(Source: https://pltfrm.com.cn)
Chinese consumers now have the most sophisticated visual taste on earth. What looked premium in 2020 feels cheap and foreign in 2025. The brands selling out on Chinese platforms all made the same decision: they built dedicated China visual design capability. Here’s exactly how the best teams operate.
1. Full-Time Chinese Trend Forecasters on Payroll
1.1 Daily Trend Digests from 15 Chinese Platforms Top teams have specialists who do nothing but scroll Douyin, Xiaohongshu, and Bilibili 8 hours a day, producing daily 20-page trend reports on color palettes, filter trends, and composition rules.
1.2 Weekly “Next Month” Prediction Decks They don’t react to trends — they predict them 4–6 weeks in advance, giving brands first-mover advantage.
2. Vertical Screen-First Design Culture
2.1 All Creative Reviews Done on Phones, Never Desktop Every design is presented and approved on actual phones in vertical orientation. Desktop approval is banned because “it looks good on 27-inch monitor” means nothing in China.
2.2 1080×1920 Design Templates as Default Canvas Teams start every project on phone resolution, not print or desktop sizes that get cropped later.
3. In-House Chinese Photography & Retouching Studios
3.1 Shanghai & Guangzhou Studios with Local Model Rosters The strongest agencies maintain their own studios with 200+ Chinese models aged 18–45 so lifestyle shoots can happen same-week instead of waiting months for global production.
3.2 “Chinese Skin” Retouching Standard Chinese consumers hate Western retouching that makes skin look plastic. Local teams have perfected the glowing, translucent “water light skin” look that drives purchases.
4. Design-to-Performance Feedback Loop
4.1 24-Hour CTR → Immediate Visual Iteration Every thumbnail’s performance data goes straight back to designers the same day. A visual performing 15% below benchmark gets three new variants live within 24 hours.
Real-World Case Study: Italian Fashion House That 10×-ed Xiaohongshu Engagement Overnight
A Milan-based luxury fashion brand had beautiful global campaign visuals that generated almost zero engagement on Xiaohongshu. We completely re-shot the entire campaign in Shanghai using local models, neo-Chinoiserie props, and soft healing color palettes.
The new visuals increased average note dwell time from 8 seconds to 89 seconds and generated 42 million organic impressions in the first month — all from the visual upgrade alone.
PLTFRM is an international brand consulting agency that works with companies such as Red, TikTok, Tmall, Baidu, and other well-known Chinese internet e-commerce platforms. We have been working with Chile Cherries for many years, reaching Chinese consumers in depth through different platforms and realizing that Chile Cherries’ exports in China account for 97% of the total exports in Asia. Contact us, and we will help you find the best China e-commerce platform for you. Search PLTFRM for a free consultation!
