Xianyu economy, fire in Xiaohongshu?

“second-hand business” has emerged on Xiaohongshu, users are keen to trade idle items in the community, and the comment area has turned into a lively “idle market”. This phenomenon not only reflects the diverse needs of young people for efficient transactions and social value, but also reflects Xiaohongshu’s unique social trading model.

“Leave Beijing immediately to Shanghai, coordinates xx, self-pickup can be contacted”, Xu Qingyan, a post-90s girl, needs to move from Beijing to Shanghai due to work changes, and on the evening of April 14, she posted a second-hand idle post on Xiaohongshu. She posted more than 20 idle items such as tables, TVs, curling irons, selfie sticks, and soy milk machines in the comment area, most of which were priced below 50 yuan (2 to 3% off the original price). This is also Xu Qingyan’s second post on the account.

In less than a day, the post received more than 600 comments, and the number of followers on the account increased from a few single digits to more than 70. “Maybe it’s because my price is really too low, many of them are brand new and unused, and the people at Xiaohongshu are very knowledgeable.” Xu Qingyan said that more than half of the current idle ones have been released, and she was surprised by the speed of such a response.

It is worth noting that in the comment area of this post, many netizens borrowed the building to post their idle transfer information, and some people asked to buy their favorite idle goodies, spontaneously turning the comment area into a lively “idle market”.

From a lifestyle-sharing content community to a second-hand platform for trading idle items, when Xiaohongshu is developed by young people in a new way to open it, it not only means that the value of the platform is being redefined, but also reflects that the original second-hand market has new user needs and pain points.

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01 Xiaohongshu rises “second-hand business”

In the past, it was a consensus to sell idle on professional second-hand platforms; Nowadays, more and more young people are hanging second-hand on Xiaohongshu, chatting about transactions, and even “setting up stalls” directly in the comment area.

Enter “second-hand idle” in the search bar of Xiaohongshu, and the number of views of related entries has exceeded 1.53 billion, and the number of discussions has reached 24.982 million, and the data is still rising. From furniture and home appliances, clothing, shoes and bags, beauty and personal care, to electronic products, books, audio, video, dolls, figures, all kinds of common second-hand idle items can be found in Xiaohongshu.

Behind the huge content data are vivid transaction stories.Some people want to recover their blood because of decoration, and are eager to change their large furniture such as second-hand cabinets, TV cabinets, and floor-to-ceiling air conditioners at home; some people make up their minds to find owners for their idle clothes in their closets; Some people also want to save on wedding expenses and look for idle wedding dresses, toast clothes, wedding shoes, and candy boxes before the wedding date……

In addition to domestic users who are keen to deal with second-hand idle items on Xiaohongshu, netizens studying or working abroad are also completing the “transmission” through Xiaohongshu.

A Chinese blogger living in Columbus, Ohio, USA, posted idle sofas, vacuum cleaners and other items in the form of videos on Xiaohongshu due to job changes. The blogger shared, “I have sold some on FB and want to try my luck on Xiaohongshu.” After the post was posted, it took only more than 10 minutes for someone to inquire.

In the process of squatting on Xiaohongshu’s second-hand idle posts and comment areas, it was found that the large traffic, few “swordsmen”, and fast response speed, that is, the current commonly known sense of life, are the main reasons why many sellers choose Xiaohongshu to be idle.For example, some netizens shared that they have made more than 30 orders on Xiaohongshu, and only 3 orders have been sold on a second-hand trading platform, and even these three orders have been drained from Xiaohongshu. Xiaohongshu’s response speed relies on its large user base. According to the data, at the end of 2024, the average number of monthly active users of Xiaohongshu will stabilize at about 330 million, and in June 2024, the number of daily active users will reach 129 million.

Some buyers choose Xiaohongshu because in addition to picking up good things with high cost performance, they may also occasionally encounter free surprises. Many users will post free idle posts, some of which are idle clothes, suitcases and other daily necessities, as well as idle computers, cameras and other electronic products. Sometimes, individual sellers will also attach a sentence at the end of the copy, “Everyone is welcome to come and pick, come and chat and have a coffee”. These transfer posts full of emotional value have added some warmth to second-hand transactions based on unfamiliar social relationships.

External factors are also driving users to Xiaohongshu. “Xiaohongshu’s distribution of traffic will be more accurate, and 90% of it can be picked up by living nearby. You may have swiped it casually and found that the price is right, it is close, and it is easy to make a deal. ”In Xu Qingyan’s view, traditional second-hand trading platforms rely more on search and are full of professional sellers, including scalpers, but it is not easy for everyone to find good goods.

In addition, since Xianyu, the country’s largest comprehensive second-hand trading platform, announced a 0.6% handling fee for all merchants in July 2024, many loyal users have deeply felt the gap and expressed dissatisfaction on social media. Some netizens directly posted to find a replacement platform for Xianyu, and some netizens suggested that Xiaohongshu launch an online second-hand trading platform.

02 “Second-hand risk” in the content community

In fact, there are also officially certified second-hand merchants on the Xiaohongshu platform.However, perhaps due to the tone of the platform, the product attributes and operation strategies of the content community, these second-hand merchants have not achieved much development, the number of merchants is limited, the product categories are not rich enough, and the overall operating data is also mediocre.

In Xiaohongshu’s second-hand goods section, second-hand digital products (such as printers, mobile phones, cameras) and second-hand luxury goods (such as bags) occupy the main page. Of the 50 randomly browsed products, about 90% sold less than 100 items, and many of them even had zero sales.

It is worth noting that Xiaohongshu also required second-hand luxury merchants to have professional qualifications such as “Appraisal Agency Cooperation Certificate” or “Luxury Appraisal Qualification Certificate”, but this requirement has been canceled on April 1, 2024. However, judging from the search results, the second-hand luxury merchants on Xiaohongshu are not active, and the purpose of most second-hand luxury merchants issuing notes is to drain traffic to offline stores.

Of course, when users search for specific products such as “second-hand furniture” and filter stores, although they can see the list of related products, they often present monotonous graphic information, poor sales data, and basically no valuable user reviews.Compared with the active atmosphere of personal idle posts, the traffic of these official second-hand stores is extremely limited, and they also lack interactivity and realism.

However, although Xiaohongshu gathers a large amount of second-hand idle information, the actual transaction is mainly completed in three ways: offline pick-up (intra-city transaction), mail and third-party platform transactions. Among them, the first and third ways are the most common.

Specifically, according to observations, for low-priced goods below 100 yuan, buyers and sellers in the same city are more inclined to choose self-pickup.For example, Xu Qingyan mentioned earlier, 90% of her idle items are traded in this way. For high-priced goods above 500 yuan, buyers and sellers usually choose to trade through professional platforms such as Xianyu for safety reasons.For example, after a mother posted milk powder transfer information on Xiaohongshu, she finally chose to sell at a price of 1,050 yuan in Xianyu. Of course, some users will directly request that they must trade through the platform, otherwise the transaction will be canceled.

Compared with offline pickup and platform transactions, mail-in transactions are also riskier because this transaction method relies entirely on the credit basis of buyers and sellers.Many users on Xiaohongshu have shared their experiences of being deceived by trading off the platform, and these cases are often the same: the buyer reached a transaction intention with the seller through WeChat, and after paying the deposit or full payment, he was immediately blocked by the other party, and finally the money and goods were empty.

Recently, a Xiaohongshu blogger posted about his experience of being deceived by buying a second-hand iPhone. According to the blogger, after interfacing with the seller through Xiaohongshu, the other party proposed to bypass the platform transaction. The two sides negotiated to adopt the method of “paying the deposit first and then paying the final payment”, and after adding WeChat, the seller sent a screenshot of the express delivery appointment to gain trust. However, less than a minute after the blogger paid the deposit, he was immediately blocked by the other party. Trading scams like this often leave victims thinking they are unlucky.

Compared with mature second-hand trading platforms, Xiaohongshu is still essentially a content community. Therefore, there is a lack of mature trading system and after-sales dispute resolution mechanism. Therefore, Xiaohongshu’s “second-hand market” is only a distribution center for information, not a real trading platform – after users obtain product information here, if they bypass the professional platform to trade, it also means that they have to bear a higher risk of being deceived.

03 Open a “second-hand business” in a community way

The rise of second-hand idle trading on Xiaohongshu is essentially an extension of social value.

In 1974, American sociologist Mark Granovetter proposed the theory of weak connections, which pointed out that in social networks, those seemingly incoherent and infrequent weak connections often lead to richer and more heterogeneous information. This theory was originally used to explain the flow of information in the professional market, but it is also applicable to understanding second-hand trading behavior in the age of social media.

For users, second-hand transactions on Xiaohongshu may only be used as a supplementary channel at first, but Xiaohongshu’s unique content planting and social trust mechanism helps both parties in need to complete the docking on the basis of unfamiliar social relationships.

In professional second-hand trading platforms, users often pursue “fast transactions”; At Xiaohongshu, the transaction process itself becomes a social experience (except for fraud, of course). In the community atmosphere of Xiaohongshu, the communication between users is not limited to the product itself, but also extends to lifestyle sharing.This bond, built on shared needs and mutual trust, makes the trading process smoother and more enjoyable.

This social transaction model has given rise to many characteristic scenarios: some users spontaneously create “electronic stall posts” and invite everyone to display idle items in a centralized manner; Buyers who encounter transaction scams will share their experience of scams in detail and remind other users to be vigilant; Some users unexpectedly triggered a wave of “seeking the same style” by displaying room decorations transformed with second-hand objects…… These interactions elevate simple item trading into a social experience with a human touch.

As a result, Xiaohongshu’s incomplete trading system originally seemed to be a disadvantage, but it inadvertently produced a “screening” effect, excluding the common professional “swordsmen” on traditional second-hand trading platforms.This has allowed Xiaohongshu’s second-hand trading market to retain more real users, who trade with a sincere attitude, focusing on the actual value and use needs of items, rather than simply pursuing the ultimate suppression of prices.

The rise of second-hand trading on Xiaohongshu reflects the diverse needs of young people for efficient transactions and social value. Even in addition to efficiency, real needs and content planting trading experience have higher priority.

For young people, the focus of second-hand trading is not just trading, and the unique social experience of the “second-hand community” has found a new way to open up the second-hand trading market. This approach may not be efficient enough, but it is fun and exciting.

Young people’s emphasis on social experience has also brought some inspiration to professional second-hand trading platforms: when second-hand trading is only an actual need that most ordinary people accidentally generate, can the platform give users more sense of belonging and gain from the experience level? After all, the platform’s primary task is to retain users first, and then to convert more business value from users.

*Xu Qingyan is a pseudonym in the article.