Taobao and Tmall Group has strengthened its strategic partnership with lifestyle content platform Xiaohongshu (“rednote”), enabling merchants to embed product links from their Taobao and Tmall stores directly into Xiaohongshu content posts. The move bridges content and commerce, offering consumers a seamless path from product discovery to purchase.

The collaboration connects Xiaohongshu’s influential content ecosystem with Taobao and Tmall’s robust e-commerce infrastructure. Users can now tap on product links embedded in Xiaohongshu recommendation posts and be redirected to the Taobao app to complete their purchase, creating a seamless, app-to-app shopping experience.

Initially piloted in select categories such as fast-moving consumer goods, healthcare, and sports and outdoors, the program is designed to help merchants improve conversion and campaign efficiency by reducing the steps between content engagement and checkout.

Supporting Brand Growth by Enhancing Marketing Efficiency

“This collaboration with Xiaohongshu marks a new chapter in our support for brand growth  in 2025,” said Liu Bo, Vice President of Alibaba Group and President of Tmall. “By combining Taobao and Tmall’s commerce expertise with Xiaohongshu’s strength in lifestyle content, we’re helping brands reach consumers more effectively and drive incremental growth.”

The partnership also includes the launch of joint merchant accounts and performance dashboards, allowing merchants to track the full journey from content exposure on Xiaohongshu to completed orders on the Taobao app in real-time. To further support merchant success, Taobao and Tmall will invest in amplifying hero products featured in Xiaohongshu posts, providing marketing resources and performance advertising tools to boost product visibility and engagement.

The two platforms began experimenting with content-driven commerce in 2023 by measuring content seeding effectiveness and performance. In 2024, Taobao and Tmall merchants saw a 20% increase in click-through rates and double the engagement on Xiaohongshu product recommendation content year-over-year.

This partnership reflects Taobao and Tmall’s ongoing commitment to an open, collaborative digital ecosystem. In the past year, the platforms have partnered with industry peers to broaden payment and logistics services. Currently, Taobao and Tmall works with over 200 internet platforms, ranging from social media to mobile payments, to support brand growth through expanded traffic channels, diversified content formats, and omni-channel operations.

This initiative builds on Taobao and Tmall’s broader commitment to supporting brands. At its annual merchant conference TopTalk in March, Tmall announced a series of new initiatives to support brands in 2025, including measures to attract users across channels and the extension of its commission rebate scheme to cover all categories.