Taobao and Tmall Group strengthens partnership with Xiaohongshu

Taobao and Tmall Group has strengthened its strategic partnership with Chinese social platform Xiaohongshu, also known as Rednote, enabling merchants to embed product links from their Taobao and Tmall stores directly into Xiaohongshu content posts.

The collaboration connects Xiaohongshu’s influential content ecosystem with Taobao and Tmall’s robust eCommerce infrastructure, aiming to bridge content and commerce, offering consumers a seamless path from product discovery to purchase.

Users can now tap on product links embedded in Xiaohongshu recommendation posts and be redirected to the Taobao app to complete their purchase, creating an enhanced, app-to-app shopping experience.

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

“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.

This partnership also 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, according to the release.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to Taobao and Tmall for more information.

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.

During the event, Liu highlighted the growth potential for brands through increased penetration of the massive consumer base on the platform. Top performing brands on Tmall have gained tens of millions of annual active consumers, with brand loyalty members contributing over 50% of total sales, he addded.

To boost repeat purchases, Tmall is increasing investment in brand-specific and platform-wide loyalty programs. Brands will be able to increase member engagement through new membership access points across Taobao search results, recommendations, and shopping carts.

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