It’s time for overseas company to start online business in China. The door is open for you. As an overseas company, you can open store on Xiaohongshu to sell foreign products directly. Let me tell you what requirements are needed to open Xiaohongshu store. And how to open Xiaohongshu store.
And why you should choose Xiaohongshu, what are the benefits of using it?
Xiaohongshu (RED), is a social e-commerce platform. Which means, it not only fits your Chinese social marketing strategy but also meets your needs for online store.
Company name: 行吟信息科技（上海）有限公司
Founder: Miranda Qu Fang & Charlwin Mao Wenchao
Founded: 2013
Headquarters: Shanghai, China
Monthly active users (MAU): 20 million (end of 2021)
Why foreign company should open Xiaohongshu store?
1. Products – sharing social community
Apart from Xiaohongshu is a social media and e-commerce platform. Xiaohongshu was born for sharing foreign products in 2013. It was a social community for sharing products from overseas at the very beginning. And then it started e-commerce store in 2014.
The platform like Xiaohongshu (social e-commerce) is good for your online business.
Users like to ask for the purchase link or ask where to buy this product on the comments. Even it’s an sponsored content.
So, opening a store on Xiaohongshu is very important and necessary.
NOTE: it’s not recommended to leave links on Xiaohongshu, or forbidden to leave links that are out of the Xiaohongshu platform.
2. Monthly Active Users: 200 million
As of the end of 2021, Xiaohongshu had 200 million monthly active users (MAUs).
Compared to other Chinese social medias, like WeChat, and Weibo, Xiaohongshu had much fewer users. (WeChat: 1 billion MAUs, Weibo: 584 million MAUs).
But, Xiaohongshu has much more influence on social media marketing and sales generation. If you’re familiar with social media marketing, you must know that MAUs is important, but not the only factor.
3. Loyalty user and High engagement
Users are sharing the foreign-brand products by take a NOTE (笔记) of the using experience and how to guide. Or post with pictures or videos.
And the readers (views) will leave reviews of the product. If the products has good quality worth buying, or they like this item, they will like & favorite this NOTE.
Xiaohongshu will give more impressions of this NOTE. No matter it has good reviews or bad reviews. At least more people knows it. Not like traditional e-commerce platform, you can’t review unless you purchased.
And it’s not like the review platforms or website. Just leaving plain review text without much more engagement.
This is why the Xiaohongshu has many loyalty users and high-engaging users.
4. High purchasing power
- Users generation: Gen Y / Z (70%).
- Users city: Tier-1 and Tier-2 city (50%).
- Gender: 70% female users.
The main users of Xiaohongshu are aged between 16 and 35. And 70% female users. It all means high purchasing willingness and power.
And compared to other Chinese social media, Xiaohongshu has more well-educated users.
5. User-friendly design
Compared to Facebook, and Instagram, users are more like to use Xiaohongshu. Because Xiaohongshu is like a combination of Instagram & Pinterest.
And look cleaner than Weibo regards to Ads.
6. Chinese consumers like foreign brands and luxury products
There are three reasons why Chinese consumers like foreign brand products.
- We think foreign brand products have good quality and safety.
- There are more and more middle-class people in China. They have the power to purchase that.
- Chinese Culture.
7. Xiaohongshu supports global store for foreign-company.
There are many online businesses and many e-commerce platforms for you to choose. But not all platform suit for an overseas company.
Some of them require you to set up a local Chinese company.
But, overseas companies can set up an e-commerce store on Xiaohongshu without registering Chinese company. (Highlight)
Foreign company open Xiaohongshu store process
Let’s take look at a brief process of opening Xiaohongshu store.
1. Open Xiaohongshu Official Account.
If you already have Xiaohongshu account (individual account), then you just need to upgrade to Xiaohongshu official account (小红书专业号).
you may also need this: how to sign up Xiaohongshu account (individual account)
2. Fill out the company, store and contact info.
Enter your company info, like, company license, band name, and trademarks, along with providing certified documents.
And submit your store name, type, country of origin, etc.
3. Wait for the response.
The whole process will take up to 1 – 5 workdays. The result of your application will be sent to your phone via SMS message.
4. Pay a deposit and Sign the contract.
5. Finish the online-store tutorial lessons.
The tutorial will teach you how to start your online store business and some basic optimization skills. Besides, you need to know the guidelines. You need to learn that basic knowledge.
What requirements are needed to open Xiaohongshu store
There are some main certificated documents needed when you apply for Xiaohongshu store. The requirements for creating Xiaohongshu store are different from mainland China and outside of China
Overseas company: Registered from outside of mainland China. (Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macao included).
- Enterprise/Company (individual and sole proprietorship are unacceptable).
- Brand holder or Brand Authorized documents.
- Business registration / Certificate of Incorporation / Other company documents.
- The documents/ forms has to be either in Chinese or English. (if not in Chinese or English has to be translated)
- And other requirements, more details check in here
Overseas company info and documents:
- Company registration name, holder country, address, etc.
- Contact info (the email can’t be changed once confirmed).
- Business registration / Certificate of Incorporation / Other company documents.
More specific requirements for different countries.
Hong Kong China:
Certificate of incorporation, or Business Registration. And Business Registration’s expiry date has at least one month left.
Each page of documents with business stamp seal. If use signature stamp instead, has add the signature of company owner or charger’s name.
Australia:
Business Certificate. (If registered for more than one year, Annual review documents of Current
Company Extract Or Record of Registration are required)
New Zealand:
Certificate of incorporation and Company extract (If registered for more than one year, Annual return documents are required).
Canada:
Certificate of incorporation (If registered for more than one year, Annual review business licence is required).
Singapore:
ACCOUNTING AND CORPORATE REGULATORY AUTHORITY(ACRA)
Color scanned copy and each page of documents with business stamp seal.
Other country/region:
More details about Xiaohongshu store set-up requirements, please check here.
Trademark:
If the trademark registered from outside of China, then only live/registered trademarks are accepted to create Xiaohongshu store.
I’m not brand holder, can I sell products on Xiaohongshu
Yes, As long as you have brand authorization letter and related documents.
What store types are available for foreign company
There are two store types for oversea company to choose on Xiaohongshu store set-up.
- Flagship store (旗舰店)/ Official Flagship store (官方旗舰店)
- Exclusive licensed brand store (专卖店)
You should be very careful when you apply for Xiaohongshu store, because all the page are in Chinese. And once you confirmed, it’s unchangeable. So if you need help, please contact me: silas_yan@outlook.com
