Alibaba’s Taobao and RedNote will focus on fast-moving consumer goods and healthcare products in the initial phase of the launch.

Alibaba (BABA) is deepening its ties with Chinese content platform RedNote in a move aimed at strengthening its e-commerce ecosystem amid rising competition and sluggish consumer demand in China.

The company announced Wednesday that users of RedNote — known locally as Xiaohongshu — can now click directly on product links to shop on Alibaba’s Taobao platform. 

The new integration formalizes an app-to-app shopping connection, linking RedNote’s lifestyle content with Alibaba’s online retail infrastructure.

“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 reflects Alibaba’s broader strategy to accelerate “instant retail,” a fast-growing segment of the Chinese online shopping market that emphasizes immediate delivery of everyday goods. 

The initial phase of the RedNote-Taobao integration will focus on fast-moving consumer goods and healthcare products.

China’s largest e-commerce players are competing aggressively to capture this space. In February, JD.com (JD) began onboarding restaurants onto JD Takeaway, its food delivery service. JD said in April it would invest over 10 billion yuan ($1.38 billion) into instant retail this year. 

Meanwhile, Alibaba reported on Monday that it had completed 10 million instant retail orders in just five days.

U.S.-listed shares of Alibaba were down more than 3% as markets opened on Wednesday. However, Alibaba’s stock is up 50% year-to-date, with more than 55% gains over the past 12 months. 

Meanwhile, JD’s stock has traded flat year-to-date, with gains of only 4% over the past 12 months. 

(1 yuan = $0.14)<

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