Alibaba- and Tencent-backed Little Red Book has launched a suite of tools for brands, QQ News reports, in a move to help sellers on its platform better connect with consumers.
These features are housed in a new portal, whose Chinese name Pinpaihao translates to “Brand Name”.
There, sellers can configure their Little Red Book stores, apply to become certified brands in order to gain access to analytics and marketing tools, as well as manage the search, discovery, and distribution of content. Vendors also have more visibility into store performance data, as well as improved community engagement and fan interaction tools.
The upgrade comes after an organizational reshuffle last month, in which Little Red Book’s e-commerce operations were tweaked and expanded to focus more on brand services.
At the time, Little Red Book’s CEO noted in an internal memo that the company would double down on product improvements for brands, including tools for better content creation and community engagement.
Since launching in 2013, Little Red Book has evolved from an app that provided overseas shopping tips to Chinese tourists and students into a comprehensive lifestyle and e-commerce platform.
In addition to shopping, users of Little Red Book record and share their favorite products in fashion, cosmetics, food, travel, film and TV, reading, fitness and more, generating billions of posts each day.
Little Red Book announced it had passed than 200 million monthly active users, of which 70% are under the age of 30.
Last June, it received a US$300 million Series D investment led by Alibaba, and also counted Tencent as an investor in its Series C round.