese style" atmosphere strategies to her, which included new Chinese style settings, dessert tables, and parent-child outfits in the same color scheme. Xiaohongshu also provided Shi Jingjing with new inspiration for her outfit: the Chinese old money style.

The old money style mainly describes the dressing style pursued by families that have been rich for several generations. They often pay attention to the tailoring, comfort and texture of the clothes. Brands such as Erdos and Ralph Lauren have been the biggest beneficiaries of the old money style in the past few years.

The Chinese old money style focuses more on ready-to-wear made of traditional silk fabrics with Chinese tailoring. Before the Spring Festival, Yang Mi posted a birthday photo of herself wearing a new Chinese suit on social platforms, which triggered a hot search topic; this year's Spring Festival Gala, the new Chinese suits of actors such as Bai Jingting in the program "Shang Chunshan" were even more talked about.

With cultural confidence, the new Chinese style covers a wide audience, from young girls in their twenties to intellectual women in their forties and fifties.

According to Qiangua data, the volume of notes related to "New Chinese Style" on Xiaohongshu platform increased by more than 390% in 2023, and the total amount of interaction increased by more than 188%. Clothing accessories with "New Chinese Style" elements have become the most beautiful dark horse category on Xiaohongshu in 2023.

In the spring of 2024, the Chinese style of old money has completely exploded. AI Blue Media followed a silk blogger named Boss Du on Xiaohongshu. She worked non-stop throughout the Spring Festival. By attracting traffic on Xiaohongshu, she set up a WeChat group buying group for intangible cultural heritage fabrics. "I have been receiving orders non-stop throughout the Spring Festival."

On February 20, she shared a screenshot of a conversation with a manufacturer on WeChat Moments: Orders from intangible cultural heritage factories such as Songjin, Kuduan, and Xiangyunsha have been scheduled until summer. She also said: "The price of silk is rising across the Internet. If it doesn't rise this time, it will rise next time... Buy it now and cherish it."

The circle of friends of the boss who sells cloth on Xiaohongshu

After doing her homework, Shi Jingjing originally wanted to buy custom-made cloth, but because the customization cycle was too long and the price was ridiculously high, she finally chose to buy ready-made "celebrity-style" products directly on Taopin.

"It's quite user-friendly to place orders on Taopin. You can compare prices from different stores, and it's not a hassle to return or exchange products if they're not suitable," said Shi Jingjing.

1. The “Chinese old money style” is going viral on Xiaohongshu

In fact, in real life, there are still very few people who wear Chinese-style clothes on a daily basis. But on Xiaohongshu, searching for "new Chinese style" has 8.57 million notes and 2.78 million products; searching for "Chinese old money style" also has more than 10,000 notes and 5,800 products.

Why do users on Xiaohongshu love the "New Chinese Style" so much? One important reason is the sense of ritual in dressing for important occasions.

Shi Jingjing's bestie also chose a Chinese cheongsam as her "battle robe" at her engagement party. During the Spring Festival, orders for new Chinese-style clothing increased sharply, also because young people need to wear Chinese-style clothes to add to the festive atmosphere.

On the short video platform, there are many handsome men and beautiful women wearing Chinese clothing, checking in at famous foreign attractions and promoting Chinese culture.

Boss Du also admitted that he has been receiving a lot of orders for light-colored items recently, mainly to coincide with the three short holidays in the first half of the year. "People go out to enjoy the flowers, and wearing more formal clothes will make them look better in photos."

Relying on UGC, the new Chinese style has become very popular on Xiaohongshu. AI Blue Media observed that for an amateur blogger with double-digit fans, publishing a new Chinese style content with a sense of atmosphere and good quality will also trigger thousands of comments and tens of thousands of collections and likes.

In the face of traffic, the new Chinese style has also moved from phenomenon to universalization, and finally achieved commercialization, constantly stimulating the commercial value of this category.

On Xiaohongshu, there are many people who sell intangible cultural heritage fabrics. They usually use live broadcasts to show users the gloss of the fabrics and the effects of making finished garments.

However, as the prices of intangible cultural heritage fabrics have risen, the average price of one meter of more famous intangible cultural heritage fabrics such as Shang Jiukai and Qian Xiaoping has been sold for more than 1,000 yuan. Due to the high average order value and the non-refundable and non-exchangeable policies, the transaction cycle of customers brought by live streaming is long, and many new users are mostly waiting and watching.

“Is this the same fabric that Yang Mi wears? How can I buy it?”

“Can you provide us with materials for processing?”

"Why does this look like a Song brocade from Shang Jiukai? I'm afraid I'll buy a fake at a high price."

When faced with inquiries from potential customers, customer service will patiently reply: Send you a private message and we can discuss the specific styles.

There are also offline store managers or designers who have opened accounts on Xiaohongshu, but they do not list their stores, but instead set up a consultation window. When you click on the consultation window, the managers ask potential customers to add their WeChat accounts for detailed discussions.

AI Blue Media consulted several managers who run new Chinese-style ready-made clothes on Xiaohongshu. Wang Huajuan, who promoted on Xiaohongshu and sold outside of Xiaohongshu, explained to AI Blue Media: "The traffic is huge, and the trend is strong, but it is difficult to trade on Xiaohongshu. We post notes here more for promotion, so that everyone can read more and reduce communication costs . Because there are too many new Chinese-style fabrics, many styles, and a wide variety of colors, the finished ready-made clothes are generally not returned or exchanged, so in the end it is still directed to transactions among acquaintances, and more on WeChat. "

2. Why go to Xiaohongshu to recommend products and go to Taopin to place orders?

The traffic of New Chinese Style on Xiaohongshu has surged, and even a group of old tailors who make ready-made clothes have become popular. Mr. Song, a tailor on Xiaohongshu, said: "This year's orders have been scheduled until August. Now I have to finish one month's work before I dare to schedule another month's orders . The sewing machine is about to smoke. " A brand manager said in the live broadcast room that the labor fee of a good tailor is now much higher than the price of the fabric.

Some managers choose to stay on Xiaohongshu, but according to AI Blue Media, the sales volume of Yang Mi's Chinese-style jackets, which are sold for more than 2,000 yuan or more than 1,000 yuan on Xiaohongshu, is only in the single digits. The sales volume of jackets between 300 yuan and 600 yuan is about 100 pieces.

Most searches for new Chinese styles on Xiaohongshu show the same ones worn by Yang Mi

This also means that Xiaohongshu may not have been able to fully take over the commercial transformation brought about by the explosion of its own content ecology. In fact, many users have turned to Taopin to seek cost-effectiveness.

According to AI Blue Media, Pinduoduo merchants are very sensitive to "celebrity-style clothes". Whenever Yang Mi wears a popular item, Pinduoduo merchants will immediately put it on the shelves. The pictures on the shelves are basically based on celebrity pictures, and there are no real samples for consumers to refer to. However, Pinduoduo's sales have mostly reached more than 80,000 pieces, and sales of 100,000 pieces are also very high.

The new Chinese-style tops that sell well are priced no more than 200 yuan, and the main focus is on sales.

The price of new Chinese-style clothes on Pinduoduo is less than 200 yuan

Taobao’s ecosystem is also different from Pinduoduo’s.

Taobao started out with women's clothing categories, and the platform ecosystem has accumulated many veteran women's clothing stores with a stable customer base.

Many users posted photos of themselves wearing Songjin garments on Xiaohongshu, and there were comments in the comment section asking for links. Most of the replies were directed to Taobao merchants.

There are two stores that users recommend the most on Xiaohongshu, Yunshu and Huayingyaoyao. The former does not have a store on Xiaohongshu, but has a large number of seller shows spread in the Xiaohongshu content ecosystem, and Taobao is the only sales window; the latter also intends to open a store on Xiaohongshu, but its Xiaohongshu store only has two products on the shelves, which is very different from the SKU of the Taobao store.

In addition, Taobao also has a large number of new Chinese-style stores with low prices and high sales, and their pricing is almost the same as Pinduoduo.

In comparison, the prices of products that sell well on Xiaohongshu are significantly higher than those on Taopin.

Under the influence of multiple factors, although Xiaohongshu has undertaken the task of content creation and promotion and helped consumers to complete the grass-planting behavior, at the further industrialization level, it has always lost part of its market share to Taobao and Pin.

A person in the consumer industry explained to AI Blue Media: "Buyers are closer to acquaintance e-commerce. Xiaohongshu wants to grow bigger, but buyer e-commerce is too small. At the same time, many buyers and managers also use Xiaohongshu as a tool to attract traffic."

Author: Yang Lei; Editor: Wei Xiao

Source public account: AI Lanmeihui (ID: lanmeih001), a well-known new media reporting on AI and Internet industries.