Following Douyin’s “Stroll Festival” offline market, Rednote is bringing its e-commerce business offline with its first “RedMarket”, a 4-day event in Shanghai. With over 100 stalls and merchandise ranging from original apparel to sports equipment, intangible cultural heritage (ICH) crafts to regional cuisine, Rednote brings its lifestyle merchants from seeding online to selling offline.
From Yi minority silverware to Southern Min objects d’art, regional and ethnic (ICH) arts and crafts items are a big part of the market. There are also workshops where visitors can make their own windchimes or patchwork art. From local delicacies like Yunnan fungi and Inner Mongolian craft beer to rock-climbing gear and other equipment, the market offers an array of options to suit most interests.
Like Douyin’s “stroll festival”, Rednote also invited streamers from different categories to broadcast live at the market and spark discussion online. Events such as band performances, an amateur fashion show, sports activities and workshops created an all-encompassing experience.
At the same time, Rednote added a “Market” tab to the bottom of its homepage. The e-commerce page is not labelled “mall” or “shopping”, but instead relies on the platform’s interest circles for users to “browse”, much like at the offline market. As Rednote rebrands itself as an “interest community”, it has tried to put both words into practice and differentiate itself from competitors. It will be interesting to see how the platform continues to monetise the community with its new “marketplace” function.