Student Question
Hello Master Chi. A few months ago, I came across your content and launched my own side business on Xiaohongshu — I’ve now built up nearly 1,000 followers. I wanted to ask: Xiaohongshu e-commerce is really heating up right now. Dropshipping (no-inventory models) are performing well, and the platform is also steadily advancing its internal monetization, gradually opening up product selection and affiliate features. How should I position myself to take advantage of this opportunity?
Master Chi’s Response
Right now, there are genuinely an enormous number of opportunities. First, no brand monopoly has formed yet. Second, there’s no established playbook — it’s still in a “hundred flowers blooming” phase. Third, the platform hasn’t entered a period of strict regulation, so policies remain relatively loose. Together, these three factors mean that ordinary people entering the market today can still profit.
That said, there’s one critical point to keep in mind: even with this tailwind, the primary question is what to sell. Product selection is incredibly important — and by the time everyone knows a product is performing well, more than half of the profit window has already closed.
Take an example from our community: someone who joined around February to sell clothing on Xiaohongshu found it extremely easy at the time. A brand-new account, two posts published — yes, the likes were in the single digits, but they got orders on day one. By late April, when others entered the same space, results were noticeably weaker.
That’s the product selection window at work. As time passes, if you don’t have enough matrix accounts or consistent content output, you may start making money early but struggle to stay competitive later. So the goal is to identify winning products before they take off — to get there first.
Without resources backing you, product selection strategy is simply: move first.
Here’s a technique that applies regardless of which category you’re in. When you’re just entering a market, nobody knows which direction is right — only enough successful case studies can give you product inspiration.
Step one: collect large volumes of Xiaohongshu product posts. Start by entering keywords and gathering relevant examples. But — and this is a key trap — if you only search within product categories you already know, and only like and save content in your existing interests, the algorithm will only recommend more of the same. Products outside your awareness get filtered out entirely.
This is something almost everyone runs into. Yet the real blue-ocean opportunities are often hiding in places you’d never think to look. How do you solve this? Use data tools to review affiliate-style posts across all categories. Data gives you direct visibility into pricing and sales volume — that depth of analysis simply isn’t possible otherwise.
Step two: choose a specific lane within a broader category. Starting from “what should I sell?” — going through “women’s fashion” — eventually landing on “professional workwear” — you need to arrive at a specific product, not a broad category. A vague question will never produce an actionable answer.
When analyzing, you can think at the macro level. But when it’s time to execute, you must get specific. Find a micro-niche and produce real results within it — then gradually expand. Become dominant in one very narrow segment first.
What that segment is requires deep analysis upfront: policy trends, available resources, industry shifts. Find a space where you can achieve a small monopoly, then let volume grow from there.
Your competitive edge, once you find that niche, will likely come from one of four sources: technology, network effects, brand, or scale.