Doing business targeting young people on Dewu, a million - level blockbuster product emerges every 15 minutes and enjoys stable long - term sales for 3 years.
01. A Million-Dollar Bestseller is Born Every 15 Minutes
“At first, we didn't really understand Dewu. We thought the platform's users were mainly young men,” said Zhang Chao, a leading distributor in the gold and jewelry category.
In 2022, with the mindset of “just giving it a try,” Zhang Chao joined Dewu and got unexpected results. After a period of operation, Zhang Chao found that the overall traffic on Dewu was much larger than expected, and the conversion rate was also higher than that of other platforms.
Similar to Zhang Chao's observation, another gold and jewelry distributor said that the total sales of several brands it operates on Dewu reached hundreds of millions of yuan last year, with a year-on-year increase of more than 1600%.
Behind these impressive figures, Dewu has quietly grown into one of the e-commerce platforms with a relatively fast sales growth rate in the gold and jewelry category. In addition, the growth rate of trendy toys, especially plush toys, is also very remarkable.
In 2021, Ma Xiangrong, a toy distributor, joined Dewu. According to Ma Xiangrong, the first product that became a hit on Dewu was a Disney doll. He sold 300,000 units in two months, with sales of nearly 20 million yuan. After that, he invested more energy in Dewu, and within two years, the sales of his store increased 100-fold. In 2024, his sales on Dewu reached 70 million yuan.
Similarly, in the toy category, the sales data of Pop Mart and Jellycat on Dewu are also quite impressive.
In the past year, Pop Mart's sales on Dewu increased by nearly 200% year-on-year. It sold more than 150,000 LABUBU and more than 50,000 MEGA in a year. At the same time, the British high-end toy brand Jellycat also achieved a four-fold high growth rate on Dewu.
Screenshot of Dewu App
Behind all this is the rise of new consumption trends.
It is generally perceived in the industry that today's young people attach more importance to spiritual consumption and pursue “quality - price ratio” rather than just cost - effectiveness. In other words, today's consumers are more willing to pursue emotional value. When buying a product, they will give priority to products with practicality and focus on segmented functions.
Take “physical test shoes” as an example. Whether it's students preparing for the high - school entrance examination or runners for daily exercise, a “preparation shoe” that can improve performance and is more comfortable is an ideal choice. Data from the Dewu App shows that hundreds of thousands of people search for “physical test shoes” every week.
In February this year, the “Black Horse 4.0” of the Catapult brand stood out with its excellent “quality - price ratio.” Immediately afterwards, big brands such as Adidas and Li Ning also followed this trend. According to relevant distributors, the sales of the “physical test shoes” category alone reached tens of millions of yuan on the Dewu App.
Screenshot of Dewu App
As for emotional products, from the dozens - of - yuan “Eighteen - Seed Bracelets” to the thousands - of - yuan gold ornaments, they are all top - selling products on the platform. On the Dewu community, the topic sharing of “treasure crystal bracelets” attracted 214,000 users to watch.
“Today's users, on the one hand, require products to have cultural attributes and meet their emotional value, and on the other hand, still require functionality,” Recently, at the “Young Product New Home” merchant conference, Yang Bing, the founder and CEO of the Dewu App, shared his thoughts on “the products needed by users in this era.”
In his opinion, only when brands do a good job in both “functional features” and “emotional value” can they be liked by users, avoid getting involved in price - cutting competition, and thus have the possibility of sustainable development.
On the Dewu App, in 2024, the annual sales of 6,120 brands doubled. More than 100,000 people browse “emotional value” products every week, and a million - dollar bestseller is born every 15 minutes on average.
02. The platform's return rate is only 10%, and bestsellers sell steadily for 3 years. Who is making money quietly?
The current comprehensive e - commerce industry seems to have entered a “bottleneck period.” Against the background of rising costs and consumption segmentation, the growth of most platforms has slowed down, and merchants' profits are under pressure. However, most merchants never expected that there is a different way to do business on Dewu.
According to Zhang Chao's observation, the unit price of gold and jewelry is relatively high, but on e - commerce platforms, there are often problems such as “color difference, goods not matching the description, and shoddy products.” Coupled with consumers' impulse buying, the return rate in the entire industry is as high as 40% - 90%. In the clothing industry, which is also a “hard - hit area” for returns, some merchants' return rates can reach as high as 80% - 90%.
A high return rate means that merchants not only have to bear additional costs such as quality inspection, packaging, and inventory backlog but also face risks such as link removal and store level downgrade. Various losses often put merchants in a difficult situation.
However, more gold jewelry distributors, including Zhang Chao, believe that Dewu is one of the platforms with a relatively low return rate across all channels. “For a Hetian jade bracelet with a unit price of more than a thousand yuan, the return rate is only 8% - 9%; the return rate for the gold category is only 7% - 8%.” According to data from the Dewu App, the current comprehensive average return rate on the Dewu platform is only 10%.
The international well - known clothing brand GAP sold more than 30,000 pieces of its classic sweatshirt, the main style, on Dewu. Karen, the person in charge of GAP's Tmall and Dewu channels, once said: “Dewu has the lowest return rate across all channels.” Xiang Li, the e - commerce supervisor of the trendy brand BIPOLAR, also said: “The return rate of the brand on Dewu is lower than that on other channels, even more than 60% lower than some channels.”
In addition, the return rate of Ma Xiangrong's toy business on Dewu is only 3%, and the return rate of another stationery merchant is only 0.7% - 0.8%. This stationery merchant said bluntly that such a low return rate is rare in today's e - commerce ecosystem. Brands and merchants attribute Dewu's low return rate to the youth and stickiness of its users.
Different from impulse buying, Dewu's users have clearer shopping needs for self - use or giving gifts and pay particular attention to quality. Dewu's model of “authenticating first, then shipping” ensures that products are genuine before being shipped out, which has also built users' long - term high - level trust in Dewu.
In addition to the extremely low return rate, Dewu also creates cost advantages for merchants due to its accurate targeting of the young population and sufficient natural traffic.
After comparison, the person in charge of the domestic personal care brand Halfmu Flower Field found that “in terms of cost, (Dewu) is the lowest among all online channels.” In 2024, the sales of Halfmu Flower Field on Dewu reached 20 million yuan, achieving a 400% growth. Another beauty merchant said that when they first joined Dewu, only one operator was responsible for pricing and shipping, and without spending a single cent on advertising, the monthly sales exceeded 60,000 orders, and the GMV exceeded tens of millions.
It is worth mentioning that, compared with other platforms, the operation mode of the Dewu App is relatively simple. There is no need to spend effort on store decoration, graphic design, or customer service, which also frees up a large amount of manpower and allows merchants to focus on product selection and operation promotion.
The trendy clothing brand BIPOLAR increased its business on Dewu from 8 million yuan to 150 million yuan in just three years. Currently, Dewu is the e - commerce platform with the highest proportion of its online sales volume. According to Xiang Li, the e - commerce supervisor of the brand, many brands invest relatively less manpower on Dewu, and some only invest half as much as on a certain platform. By adjusting the product direction based on the best - selling data on Dewu, BIPOLAR further designs and extends related product categories. Xiang Li said, “With external commercial promotion, more bestsellers can be obtained in the second year, and the overall sales volume will increase rapidly.”
In the perception of many merchants, the average product life cycle on Dewu is 138 days, 2.4 times longer than the industry average.
Take Li Ning as an example. A sweatshirt launched on Dewu has been on the market for more than a year, and its monthly sales can still reach 8,000 pieces. So far, the cumulative sales of this product have exceeded 7 million yuan. “A bestseller that sells well on Dewu for 3 years can be equivalent to 10 bestsellers on other platforms,” said a brand merchant.
The women's clothing brand Senvital develops nearly 1,500 styles a year. Previously, a popular style could only be sold for a week or half a month, at most one or two months. In the second year after joining Dewu, its GMV exceeded 40 million yuan, and the life cycle of its bestsellers has been extended to three or four years.
An obvious fact is that Dewu is more like a “long - term business platform.” Wendy, the person in charge of Dewu's e - commerce business, said: “We hope to shape long - termism by promoting more stable sales and longer product cycles to encourage good products and good brands.”
03. Seize the dividend window of 500 million young people
After ten years of accumulation and precipitation, Dewu has built a “user barrier” that other platforms can hardly surpass in the short term. Nowadays, no one can doubt Dewu's appeal and cohesion among the young group.
According to the latest released data, as of May this year, the cumulative number of registered users on Dewu has exceeded 500 million.
Among them, the male - to - female ratio is close to 1:1. One out of every two post - 95 young people in China uses Dewu. It is worth noting that 2025 is a crucial year for the core group of Generation Z to reach the age of 30. For the entire consumer industry, 2025 may be the key year to start the next golden cycle. More importantly, Dewu's user circle is expanding, gradually developing from first - and second - tier cities to fourth - and fifth - tier cities, and new users from different circles are constantly bringing new consumption demands.
Seizing the dividend of young people has become a consensus among merchants. But what kind of brand merchants can be more successful on Dewu? In the view of 36Kr, there are two points:
First, brand merchants who understand the trends of young people better. They all use Dewu as the first - launch channel for new products or develop exclusive product portfolios for Dewu.
“Dewu will conduct pre - trend insights with us, such as interpreting population data and analyzing the product trends of hot brands on the platform,” said the person in charge of the Puma brand. “In March last year, Dewu informed us that there was an upward trend in the search for thin - soled shoes on the platform. In July, we launched the new Bella series of shoes on Dewu. All 7,000 pairs of the first - launch shoes were sold out within the month. As soon as they were put on the shelves, they were snapped up. Even now, the order volume is still increasing, and the order volume for each season this year has increased to 20,000 pairs.”
It is reported that in the first four months of 2025, Puma's performance on Dewu was close to 80% of its annual performance last year. This allowed the brand operator to obtain more resources from the headquarters - more exclusive products and color schemes for Dewu, and more signature shoes and co - branded shoes were launched on Dewu for the first time. “Currently, more than 70% of our product portfolio on Dewu consists of exclusive or new products.”
In 2024, Chow Tai Seng jointly launched the “Golden Good - Luck Charm” series of jewelry with Dewu. The sales of this product reached 1 million yuan within 31 hours of being put on the shelves. Sun Rong, the person in charge of Chow Tai Seng's Dewu channel, said, “In the past year, (the inventory on Dewu) was basically in short supply. This year, we will increase the supply of goods on Dewu and deeply co - create co - branded products, special products, gift boxes, and first - launch products with the platform.”
Chow Tai Seng x Dewu “Golden Good - Luck Charm” series of jewelry
Second, merchants who seize the category dividend and enter the market first.
Dewu is no longer just a trendy community for “authenticating sneakers.” It currently has more than 30 major categories such as “shoes, clothing, bags, beauty and personal care, sports and outdoor, mother and baby, pets, 3C digital, food and beverages, trendy toys and home decor.” Last year, 32 sub - categories worth billions of yuan were added, such as watches, jewelry, skincare, makeup, computers, perfumes, and smart devices. So far, Dewu has developed from a platform with a leading position in the shoe and clothing category to a high - quality lifestyle shopping community with high - speed growth in all categories.
As Wendy, the e - commerce person in charge of Dewu, said: “The category dividend on Dewu always rewards the pioneers.” The first person to try something new gets to enjoy the benefits first.
“There is still a huge space on Dewu, and there are still many opportunities in niche markets,” said the person in charge of the Dickies brand. In 2022, Dickies focused on the shoe and clothing categories on Dewu, with sales exceeding 100 million yuan. Since 2023, Dickies has expanded into 9 niche categories such as watches, bags, women's clothing, children's clothing, and underwear on Dewu. The innovative categories alone created an incremental value of tens of millions of yuan. Last year, Dickies' annual GMV on Dewu exceeded