Xiaohongshu has a new trend.
This 300 million monthly active platform explored a new model of e-commerce last year, and a large number of buyers stood out, showing the industry the new possibilities of content planting platforms. In the increasingly perfect e-commerce structure, new vitality has burst out again - the sports and outdoor category is booming in Xiaohongshu e-commerce.
Mainstream mid-to-high-end sports brands such as Salomon, ASICS, Descente, HOKA, and ON have all settled in Xiaohongshu e-commerce, and in May, adidas will also open stores in Xiaohongshu. The sports brands that entered the market first have figured out the methodology of Xiaohongshu e-commerce, and have earned the "third pot of gold" after shelf e-commerce and live broadcast e-commerce.
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Text / Yin Hang
Editor / Huang Mengting
Sold at the original price and broke out in 7 days, Xiaohongshu has become a new position for the first launch of new sports products
At 17 o'clock on May 11, Jiang Sida's Xiaohongshu account started broadcasting on time. This is a special live broadcast in cooperation with the sports brand Saucony, and the spokesperson Zhou Yiran also appeared as a video guest, making the atmosphere in the live broadcast room continue to be hot.
"How light is 188g? You don't even know if someone takes one in your bag." Continuing the detailed and interesting explanation, Jiang Sida still has frequent golden sentences.
As a sports and outdoor buyer, Jiang Sida is still a newcomer, but the live broadcast data is already quite stable and eye-catching. In March this year, Jiang Sida's sports outdoor special premiered, and the GMV exceeded 12 million. In April, a number of popular models were sold out in seconds, and the total sales in the live broadcast room almost doubled, reaching 20 million+. The huge demand for sports products on the Xiaohongshu platform is enough to support the team's continuous improvement of expectations.
This special cooperation with Jiang Sida is also a new exploration of Saucony's e-commerce operation in Xiaohongshu. In fact, Saucony is already a "veteran player" of Xiaohongshu e-commerce, and settled in the early days of Xiaohongshu e-commerce, and established close cooperation with many sports and outdoor buyers such as Jiang Sida, Andy Zhao, and Mr. Li, who loves running, and began to try to launch new brand products on Xiaohongshu.
Talking about this choice, Wu Zengping, head of Saucony e-commerce, said: "Xiaohongshu can sell products with high unit prices, which is a very big demand for our brand, and it is difficult to make new products now."
Wu Zengping's "new products", that is, the main models that the brand has just launched, these series are often equipped with cutting-edge technology, and the price is naturally slightly higher. In the past, popular and volume-oriented products were popular products in live broadcast e-commerce channels, after all, discounts can drive sales, and original-priced products with high unit prices do not have sales advantages in live broadcast channels.
However, this is not the case on Xiaohongshu e-commerce. Wu Zengping recalled that in April this year, Saucony simultaneously released a new product GUARD on major e-commerce platforms, priced at 690 yuan, which is a sports running shoe with a high unit price. The final sales data shows that among the major e-commerce platforms, Xiaohongshu's sales are particularly bright, reaching five times that of other platforms.
Saucony GUARD series
At the same time, the "starting volume" cycle of new products on Xiaohongshu is also shorter, Wu Zengping revealed: "The launch cycle of a new product takes seven days in Xiaohongshu, but it may take half a month to a month on traditional e-commerce platforms".
This comes down to the logical differences in the volume of new products on different platforms. Traditional shelf e-commerce relies more on search, consumers have a strong purpose, it is difficult to sell products that users have not yet formed a willingness to buy, and brands can only wait for the accumulation of product sales and store traffic, because explosive products and best-selling models are more popular, and it is difficult for conventional new products to explode quickly.
In the community-based Xiaohongshu e-commerce, users are exposed to the grass content first, rather than the "product" itself, which gives brands more opportunities to communicate the features of the product. Then, the brand took advantage of the trend to convert in the store broadcast and buyer live broadcast room, and the link from planting grass to pulling weeds was shorter.
Compared with other content platforms, the cost of making new product explosions on Xiaohongshu will also be lower, and some brands said, "The cost of making new product launches on other content platforms is two to three times that of Xiaohongshu."
Wu Zengping also found that Xiaohongshu's buyers can bring greater certainty to the brand's debut. This is also the pain point of the brand to do the first launch of new products, ten years ago, how much traffic the platform gave, how much sales the new products can achieve, this is certain, but with the change of the traffic environment, the new product explosion effect brought by it has also lost its certainty, and it is more dependent on the brand to plant grass, especially the brand's regular new products.
However, because sports buyers have enough understanding of products, fan portraits and fan needs, they can recommend suitable products to users in need through product selection and explanation, improve the accuracy of new product crowds, and make products easier to increase.
At the beginning of this year, the Saucony Surging series was upgraded to the third generation. The Paper is an entry-level product in Saucony's entire running shoe line, not a flagship model for the core group (professional runners), and the second generation of The Paper has a certain price difference, and the brand is not sure what kind of market response the new product released at the original price will bring.
However, in the first live broadcast in cooperation with Jiang Sida, Jiang Sida incorporated a wealth of personal understanding and purchase suggestions, such as "Novices don't spend one or two thousand to buy shoes, it's really not suitable, buy surging within ten kilometers", to clarify the suitable people for the product, and combined with on-site try-on, explain the relationship between the slope difference of running shoes and foot feel and cushioning performance for the audience in the live broadcast room, so that consumers have a more specific understanding of "whether the new product is suitable for me".
In the end, The Paper 3 received nearly 200,000 sales in Jiang Sida's live broadcast room, exceeding the brand's expectations by three times.
However, all this is still based on the user's "knowledge". For trendy and fresh Xiaohongshu users, quality and design are often more important than discounts. Wu Zengping also felt that "Xiaohongshu consumers are extremely receptive to new products, and the newer the content, the easier it is to reach consumers."
Based on these characteristics, Xiaohongshu e-commerce is undoubtedly a more suitable platform for new product releases. At present, Saucony, HOKA, Salomon, Allbirds, etc., have begun to use Xiaohongshu as the position for the launch of new products: Saucony's new jogging shoes GUARD will be released simultaneously in Andy Zhao's live broadcast room, focusing on the core sports outdoor enthusiast circle; HOKA debuted the new color model of the Hopara 2 generation in Jiang Sida's live broadcast room, selling 500,000 yuan in a single pit, and the Bangdai 8TS road running shoes sold 1.41 million for the first time......
With the help of professional buyers, the brand has gained a win-win situation in terms of volume and sales
In 2023, the two dark horses of Xiaohongshu e-commerce, Dong Jie and Zhang Xiaohui, both exceeded 100 million yuan in terms of delivery data. Looking at the field of sports and outdoor, Jiang Sida is the current benchmark buyer.
Since 2022, Jiang Sida has been obsessed with running, and he also happens to have a strong athletic talent, his road running performance has improved rapidly, and he quickly unlocked the first horse in his life. In the live broadcast, Jiang Sida will talk in detail about his experience of wearing, not just a simple promotion technique.
In addition to the professionalism, Jiang Sida's excellent content ability also played a full role in the live broadcast. Wen Ru "Dirt is its beauty, soil is its destination"; Wu Ru "can wear river tracing shoes to quarrel with the cabinet sister", which can not only mobilize the desire for consumption, but more often, it is exciting enough to listen to it as a variety show.
"Our team is very strict when it comes to product selection, and we don't just put on one thing." For product selection, Jiang Sida's team will contact the brand to ask for exclusivity, and sometimes will conduct a "reverse selection": "I will say that I have worn a certain pair of shoes while running recently, can we get the brand to come to a live broadcast?" We'll get in touch after that."
Each pair of shoes has to be tested by the buyers on the real feet
The collaboration with the sports brand Brooks is achieved under such a reverse selection operation. After putting on the Brooks running shoes, Jiang Sida felt that "it was so easy to wear", and he also gave the brand Amway to his colleagues many times. However, at that time, Brooks was quite niche in China and had not established a wide range of brand awareness, so Jiang Sida's team took the initiative to contact the brand to launch the live broadcast room, so as to make this professional running brand known to more people.
For non-popular models, the buyer's live broadcast room often runs out of sales dark horses. In Jiang Sida's live broadcast on March 1, Meile barefoot shoes created a single product sales of 1.14 million, and this product is not even in the top 20 of the sales list in the brand's Tmall flagship store. Under the professional explanation of the buyer, these relatively "unpopular" brands and products can also gain a win-win situation in Xiaohongshu in terms of volume and sales.
With the traffic support of the platform, Xiaohongshu has more and more sports and outdoor bloggers transforming into buyers.
For example, retired Olympic champion Liu Xuan, whose experience as a professional athlete allows her to bring professional content on sports injury repair, which is also welcomed by users. Another example is Andy Zhao, a professional marathon runner, whose live broadcast can better understand the technology and functionality of the product, and radiate the professional runner crowd in the field of vertical running. In the early days when Andy Zhao only had more than 10,000 fans, his single sales volume could reach more than 100,000. The buyer's expertise makes the brand and product more convincing, which leads to high-quality sales conversion.
@赵安迪Andy与 @刘璇的小红书主页
Although the ultimate goal is to sell goods, Xiaohongshu is more suitable for live broadcasts. The pace can be slower, and the content should be more in-depth and professional, which also requires buyers to have real wearing experience, considerable understanding of the product and the brand, and long-term attention, in order to tell the real wearing experience of the product and convey the story behind the brand.
According to the characteristics of "slow pace and strong professionalism", brands are also constantly adjusting their store broadcast strategies.
In the early days of settling in, Saucony built a Xiaohongshu live broadcast room with the mind of selling goods based on his previous e-commerce experience. However, after a period of time, the store broadcast on the Xiaohongshu platform has not improved. Wu Zengping decided that the brand's store broadcast on Xiaohongshu should change its style, and the anchor team is also a marathon runner, telling users about the brand's history and running experience, and sincerely sharing the advantages and disadvantages of the product. After the live broadcast was "slowed down", the length of time consumers stayed in the live broadcast room increased, and the sales volume also increased.
Video content from Saucony's official account
"Some content platforms are entertainment-oriented, which is suitable for a wide range of user growth, but the retention of user minds will be weaker. The main difference between Xiaohongshu and other channels is its community nature, and the strong interaction with users on Xiaohongshu is an experience that other platforms don't have." Wu Zengping concluded.
From planting grass to sales, new e-commerce opportunities for sports brands
In the past year, after continuous attempts and adjustments, Xiaohongshu has explored a unique e-commerce model, and knowledgeable Xiaohongshu buyers have stood out, forming a closed loop of "planting grass-buying-posting orders-planting grass again", which is also Xiaohongshu's unique advantage in e-commerce.
The sales of Xiaohongshu channels can also feed back to other e-commerce platforms, and Saucony has a real understanding of this. Wu Zengping said that often after new products exploded on the Xiaohongshu platform, the sales of the Tmall platform also followed, "After GUARD became popular on Xiaohongshu in April, Tmall's daily sales also tripled."
It can be said that sports brands are playing a "tailwind game" in Xiaohongshu e-commerce, which comes naturally from the inherent sports community atmosphere of the platform.
First of all, from the user's point of view, sports and outdoor are the areas that Xiaohongshu people pay attention to. Frisbee, Rugby, Yoga, Camping, Surfing, Skiing, Marathon...... There are countless sports lifestyles that have become popular on Xiaohongshu, and the explosion of each sport has attracted a large number of sports enthusiasts to join this content sharing community.
They are young, receptive to new things, and have strong spending power, which is in line with the expectations of sports brands for young consumers. According to Saucony's current brand consumer portrait, 50% of the brand's consumers are high-net-worth individuals aged 35 years and above, and there is an urgent need to grasp a younger consumer group, which happens to be in line with the user portrait of the Xiaohongshu platform.
Secondly, the platform marketing activities also further stimulate the combination and vitality of the sports community and e-commerce.
In April this year, Xiaohongshu e-commerce launched the sports season, linking up with HOKA, Saucony brand and sports and outdoor representative buyers Jiang Sida, Zhao Andy, Liu Xuan, and Yang Li, to launch 4 offline activities to share the feeling of running shoes with real running and sports experience. During this period, HOKA and Saucony's products also appeared in the live broadcast rooms of several buyers, among them, HOKA sold 2.59 million+ sales in Jiang Sida's live broadcast room, and Saucony's new product GUARD received 1 million+ sales in Andy Zhao's live broadcast room.
HOKA offline running group activities
In summary, the main reason for the rapid growth of e-commerce business is that Xiaohongshu has the content gene of sports and outdoor, and sports brands naturally have more opportunities. With the user's willingness to pay for sports, coupled with the guidance of professional buyers, and the platform's support for sports categories, the gold mine of Xiaohongshu e-commerce is still waiting to be tapped.
Now, "whether Xiaohongshu can do a good job in e-commerce" is no longer an unknown question, and it is worth looking forward to-
Who will be the next winner for sports brands?