As millennials age and become the dominant consumer generation, companies are turning their eyes to the next group. Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book) has become China’s top social media marketing & e-commerce platform for luxury & beauty brands for companies looking to capture dollars spent by Generation Z. Large chunk of its audience are Chinese women who look for fashion and luxury goods and to discover and review beauty and health products.
The quantity and qualities of its user base are just two reasons why brands trying to reach out to Chinese consumers need to understand the basics of leveraging the platform to drive awareness and growth.
1. What Is Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book)?
Little Red Book is a social media platform that brings together elements of e-commerce, user-generated content (UGX), and product reviews. The platform features photos, text, and short videos that, together, produce content tailored towards lifestyle trends and products.
2. How Many Users Does Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book) have?
It boasts over 300 million registered users who make up what it calls a “lifestyle community platform”.
3. Is Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book) Popular?
As one of the fastest-growing e-commerce platforms, Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book) is highly popular among the female audience which makes up 88% of its user base. While 70% of its registered users were born after 1999, making the platform one of the preferred marketplaces of Gen Z, 57% of such users live in metropolitan cities that make up traditional centers of wealth.
4. How Can International Brands Market On Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book)?
There are a number of ways that international brands can market to their user base Little Red Book; organic and paid.
1. Open a brand account
Opening a brand account is the best and simplest way to engage with your user base on Xiaohongshu. Brands can easily share and feature detailed “shopping notes” with their followers that can include text, photos, and short videos, and can also interact directly with fan reviews and comments. Chinese consumers place a high value on product reviews. As such a consumer survey conducted by McKinsey & Company revealed that 64% of respondents considered word-of-mouth reviews when shopping. Xiaohongshu’s user community taps into this proclivity by featuring detailed “shopping notes” written by other users which can help brands quickly generate interest on the platforms and grow their follower user base.
2. Work with Key Opinion Leaders (KOL)
Xiaohongshu has been described by some as Chinese celebrities’ favourite sharing platform. Music and film stars alongside other KOLs leave shopping notes like other users, but their prominence adds a level of authenticity. KOLs are increasingly becoming a focal point of sale, and their use and love of the platform are enticing to companies that want to reach out to Chinese consumers.