Claire ran marketing for a Belgian luxury accessories brand. She came to me to plan a China launch. “We have no presence in China yet,” she said. “We need to build everything from scratch.” I asked her to wait before we talked strategy. I spent twenty minutes searching their brand name on XHS. I found 340 organic posts. 2.3 million combined views. Entirely created by Chinese consumers who had bought the brand abroad in Europe.
“You have a China presence,” I told her. “You just haven’t claimed it.”
XHS as Brand Intelligence: What Chinese Consumers Are Already Saying About You
XHS (Xiaohongshu, also called RedNote) functions as both a social network and a product review search engine. When Chinese consumers buy a product abroad, try it for the first time, or discover a brand through a friend, a large proportion of them share the experience on XHS. This happens regardless of whether the brand has an official XHS presence.
For fashion and luxury brands that sell in Europe, the US, or Japan, this means there is often a significant body of authentic Chinese consumer content about your brand that you have never seen, never engaged with, and never used. This content is brand equity that is sitting unclaimed.
Understanding what Chinese consumers are saying about your brand on XHS before you launch officially is one of the most valuable research steps a brand can take. It reveals: which products resonate most with Chinese consumers, which brand attributes they emphasize (quality, heritage, aesthetics, price-value), what questions they ask that are not answered by your current content, and which consumer profiles are discovering you organically.
How to Run an XHS Brand Audit Before Your China Launch
- Search your brand name in Chinese characters and in Roman script. XHS search returns results in both. Also search your product names and any brand associations (founders, collaborators, flagship products).
- Filter by recency and engagement. Posts from the last 12 months with high likes and saves are your most valuable data: they show current consumer sentiment and which content formats drive engagement.
- Read the comments, not just the posts. The comments section on XHS is where purchase intent appears. “Where can I buy this in China?” or “Does this ship internationally?” are direct demand signals.
- Map the consumer profile who is creating content about you. Age range, style aesthetic, other brands they mention. This is your target XHS audience, already self-identified.
- Engage with existing organic posts. Before you launch officially, commenting on high-performing organic posts about your brand builds community goodwill and signals that a real brand team is listening.
Claire’s brand used the XHS audit to shape their entire China launch strategy. They identified the three consumer profiles driving organic content. They designed their official launch content to match those profiles’ aesthetic. They reached out to five of the top organic content creators with partnership proposals. The launch was already seeded before the first paid post went live.
Voilà pourquoi: Chinese consumers are talking about your brand before you talk to them. Listen first. Then join the conversation.
For a professional XHS brand audit before your China launch, our XHS team runs full social listening and competitive analysis. For beauty brands, Cosmetics China Agency handles the same. I share weekly insights on LinkedIn: follow me there.
Olivier Verot is co-founder and CEO of GMA (Gentlemen Marketing Agency) and Fashion China Agency. He uses XHS social listening and brand audits as a core part of the China market entry process for fashion and luxury brands. Based in Shanghai since 2012. Connect on LinkedIn, where I share weekly insights on China fashion and marketing.