After reviewing Xiaohongshu’s first brand list, we found that this is how to cooperate with buyers to make money

In this era of information explosion, disappearing bonuses, and abundant choices, how does Xiaohongshu and buyers cooperate?

The first batch of buyers and brands on Xiaohongshu have already emerged.

Xiaohongshu's first buyer battle report shows that as of November 2, in addition to beauty buyer Veronica Yip and fashion buyer Dong Jie whose single-game sales exceeded 100 million yuan, Xiaohongshu has seen the emergence of more than 20 buyers with sales of 10 million yuan during the Double 11 period.

In Xiaohongshu’s first monthly brand ranking, 30 brand merchants that have rapidly exploded on Xiaohongshu almost all relied on the power of buyers to achieve business breakthroughs.

If you are still unclear about what a buyer of Xiaohongshu is, here is a simple and direct understanding: someone who creates relevance.

In this era of information explosion, disappearing dividends, and abundant choices, brands have to face a soul-searching question from consumers: Why should I care about you? What does it have to do with me?

The Yum! Marketing Method points out that "how to stimulate the desire to buy" is actually asking "how to create relevance". There are two ways to make a brand more popular. The first is to meet needs, that is, functional relevance. The second is to bring cultural relevance and meet spiritual needs.

Xiaohongshu buyers are people who can create relevance. Because they are "people who know the business," they can better establish functional relevance; because they are symbols or incarnations of "people who want to be," they can establish cultural relevance. In Xiaohongshu buyers, these two identities often exist at the same time.

So in practice, what are the characteristics of the first batch of brands that took the lead in Xiaohongshu e-commerce? How did they cooperate better with buyers? We reviewed 30 brands and merchants and summarized multiple cases, 3 stages and 3 TIPS for your reference.

1. People who know the business: buy things that are new and complex

Let’s first look at functional relevance, which is the more obvious label of Xiaohongshu buyers at this time, that is, someone who “knows the business”.

But being knowledgeable is not limited to doctors, designers, models, etc. Such experts with specific skills can also be people who have been through it, people who have devoted passion and energy to a certain niche field, such as those who have just given birth to a child, just renovated the house, have rich experience in "fighting acne", etc., or they may just like to study pear-shaped bodies, plus-size clothing, leather and fabrics, makeup and skin care.

This role will be helpful for Type 2 brands.

The first are brands that want to enter or establish new product categories. At this time, what the brand needs most is often to explain to consumers the value of the new product category and how the differentiation is reflected. Buyers can help the brand do this.

Take the collaboration between Unilever's high-end makeup brand "Hourglass" and beauty buyer Zhang Xiaohui as an example. "Hourglass" entered Xiaohongshu in September this year. Its tinted cream, which is popular in North America, has not been popular in China. Consumers have no idea about the name of tinted cream, don't know how to use it, and have no intention to buy it.

The concept that is closest to colored cream in China is bare face cream, which can make you look more energetic and in better condition without the need for advanced makeup skills.

During the live broadcast, buyer Gigi Lai called the new tinted facial cream "Little White Tube" "one of the only two bare-face creams she is sure of." She used familiar concepts such as lotions, face creams, and foundation to explain the features and functions of the "Little White Tube." She also added usage methods and precautions to help consumers understand the specific usage scenarios of the product.

With the help of Gigi Leung's trust and taste endorsement in skin care, and the cooperation with Buyer's Notes, "Little White Tube" was quickly accepted by the market. Within less than a month of its launch, the transaction volume on Xiaohongshu alone increased from 0 to 1 million. The transaction volume of "Hourglass" in its live broadcast room also exceeded 4.8 million in a single live broadcast.

The second category is brands with more complex product decisions. This complexity may be reflected in high technical content, such as electrical appliances, or in a wide variety of products, such as maternal and infant products. Buyers can help consumers eliminate complexity and make decisions more easily.

A typical example in electrical appliances is the German cleaning brand "Karcher" and its buyer ALLEN_GY. Karcher is a German family-owned company that produces cleaning equipment and cleaning systems. It was established in 1935 and officially entered the Chinese market in 2002.

Their problems were mainly due to two factors. In terms of products, cleaning appliances were still a new market and needed to be matched with content output. In terms of brand, as an established overseas brand, it was not well-known in China and it was difficult for third-party companies to tap into the deep value of the brand, so they later established an in-house team.

After working with ALLEN_GY, Tang Xiaodong, general manager of Kärcher Greater China, discovered that buyers play multiple roles: brand lovers, experts with a deep understanding of the products, and good friends of consumers.

Buyer ALLEN_GY has been paying attention to and understanding steam cleaners for more than ten years, and his "professionalism even exceeds that of Kärcher's internal employees." He himself likes this product of Kärcher, and from the perspective of consumers, he would say "don't expect steam machines to be omnipotent," and talk about how to choose and use them. He would also make suggestions to Kärcher on behalf of consumers, hoping that the brand can better meet the needs of the Chinese market population, such as increasing the number of consumables for cleaning products.

In a nutshell, ALLEN_GY helped Kärcher get closer to consumers and brought back their opinions. This is also reflected in the performance. Through cooperation with buyers like ALLEN_GY and in-depth store broadcasts, Kärcher began to be known and purchased, and the transaction volume on Xiaohongshu e-commerce exceeded one million within 30 days.

Finally, let’s look at a typical multi-faceted decision-making area - maternal and child care. ChloMa, a buyer on Xiaohongshu, is a new mother who achieved a GMV of over one million in her first live broadcast with 50,000 fans.

In her live broadcast room, you can feel a quiet atmosphere of life. From time to time, fans will ask parenting questions, and she can always give clear suggestions based on her own experience.

When explaining a mommy bag, she said, "This is divided into two layers, so it's not messy. When the baby is crying and making a fuss and you are in a hurry, you can still easily get what you want."

This kind of insight into consumer pain points and emotions is unique to "experienced people", who can see the most detailed product usage scenarios. If the brand is in a track that requires heavy decision-making or difficult selection, and emphasizes "trust first, then transaction", Xiaohongshu's professional and diverse buyer ecosystem will have a lot of room to play.

2. The person you want to be: Buy the puzzle pieces of "The Life You Want"

Looking at cultural relevance again, the more obvious label for Xiaohongshu buyers at this time is "the person that consumers want to be."

This is undoubtedly a strong area for Xiaohongshu, after all, it is often called a place to discover a better life and a trend maker. Obviously, this is more beneficial to brands that focus on spiritual needs and desires, such as fashion and lifestyle.

But this does not mean that only this type of brand has opportunities. After all, as commodity homogeneity becomes more and more obvious, more and more products also need to emphasize the satisfaction of emotional needs. Let’s look at the cases one by one.

The first is clothing and home furnishing categories that emphasize lifestyle.

"322workhouse" focuses on all-knitted products. The founder has been in the cashmere and wool supply chain for many years and has been in the clothing business for more than 20 years. They were impressed by the cooperation with Zhang Manmanivy, a fashion buyer on Xiaohongshu - the brand's products and values ​​were clearly and specifically conveyed.

Specifically, the core value of the brand is conveyed naturally and effectively: all knitted materials, environmentally friendly and natural. The brand only uses wool from captive sheep, which reduces damage to natural vegetation. The second is to explain the fabrics and yarns of each style. For a brand that focuses on knitwear, being able to explain these clearly is the true difference of the product. Buyers often add their own interpretation of product design and provide ideas for wearing.

With professional knowledge and unique personality, Xiaohongshu fashion buyers can achieve dual delivery of products and brands. "322workhouse" has cooperated with 100 buyers in total, breaking the stereotype of traditional cashmere women's clothing and doubling GMV in 30 days.

Clothing and home furnishings have one thing in common: the scene in which the object is placed is more important than the object itself.

This is why people often say that a certain piece of clothing looks ordinary, but they didn’t expect it to look so good when they wear it. The decision-making process for home products is long and costly, with few offline options and a plethora of online products, making it difficult to imagine specific matching scenarios.

Buyers can help fill in the scenes and present the products more intuitively, thus helping consumers to choose. This is also the reason why Xiaohongshu home buyers KK and Miss Wild Persimmon rented more than 300 square meters of space to display a mix of multi-brand and multi-category home products.

Next, let’s look at a brand called “Almond Rocks” that focuses on socks. Socks are a daily necessity, and durability, sweat absorption, and odor resistance are common user requirements.

But this is not what "Almond Rocks" wants to convey. Zhang Qi, a graffiti artist living in the UK, founded this brand in 2010. They hope to express that socks are not only functional, but also a fashionable item that expresses attitude.

In order to better convey the brand concept, "Almond Rocks" cooperates with 200 Xiaohongshu buyers per month to jointly convey the unified message that "socks are the key to unlocking surprises in dressing." The different personalities of different buyers have reached a diverse group of people. More people have begun to regard socks as part of their outfits and a reflection of a certain attitude, which has also helped "Almond Rocks" quickly break through one million in monthly sales on Xiaohongshu.

It can be seen that even for a mature category like socks that prioritizes functionality, cooperation with buyers is a key to breaking out of the red ocean.

3. Cooperating with buyers: 3 stages and 3 tips

Xiaohongshu buyers are a group of people who are directly linked to transactions. They not only plant seeds, but also pull them out to lead to purchases. Picking out this differentiated role also reflects Xiaohongshu's determination to invest in e-commerce to some extent. And the wave of brands mentioned above have already tasted the sweetness when the platform was on the rise.

After reviewing so many cases, we found that cooperating with Xiaohongshu buyers is particularly suitable at three time points for brands.

The first is when it was first released.

For example, the brand has just been established or has just entered China.

At this point, the brand is unfamiliar with either the business ecosystem or consumers and is completely in the dark. Choosing the right buyer can help the brand lay the foundation for healthy operations.

Healthy does not only mean finding seed users accurately and establishing the brand tone. Since buyers can better convey brand value, brands can also maintain their price system and establish a healthier gross profit structure. Since it is non-impulsive shopping, the return rate is also lower than that of traditional live broadcasts, reducing additional operational pressure , which is also valued by many brands including "Almond Rocks".

It is worth noting that buyers may be naturally friendly to new brands - after all, discovering niche and emerging brands and finding truly good products from them can also demonstrate their own taste, vision and professionalism.

The second was when I first entered Xiaohongshu.

The most difficult part of entering a community based on content is often integration. Buyers are like the friend who brings you into a new circle. They use their content capabilities and social trust to help brands introduce themselves and integrate into Xiaohongshu.

Brands can treat this process as a test to observe user reactions, learn what kind of content and tone are more popular, and what kind of products are needed by users here, and accumulate the first batch of user resources.

When the international nutritional health brand "Swisse" entered the market, it did not use the traditional main product tray to sell basic health products, but started testing a new product line, integrating planting and harvesting, and achieved a turnover of tens of millions within 30 days.

The third is when launching new products.

One reason is that buyers’ product selection and aesthetics are forward-looking and can help brands judge the potential of hot-selling products. Choosing buyers is itself a preliminary process of defining the target audience, which has a higher success rate.

Secondly, by cooperating with different buyers, multiple new products can be launched at the same time, which increases the speed. This advantage will be more obvious for brands with more SKUs.

Some brands have also explored deeper cooperation models, such as using buyer feedback and user feedback collected by buyers to reversely promote new product development and buyer customization.

The domestic original designer home furnishing brand "grado" followed the feedback from home furnishing buyer KK and expanded a single-person tulip sofa into a multi-person sofa, using more affordable materials. In April, "grado" cooperated with home furnishing buyer Miss Ye Shizi to launch customized products, and sales quickly exceeded one million in one month.

Finally, if you plan to become a buyer on Xiaohongshu, you can refer to the following 3 TIPS.

First, buyers may be your first shot on Xiaohongshu, but you also need to do a good job of laying the groundwork, such as the establishment and foundation of an official account, the foundation of brand content, and the establishment of a customer service team.

Buyer live streaming is not impulsive consumption. A reliable brand that is worth buying needs to be built from multiple levels.

The taking-over action is also essential. After cooperating with buyers, quickly connecting to store broadcasts and stabilizing the foundation is the choice of many brands in the above cases.

Second, pay attention to reasonable matching. Some buyers are better at dressing, some have a strong understanding of product craftsmanship, and some have their own sense of atmosphere. Different buyers can be used to express different aspects of the brand.

Third, brands can delegate power appropriately. In many cases, Xiaohongshu buyers are not just a sales channel. They also help brands convey their attitudes while bringing goods. Therefore, on the basis of clarifying the core value points, brands can let go appropriately and give full play to buyers' imagination and value.

4. Analyst Comments

The buyers of Xiaohongshu are like the managers of a specialty buyer's store on the corner of a small road. They may have unique tastes, extensive knowledge, or rich experience. They select the products that they are most satisfied with, using their own language, experience and language, and are therefore deeply trusted.

For brands, this is a new option for doing business. Whether it is to complete a cold start or to find new e-commerce sales during a bottleneck period, it is possible to achieve both product quality and effect within a certain range. It can not only sell sales, but also achieve long-term healthy operation of the brand.

Author: Xiao Mei

Source: Knife Skills Research Institute (ID: DigipontClub).