Xiaohongshu Recommends Revealed: Great Products Aren’t Bought with Ads

AI Summary · From a Serial Entrepreneur's Perspective

Breaking down three Grand Prix winners—Huawei, Kolon, and Lishang. The core takeaway: brand growth hinges not on ad tactics, but on letting user feedback genuinely reshape product supply (e.g., Huawei using earbuds to rejuvenate its matrix, Kolon adjusting inventory by region, Lishang co-creating new categories with users). For founders chasing revenue, the lesson is clear: in Xiaohongshu, don't just chase hot keywords—capture "too big," "won't fit," and other rejection-driven expressions to redefine your market.

After years of serial entrepreneurship, I've seen too many brands treat Xiaohongshu as a pure traffic channel, spending money only to get marketing teams tweaking their monthly media plans while product, org structure, and inventory stay exactly the same. This year's three Grand Prix winners at Xiaohongshu's 种草大赏—Huawei, Kolon, and Lishang—prove that the real growth moat lies in "user-insight-driven supply transformation."

I. Lishang: From "Specs Arms Race" to "Scenario Co-Creation"

For the past decade, China's dishwasher industry has been locked into a "bigger is better" consensus, scaling capacity from 6-place settings to 22—yet penetration remains around 5%. Lishang's opportunity lay in spotting an overlooked need: renters, small-apartment dwellers, and two-to-three-person households don't want a bigger dishwasher; they want one they're willing to turn on every day.

What they did: Instead of relying on traditional research, Lishang posted product prototypes on Xiaohongshu to recruit seed users. They ultimately co-created with 1,200 households, distilling key selling points like a 28 cm slim body, tool-free installation, and a 15-minute quick wash. These weren't invented in a boardroom—they directly addressed real pain points, such as overnight dish odor and cramped kitchens.

The result: Their debut product sold out at launch, and by 2025 Double 11, it claimed the #1 spot on both Xiaohongshu and Tmall's countertop dishwasher bestseller charts. In Q1 2026, online countertop dishwasher retail sales grew 40.5% year-over-year, with unit volume up 45.7%.

II. Huawei: A "Flanking Maneuver" for Brand Rejuvenation

Huawei's brand perception—"business, hardcore, male tech"—is both an asset and a burden. When many brands try to go younger, their first instinct is to swap spokespersons or chase trends, leaving the product unchanged. Users then have no reason to reinterpret the brand.

What they did: Huawei chose the FreeClip earbuds—a low-commitment, highly wearable product—as the entry point. Positioned around aesthetics and outfit coordination rather than pure audio specs, the product made young users feel, "Hey, Huawei can be fashionable too." That perception then gradually seeped into the broader "1+8" ecosystem: fitness bands, tablets, and phones.

The key insight: Huawei didn't just update products; it had tech, user research, marketing, and retail teams engage directly with Xiaohongshu user voices, using those insights to shape future product direction. That organizational ability to let "user feedback cross departmental walls" is far rarer than any viral post.

III. Kolon: "Inventory Restructuring" Behind Regional Differences

Kolon didn't simply replicate its northern playbook when expanding south. Beijing users prefer long, thick pieces in black/white/gray, while Chengdu shoppers lean toward short cuts and brighter colors, with usage leaning more toward urban commuting and light hiking.

What they did: Kolon adapted its merchandise, scenes, content, and media strategy to each region, advancing from north to south while leveraging first-party data to review conversion performance.

The result: Full-funnel long-term ROI exceeded 15, with southern-market conversion growth more than quadrupling. This shows that when brands bake regional differences into core business logic—selection, scene, and channel—rather than treating them merely as targeting parameters, the incremental upside is enormous.

IV. Three Counterintuitive Lessons for Founders

1. Searching for "why people don't buy" beats searching for "what's popular": Traditional e-commerce data tells you what sells; Xiaohongshu search, comments, and real-user experiences explain why they don't. Expressions carrying rejection—"too big," "too complicated"—hide opportunities to redefine your market.
2. Youthfulness isn't a media tactic—it's a product strategy: Young people aren't a targeting tag; they're a lifestyle. If you want new young users, you must at least offer a product rethought specifically for them, or you'll merely get temporary brand mentions in youth-centric content.
3. Media spend is the outcome, not the cause: The common thread across all three Grand Prix winners is that Xiaohongshu user insights ultimately reshaped supply—product definition, inventory assortments, and regional strategies. If your product definition and launch cadence remain identical to pre-campaign, you'll walk away with traffic, not growth.

In short: Xiaohongshu shouldn't just be a channel for promoting good products—it should be the ground where good products are built. Closing the full loop from insight and product shaping to seeding and conversion is the true growth moat.

Original · Everyone's a Product Manager: Read original →