XHS & the Daigou Market: How Personal Shoppers Drive Cross-Border Sales
Date Published
Table Of Contents
1. What Is Daigou — And Why Does It Still Matter?
2. How XHS Became the Home of Daigou Culture
3. The Daigou Market in Numbers
4. How Daigou Sellers Use XHS to Build Their Business
5. What Daigou Activity Reveals About Chinese Consumers
6. Risks, Regulations, and the Shifting Landscape
7. How International Brands Should Respond
8. Turn Daigou Signals Into a Direct XHS Strategy
Long before global brands had an official presence in China, a network of personal shoppers had already built thriving businesses selling their products to Chinese consumers — often sourcing goods from boutiques in Paris, Tokyo, or New York and reselling them through social media. This is the daigou economy, and Xiaohongshu (XHS) sits at its beating heart.
For international brands, daigou activity on XHS is more than a grey-market nuisance. It is a real-time signal of demand, a window into what Chinese consumers want, and — if approached strategically — a springboard for building direct presence on China's most trusted social commerce platform. With over 300 million monthly active users and an ecosystem built on authentic recommendations, XHS has become the defining arena where daigou culture and cross-border commerce intersect.
This article unpacks how the daigou market operates on XHS, what the data says about its scale and resilience, and — most importantly — what international brands should do about it.
What Is Daigou — And Why Does It Still Matter? {#what-is-daigou}
The word daigou (代购) translates literally as "to buy on behalf of." It refers to individuals or agents who purchase goods overseas and resell them to Chinese buyers — typically at a premium over the original retail price, but often below what those same products cost inside China due to import tariffs, pricing strategies, and currency advantages. What began as a favor-trading practice among friends and travelers has grown into a structured, multi-billion-dollar industry.
Daigou spans a wide spectrum of operators. At one end sit casual participants — students living abroad who ship home a few luxury items per month as a side income. At the other end are large-scale professional operations with warehousing, dedicated logistics, and wholesale procurement relationships with brands. What unites all of them is the use of social platforms to build customer networks, take orders, and market their sourced products to a highly engaged Chinese audience.
The persistence of daigou is driven by a simple economic reality: meaningful price gaps between luxury and premium goods in mainland China versus other markets. When Chinese shoppers can save 20–30% on the same product by purchasing through an overseas agent, the incentive is clear — and difficult for brands to eliminate without a coordinated global pricing strategy.
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How XHS Became the Home of Daigou Culture {#xhs-daigou-culture}
Xiaohongshu's origins are inseparable from daigou culture. The platform launched in 2013 as a tool for Chinese travelers to compile overseas shopping lists and share product discoveries — essentially a digital diary for cross-border shoppers. Its early users were the exact demographic that either practiced daigou or relied on daigou sellers: young, urban, aspirational women with a strong preference for international brands.
As the platform matured, its founders recognized that the products being reviewed and discovered were often unavailable in China through official channels. In response, XHS pivoted toward cross-border e-commerce, partnering directly with foreign brands in categories like cosmetics, health supplements, and household goods. Rather than operating a marketplace model, XHS maintained its own inventory — a deliberate choice that guaranteed product authenticity and addressed Chinese consumers' deep concerns about counterfeits.
This history matters because it means XHS users have always been primed for cross-border discovery. The platform did not just accommodate daigou content; it was architecturally built around the same consumer desires that daigou fulfills. Today, XHS sits at the intersection of social media, search engine, and e-commerce — and daigou sellers continue to use it as one of their primary channels for building customer bases and showcasing the products they source abroad.
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The Daigou Market in Numbers {#daigou-numbers}
Understanding the scale of daigou is essential for any international brand thinking seriously about China. The figures are striking, even in a period of regulatory tightening and post-pandemic adjustment.
The daigou industry has been valued at USD 81 billion — a figure that underscores just how significant this informal channel remains within the broader Chinese consumer economy. Despite headwinds from tighter customs enforcement and China's 2019 e-commerce law (which requires daigou merchants to register as businesses and pay taxes), the market grew by approximately 5% in 2024, even as the official domestic luxury market contracted by 18–20% over the same period.
Some headline figures that illustrate the channel's persistent influence:
• In fashion and leather goods, daigou sales account for an estimated 25–70% of certain brands' total mainland China revenue
• Discounts on top luxury products via daigou channels deepened by approximately 8 percentage points in 2024, largely driven by Japan's favorable exchange rate
• Chinese consumers' overseas spending in the Asia-Pacific region surged to 120% of pre-pandemic levels in 2024, fueled by currency advantages in Japan and proximity to regional shopping hubs
• There are 280 million cross-border e-commerce buyers in China — the largest concentration of any country in the world
These numbers paint a picture of a market that is resilient, adaptive, and impossible to ignore. For international brands, they also reveal a significant question worth examining: if your products are already reaching Chinese consumers through daigou, what does that mean for your direct-to-consumer strategy?
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How Daigou Sellers Use XHS to Build Their Business {#daigou-sellers-xhs}
XHS is not simply a discovery platform for daigou sellers — it is their storefront, their marketing channel, and their community-building tool rolled into one. Understanding how they operate on the platform provides a clear picture of what makes XHS so effective for cross-border commerce.
Daigou sellers on XHS typically combine several tactics:
• UGC-style product posts: Sellers publish "Notes" (小红书笔记) that mimic the diary-like format native to the platform — unboxing hauls, product comparisons, and haul-from-abroad content that feels personal rather than promotional. This content blends seamlessly into users' feeds and tends to generate strong organic engagement.
• Livestreaming: Many daigou operators livestream themselves browsing in overseas stores, trying on clothing, or demonstrating products — giving customers a candid, real-time view of quality and fit. This format builds trust in a way that static product listings cannot.
• Direct messaging and private CRM: XHS is used as a top-of-funnel discovery layer, with daigou sellers often funneling serious buyers into WeChat for order-taking and ongoing relationship management. This allows them to maintain close personal relationships with their most loyal customers.
• Price transparency content: Posts highlighting the price difference between a product abroad and its cost in mainland China are highly shareable and function as persuasive purchase triggers for price-sensitive shoppers.
Daigou sellers also benefit from XHS's search-first behavior. A significant portion of XHS users treat the platform as a search engine — looking up specific products, brands, or buying guides before making purchase decisions. This means a daigou seller's well-optimized Note can intercept demand at exactly the moment a consumer is considering a purchase, often before any official brand account has the chance to engage.
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What Daigou Activity Reveals About Chinese Consumers {#consumer-insights}
Daigou is not just a distribution channel — it is a behavioral signal. The products that sell well through daigou, the platforms where demand concentrates, and the content formats that drive conversions all reflect deeper truths about what Chinese consumers want and how they want to shop.
Several clear insights emerge from studying daigou culture on XHS:
Authenticity is non-negotiable. The rise of daigou was partly driven by distrust of the domestic retail and e-commerce ecosystem — concerns about counterfeit goods, inflated prices, and misleading advertising. XHS users gravitate toward content that feels honest and peer-recommended, which is why the platform's UGC model has proven so durable. Brands that show up on XHS with polished advertising rather than genuine community content tend to underperform.
Price consciousness coexists with premium preferences. Chinese consumers are increasingly value-conscious — but this does not mean they are trading down. Daigou's appeal lies in accessing the same premium and luxury products at better prices, not in substituting them for cheaper alternatives. This matters for how brands position themselves on XHS: aspiration-driven content that also speaks to intelligent purchasing resonates strongly.
Personal connection drives conversion. Daigou sellers thrive because they offer something that formal retail channels struggle to replicate: personalized service, curated selections, and a relationship with the buyer. They know their clients' tastes, body measurements, and brand preferences. For brands, this signals that content marketing on XHS should feel personal and community-driven rather than broadcast-style.
Tier-2 and tier-3 city consumers are an underserved opportunity. Professional daigou sellers excel at reaching consumers in cities where global brands have limited or no physical retail presence. XHS content can reach these audiences organically, making it a powerful channel for brands that have not yet established broad retail distribution in China.
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Risks, Regulations, and the Shifting Landscape {#risks-regulations}
The daigou industry has faced sustained regulatory pressure since China's landmark 2019 e-commerce law, which required all daigou merchants to formally register as businesses and pay import taxes — effectively closing the tax loophole that had previously made daigou prices significantly more competitive than official retail. This legislation reshaped the industry, raising costs and pushing many smaller operators out of the market.
Yet the industry adapted rather than collapsed. More sophisticated daigou operations emerged, some with wholesale procurement relationships that provide pricing advantages even with taxes factored in. Operators also evolved their tactics: maintaining multiple storefronts, using private WeChat networks to manage customer relationships away from platform scrutiny, and carefully managing shipment declarations to stay under customs thresholds.
For brands, the regulatory evolution creates both risk and opportunity. The risk is that a portion of daigou activity involves unauthorized distribution, price erosion, and potential brand equity damage — particularly when grey-market discounting undermines pricing in the official channel. The opportunity is that tightening regulations are gradually pushing the industry toward greater transparency and legitimacy, making it easier for brands to engage with the channel constructively rather than simply trying to suppress it.
Brands should also be aware that XHS itself has evolved significantly as a commerce platform. The platform's algorithm now rewards authentic, consistent content — and penalizes accounts that appear commercially motivated without genuine community engagement. This creates a leveled playing field where an international brand with a well-executed organic content strategy can compete effectively with established daigou sellers.
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How International Brands Should Respond {#brand-strategy}
For international brands watching daigou activity on XHS, the strategic imperative is clear: do not ignore it, and do not simply try to suppress it. Instead, use it as a roadmap.
Daigou demand on XHS tells you exactly which products Chinese consumers want, which price points they are willing to pay, and what content formats are driving purchase intent. Brands that treat this as intelligence — rather than as a threat — are far better positioned to build effective direct-to-consumer strategies on the platform.
Here is how leading international brands are thinking about this:
• Monitor daigou content for product and demand signals. Track which of your products are appearing in daigou Notes and what search terms are being used. This organic demand data is invaluable for shaping your XHS content strategy and product localization decisions.
• Establish an official XHS brand account. Brands without an official presence on XHS are ceding discovery and credibility to daigou sellers. XHS supports cross-border merchants — brands registered outside of China can open an XHS Shop and sell directly to Chinese consumers without needing a domestic entity.
• Invest in authentic, UGC-style content. The content formats that work for daigou sellers — honest product demonstrations, comparative notes, lifestyle integration — are the same formats that work for brand accounts. XHS users respond to content that feels personal and trustworthy, not polished advertising.
• Collaborate with micro-KOLs and KOCs. XHS rewards micro-influencer content that generates genuine community engagement. Partnering with key opinion consumers (KOCs) who produce credible, authentic reviews can build brand awareness in a way that mirrors the trust daigou sellers have cultivated organically.
• Address the price gap strategically. Where significant pricing disparities between mainland China and other markets are fueling daigou demand, brands should assess whether harmonized global pricing is feasible. This is not always possible, but even modest reductions in the China price premium can reduce the incentive for grey-market sourcing.
Brands already active on XHS should also pay close attention to the platform's evolving algorithm. The 2025 algorithm updates significantly reward long-term consistency and authentic community engagement, with accounts active for more than 180 days receiving measurable visibility advantages over newer entrants. Starting early — and building consistently — is the most reliable path to organic reach.
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Turn Daigou Signals Into a Direct XHS Strategy {#direct-strategy}
The most sophisticated international brands are not simply reacting to daigou — they are using the insights it provides to accelerate their own XHS strategies. When a product category is generating significant daigou volume on XHS, it is a clear signal that there is unmet demand that official channels have not yet captured. Brands that move quickly to establish a credible official presence can shift that demand from grey-market operators to their own storefronts.
The mechanics of this are straightforward. An official XHS brand account, supported by a cross-border XHS Shop, allows brands to meet Chinese consumers at exactly the moment daigou sellers currently intercept them — during search, during discovery, and during peer-recommendation. With 70% of XHS monthly active users engaging in product search behavior and 90% reporting that platform content directly influences their purchase decisions, the commercial stakes of organic XHS presence are genuinely significant.
Navigating XHS's content ecosystem, algorithm requirements, and cross-border commerce infrastructure requires platform-specific expertise — particularly for brands without existing China market experience. Understanding the cultural nuances of XHS content, the localization requirements for product listings, and the compliance landscape for cross-border selling are all areas where specialist support can make the difference between a strategy that scales and one that stagnates.
For international brands serious about capturing the Chinese consumers currently buying their products through daigou, XHS is not an optional channel. It is the most direct path to owning the demand that already exists.
The Bottom Line
Daigou is not a workaround that international brands should simply tolerate or try to regulate away. It is evidence of something far more valuable: genuine, unsolicited demand from Chinese consumers who want your products badly enough to go through considerable effort and expense to obtain them.
Xiaohongshu is where that demand lives. It is where daigou sellers build their customer bases, where Chinese consumers do their pre-purchase research, and where the next wave of cross-border commerce is taking shape. Brands that understand how daigou culture operates on XHS — and use that understanding to build a direct, authentic presence of their own — are the ones that will capture the full value of the Chinese market, on their own terms.
If your products are already showing up in XHS Notes posted by daigou sellers, the conversation about your China strategy has already started without you. The question is whether you show up to join it.
Explore industry-specific Xiaohongshu marketing strategies tailored to your category, or browse free Xiaohongshu resources to start building your platform knowledge today.
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