Who sells home furnishing products on Xiaohongshu?

After the "longest Double 11 ever", all platforms released their sales reports, showing significant year-on-year growth in transaction volume. In addition to disclosing its overall performance, Xiaohongshu also released a buyer ranking list, showcasing top-performing buyers during this year's Double 11.

The list includes rankings for five categories: fashion, beauty care, home furnishing, food, and parenting. Among them, only the top three home furnishing buyers, who are not celebrities, have surpassed 10 million points. Meanwhile, among the new merchants announced by Xiaohongshu during Double 11, there was a home furnishing brand that surpassed 1.2 million yuan in GMV within just one month of establishment.

Image Source: Xiaohongshu

It can be seen that home furnishing products have become a dominant category for Xiaohongshu's e-commerce platform.

Why has the home furnishing category gained such an advantage on Xiaohongshu in less than two years since the introduction of the 'buyer' role? How do home furnishing brands operate on Xiaohongshu?

Due to their low consumption frequency and long decision-making cycles, home furnishing products often lag behind in the development of e-commerce platforms, and the industry relies heavily on offline channels.

However, many source factories or small and medium-sized merchants without the financial strength to expand offline pay more attention to online development. Support from traditional e-commerce platforms has also driven the emergence of a number of online home furnishing brands, such as Yuanshimuyu, which specializes in solid wood furniture, and Lanhezi, which specializes in mattresses.

In recent years, however, more and more consumers prefer to buy home furnishing products online. According to the '2024 China Home Furnishing Market Consumption Insight Report' released by iResearch, 79.5% of home furnishing consumers now choose online and offline purchasing channels.

Image Source: iResearch

Before joining Xiaohongshu, Momo Furniture, which specializes in sofas, tables, and chairs, relied mainly on its Taobao store for revenue. To drive business growth and brand promotion, Momo Furniture joined Xiaohongshu last year, and now income from Xiaohongshu accounts for about 25% of its total revenue.

Song Lang, the operation manager of Momo Furniture, said that offline consumers pay more attention to spiritual needs and experience, while online home furnishing consumers usually focus more on price.

According to observations by 'Qu Xie Shang Ye', many home furnishing brands have placed emphasis on operating social media platforms in recent years. Momo Furniture, which joined Xiaohongshu earlier, now conducts stable daily live broadcasts for over 12 hours on average.

Song Lang said there were two main reasons for initially choosing Xiaohongshu: "On the one hand, the live broadcast ecosystem on other platforms was already quite saturated, but Xiaohongshu was just starting out, with relatively fewer merchants involved. On the other hand, Momo Furniture's positioning is slightly vintage, and this type of furniture usually appeals to consumers who value stylish and atmospheric home decoration, with relatively low price sensitivity."

Image Source: Xiaohongshu Screenshot

According to 'Qu Xie Shang Ye', the number of merchants with a monthly sales volume of 5 million or more on Xiaohongshu's e-commerce platform increased by 3.5 times in the past year, the number of purchasing users increased by 4.3 times, and the number of live broadcast purchasing users increased by 6.3 times.

'Qu Xie Shang Ye' observed that most of the brands that frequently conduct live broadcasts on Xiaohongshu and use it as their main platform are original brands that emphasize design and aesthetic expression, similar to Momo Furniture, and many of these brands are first-time e-commerce participants.

This is related to Xiaohongshu's support policies. In April this year, Xiaohongshu launched the home furnishing industry IP 'REDeco', stating that it would support 1,000 well-designed home furnishing brands in the future. Some designer brands that have not been established for long have surpassed 10 million yuan in GMV in less than six months under this wave of 'channel dividends'.

Compared to niche original brands that need more exposure, traditional home furnishing brands with a larger scale, such as Kuka Home and Linshi Home, value Xiaohongshu's 'seeding' attribute more than selling products. A relevant responsible person from Linshi Home said that Xiaohongshu is mainly used to create content related to core categories and popular products. Compared with live broadcasts, "we value how Xiaohongshu's seeding content can effectively translate into business growth."

In the view of Linshi Home, Xiaohongshu is the "starting point where consumers begin to envision their ideal home life." "When consumers start envisioning a home, the rich and diverse content on Xiaohongshu, such as home decoration trends, various design styles, and brand reputations, becomes a crucial reference for them when purchasing large home furnishing products."

Image Source: Xiaohongshu Screenshot

Xiaohongshu has significantly accelerated its commercialization efforts in recent years, consistently supporting the creation of 'home life' content to help more home furnishing brands achieve conversion within the platform.

According to the '2024 Xiaohongshu Residential Trends' report, the number of notes on home furnishing content on Xiaohongshu has increased by 87.3% in the past two years, and the search volume for related categories has increased by 403%. This significant growth indicates that young people's interest and participation in home furnishing content are rapidly increasing.

Xiaohongshu has continuously upgraded its seeding capabilities. In cooperation with Xiaohongshu on seeding, Linshi Home has gradually developed a seeding formula: product x demographic segmentation x scenario x demand trigger. Linshi Home believes that this content has high credibility and strong influence on consumers, to some extent even leading the development direction of current home furnishing trends and becoming an important factor that cannot be ignored in consumers' home furnishing consumption decisions.

Song Lang believes that compared to other social media platforms, Xiaohongshu is more 'comprehensive'. "Based on my personal experience, Douyin is suitable for dissemination, Taobao is suitable for monetization, and Xiaohongshu is relatively comprehensive in both dissemination and monetization. Users who come to Xiaohongshu basically have the mindset of 'browsing'. While we convey brand value here, we can also conduct live broadcasts to recommend products ourselves, effectively shortening the path from seeding to conversion."

Since focusing on e-commerce, Xiaohongshu has always regarded 'buyers' as an important growth engine. For many home furnishing brands that come to Xiaohongshu, the first question they usually consider is, "Should we cooperate with buyers?"

'Buyers' on Xiaohongshu are both creators and sellers. In the eyes of many merchants, Xiaohongshu buyers serve as a bridge to connect with consumers.

The 'buyer ecosystem' on Xiaohongshu is quite different from the 'anchor ecosystem' on other platforms. Firstly, there is a high proportion of female buyers. Top home furnishing buyers such as 'Ye Shizi Xiaojie' and 'Yi Ke KK' on the points ranking list are among the first batch of buyers on Xiaohongshu to surpass 10 million yuan in GMV.

Secondly, they do not need to attract attention through promotional-style hawking and low prices. In the words of Conan, COO of Xiaohongshu, Xiaohongshu buyers rely on 'professional judgment, aesthetics, and expression to connect with users'. This also means that Xiaohongshu buyers need to produce high-frequency content output beyond live broadcasts.

Home furnishing buyer 'Nikina' mentioned that while many Douyin anchors can sell well without producing content and going live directly, going live without content preparation on Xiaohongshu would definitely result in zero sales. Daily content creation related to product selection and home furnishing can occupy over 80% of one's energy.

Image Source: Xiaohongshu Screenshot

Nikina said that when buyers cooperate with brands, in addition to promoting products during live broadcasts, they will also include product promotion in their daily content creation. "We are deeply bound to our partner brands. Besides sales, we also share content related to store visits and usage experiences."

However, not every brand has the opportunity to enter a buyer's live broadcast room. Nikina said that although Xiaohongshu provides product inventory, buyers prefer to source products themselves; "The product selection process is the most difficult. To do well and differentiate, we still need to rely on buyers' own life experiences and aesthetics to discover brands and products that others cannot access."

Through buyers' exploration, many 'small but beautiful' brands that have long been operating in the 'corner' have begun to emerge in live broadcasts. Nikina said that when shopping in Shanghai, she encountered a handcrafted carpet shop run by a Turkish owner that inherits intangible cultural heritage. "Their carpets have a unit price of around 20-30,000 yuan, and they can sell a maximum of two or three carpets offline per month. However, after we brought this shop into the live broadcast room, we sold over one million yuan worth of carpets in just one session."

Image Source: Xiaohongshu Screenshot

To better introduce these niche brands to users, home furnishing buyers also deeply participate in product co-creation.

Anyu Collection mainly targets female users aged 25-40 in first-tier and new first-tier cities, specializing in 'relaxed' furniture combinations. During this year's Double 11, Anyu Collection cooperated with buyer 'Yi Ke KK' to achieve sales of 400,000 yuan in the live broadcast room. Iris, the director of Anyu Collection, said, "Hard-pushing products in live broadcasts will never achieve the desired effect. Buyers must like your products to sell well."

Buyers are the ones closest to users and their consumption needs. Iris mentioned that Some new products of Anyu Collection will be communicated with buyers during the product drawing stage or when there is already a layout but not yet launched, and adjustments will be made according to their opinions.

'Sinabo', which joined Xiaohongshu last year and specializes in large furniture, became one of the top three self-operated furniture brands during this year's Double 11. Earlier this year, Sinabo modified the pattern of one of its chairs based on the opinions of buyer 'You Yang Meixue' and replaced it with a more versatile classic black and white striped design. Ultimately, this co-created product sold 250,000 yuan in GMV upon launch.

Image Source: Xiaohongshu Screenshot

'Qu Xie Shang Ye' observed that many of these niche brands 'taken off' by buyers have product unit prices in the thousands or even tens of thousands, so it is presumed that the average transaction price in home furnishing buyer live broadcasts is not low.

However, there are also issues with high refund rates in some live broadcast rooms of Xiaohongshu buyers.

High return rates are a common problem in live e-commerce. Due to the relatively complex after-sales process and lower impulse purchasing, the average return rate for home furnishing products is much lower than that of fast-moving consumer goods.

Nifti, a creative lighting brand from Europe, chose Xiaohongshu as its main operating platform after entering the domestic market. After cooperating with several buyers, Nifti found that while buyer live broadcasts do bring a lot of traffic, the increase in order volume is not significant.

Stella, the director of Nifti, analyzed that the main reason is that lighting products have a low weight in top buyer live broadcasts. "Lighting is a small item in home decoration, and the 'main course' in home furnishing buyer live broadcasts are usually large items such as sofas, tables and chairs, and cabinets. In some live broadcast rooms, our lighting products have an extremely high refund rate (refunds before shipment) of up to 50%, but the refund rate after delivery is quite good, always below 12%."

Image Source: Xiaohongshu Screenshot

Some furniture merchants mentioned that the refund rate for certain products in buyer live broadcasts can even reach 90%. Song Lang believes that this may be related to the consumption characteristics of furniture, "Some users might see a chair in a live broadcast and like it, but chairs require a lot of space. If users find that there is indeed no space for it at home after placing an order, they will eventually return it."

In addition to 'lifestyle e-commerce', Xiaohongshu is also making significant efforts in 'store live broadcasts' this year. Xiaohongshu's 'Double 11 Battle Report' mentioned that during this year's Double 11, the number of store live broadcasts with GMV exceeding one million yuan on Xiaohongshu was 8.5 times that of last year.

Many home furnishing merchants actively conduct live broadcasts on Xiaohongshu. Although the Xiaohongshu account of Anyu Collection only has 489 followers, it has formed a stable daily live broadcast schedule since November this year. Iris, the director, said that store live broadcasts can not only receive traffic from buyer live broadcasts but also serve as a channel to maintain contact with users. "Conducting our own live broadcasts is mainly to tell the story of our products and help everyone solve some problems with soft furnishing combinations. Users can ask anything, and it's just a pure chat live broadcast room."

Image Source: Xiaohongshu Screenshot

However, the head of a Xiaohongshu service provider said that due to limitations in Xiaohongshu's overall atmosphere, user composition, and traffic scale, not all brands and categories are suitable for Xiaohongshu. Currently, start-up brands with aesthetics and emotional premium are more suitable for conducting store live broadcasts on Xiaohongshu.

However, for niche home furnishing brands with their own positioning, developing store live broadcasts is also a lengthy process. Stella mentioned that 'Nifti' currently has very weak basic traffic for store live broadcasts on Xiaohongshu, and the design of many products is copied by other merchants. "However, Nifti has its own positioning and expression. Our products are still somewhat incompatible in the domestic market and require more consumption guidance and mindset cultivation, so it needs to be done slowly."

Song Lang said that although Momo Furniture's store live broadcasts are relatively mature now, the audience traffic and transaction volume are still relatively low compared to top store live broadcasts on other platforms.

Image Source: Xiaohongshu Screenshot

In addition, some merchants mentioned that the backend data and marketing functions of current store live broadcasts on Xiaohongshu still need to be improved.

Song Lang also said that the completeness of operating data still needs to be improved. "For example, the sales volume of a single product is usually mixed with discounts, refunds, and price differences, which require merchants to classify and count themselves." Song Lang believes that store live broadcasts are also a process of collecting user information. Common short video interactions such as ' climb stairs ' (a Chinese idiom meaning 'climbing the stairs' to view previous comments) are not yet available on Xiaohongshu. "It would be better to have more tools for interacting with users."

Image source: Canstockphoto

It is worth mentioning that a group of "white-label" home furnishing merchants are "quietly rising" on Xiaohongshu. During this year's "Singles' Day," a series of low-cost live streaming rooms emerged, with popular low-price live streaming rooms in fields such as home furnishing and decoration.

According to Youmi Cloud data, the top 10 products in terms of new sales of home furnishing categories on Xiaohongshu in the last 60 days all have unit prices below three digits. Most of these top-selling stores are operated by individual merchants as white-label brands or brands that emphasize cost-effectiveness.

For example, "Rongman Home Textile," which mainly sells bed linen sets, has product prices ranging from 28 to 69 yuan. The sales volume of a 29.6 yuan nap blanket in the store has exceeded 120,000. "COCOHOME Beautiful Home," which specializes in small furniture, has prices for items such as table lamps, shoe-changing stools, and small round tables in the store at around several dozen yuan.

Image source: Youmi Cloud data screenshot

In addition, many top-selling products in categories such as clothing and bags, makeup and skincare, and food come from small stores that focus on low prices. Buyers such as "Aunt Rong" have also targeted the low-price white-label business.

As consumers pursue "extreme cost-effectiveness" and "affordable alternatives to big brands," white-label merchants are gradually becoming popular on Xiaohongshu. The so-called "white-label merchants" on Xiaohongshu are actually more "supply chain" merchants, selling products to consumers through a more direct chain. Currently, Xiaohongshu hosts different types of live streaming rooms, including high-quality big brands and low-price white-label brands. Taking Xiaohongshu's "Singles' Day" this year as an example, centered on "lifestyle e-commerce," it launched a block-style shopping experience with the theme of "shopping while strolling." Among them, on the special page, there are celebrity anchors such as Dong Jie, Wu Xin, and Li Dan. On the collection page of "1000 Good Stores to Explore," there are various types of merchants that also offer low prices for live streaming.

Image source: Xiaohongshu screenshot

During the "once-a-year shopping spree," the transaction volume of home furnishing industry store broadcasts on Xiaohongshu was 4.2 times that of the same period last year, and the number of million-yuan merchants was three times that of the same period last year. Currently, the contribution of "low-price white-label" to Xiaohongshu's e-commerce GMV is unclear, but to achieve business growth, Xiaohongshu will inevitably need to expand its merchant ecosystem and user base. In the future, Xiaohongshu will inevitably "embrace and integrate" both low-price white-label and high-price brands while maintaining the quality tone of the community.

However, whether it is a white-label or a brand, a trend for home furnishing merchants is that Xiaohongshu is using more ways to make more merchants with design and product capabilities visible to more users among a vast amount of content and products.