祝融说。

At the beginning of this book, I said that the "reseller era" is over. The era in which you could make money simply because "I know what you do not" is gone for good.

I call this "the end of information asymmetry."

In the past, you could earn money because you knew a cup sold for five yuan in Yiwu, but the folks back in your village did not. That "not knowing" was your profit margin.

But now, thanks to the internet—and especially to platforms like Pinduoduo—the factory floor price has been shoved, in the simplest and most brutal way possible, directly in front of every consumer.

The information barrier has collapsed.

Every business model that tries to keep making money through mere "porting" will be thoroughly cleared out of the game in the next few years.

This is bad news, because it has rendered obsolete your most comfortable, most effortless way of making money.

But it is even better news. Because it is like a great flood that has washed away all the "old powers" ahead of you that survived by relying on information barriers. It has brought everyone back to the same starting line.

When "I know what you do not" no longer holds any value, what becomes valuable?

There is only one answer:

"I understand, but you do not."

This "understanding" is not about possessing information. It is about the "taste" and "interpretation" we bring to it.

I call it—the aesthetic gap.

6.1 The End of the Information Gap and the Rise of the Aesthetic Gap: The Core Competitiveness of the Next Decade

Imagine two stores selling "phone cases."

• Store A (information-gap thinking): He found a factory that can produce cases for the latest iPhone, and secured a purchase price five mao lower than everyone else's. He feels he has an edge. He lists the case with the title "iPhone 15 Pro Max Phone Case, Silicone, Drop-Proof," then plunges into a brutal price war with his peers.
• Store B (aesthetic-gap thinking): He does not care at all whose price is lowest. He studied this fall and winter's fashion color trends. He visited the latest art exhibitions. He analyzed the photos of the hottest OOTD (outfit-of-the-day) bloggers on Xiaohongshu. Then he had the factory produce a batch of cases in the "Maillard palette" (a brown-toned scheme), in warm, supple vegan leather, with a recondite line of English poetry hot-stamped on the back. His title is not "phone case." It reads "Fall/Winter Ambience Outfit Essential | Your Phone Deserves a 'Cashmere Coat'." His price is double Store A's. He never joins a price war. Because in the eyes of his users, his product is no longer a "protective tool" but a "fashion accessory."

Store A's moat is that five-mao cost advantage—a wall that any larger order can smash at any moment.

Store B's moat is his grasp of the "Maillard palette," his taste in choosing that line of English poetry, and his imagination in likening a phone case to a "cashmere coat." This wall is invisible. It is rooted in his mind. It cannot be readily copied by anyone else.

The information gap is physical.

The aesthetic gap is cognitive.

Over the next decade, every business is worth rebuilding through "aesthetics."

From a cup to a pair of socks; from a trash can to a charging cable.

What is "aesthetics"?

Do not think of "aesthetics" as something too grand. It is not the same as "art." It is a comprehensive capability that includes:

1. Visual aesthetics: sensitivity to color, composition, material, and light and shadow.
2. Cultural aesthetics: the ability to read trends, stories, symbols, and ways of life.
3. Emotional aesthetics: insight into those delicate, subtle, and inexpressible "feelings" within human nature.

An operator of refined taste sees the world on a higher plane.

• When others see a "cup," he sees "a moment of quiet on a desk in the morning light."
• When others see a "keyboard," he sees "the rhythm of fingertips dancing with code in the small hours."
• When others see a "camping lantern," he sees "warm memories of a few good friends around a campfire beneath the stars."

Then he objectifies these "feelings" into a product. And that product now carries a "soul." Users willingly pay a premium for that "soul."

[How to Cultivate Your "Aesthetic Gap"?]

Aesthetics is not a gift. It is "muscle memory" that can be acquired through deliberate practice.

1. Stop "being fed." Start "hunting":

   • Stop passively scrolling Douyin and Taobao. What these platforms feed you is whatever the algorithm thinks you will like, and they will trap you inside your own "information cocoon."
   • Be an active "hunter" instead. Go to higher-quality, more diverse "hunting grounds," and actively "prey upon" the information that can elevate your taste.

2. Build your "aesthetic feed library":

   • Visual:
     • Pinterest: the world's largest image-inspiration community, and your "aesthetic gym." Spend half an hour a day browsing without a goal, and pin whatever you love—not limited to products; photography, architecture, and painting too—to your boards.
     • Behance / Dribbble: the gathering place of the world's top designers. Study the latest trends in UI, industrial, and brand design.
     • Instagram: follow brands and bloggers in categories you do not sell but whose taste you admire—a Japanese home-goods label, a Nordic fashion blogger, a Korean cafe owner.
   • Cultural:
     • Trend media: Hypebeast, Highsnobiety. See what the young are going mad for.
     • Lifestyle magazines and websites: Wallpaper, Kinfolk, Monocle. See what kind of "ideal life" the global middle class is living.
     • Film and art: watch more acclaimed movies, especially those known for their art direction and cinematography (like Wes Anderson's work). Visit art museums and design shows whenever you have the time.

3. Practice "crossover connections":

   • The essence of aesthetic ability is the ability to "connect"—to graft the beauty of one field onto a product in another.
   • Deliberate practice: force yourself to do some "crossover thinking."
     • "What would a humidifier look like if an architect designed it?" (It might emphasize structure and the play of light and shadow.)
     • "What would a keyboard look like designed with wabi-sabi aesthetics?" (It might use rough, imperfect materials.)
     • "If Debussy's Clair de Lune were turned into a fragrance, what would it smell like?" (Perhaps cool and damp, with woody undertones.)

Once you begin to think this way, you are already ahead of 99 percent of your competitors. They are still bleeding over a five-mao price difference, while you have begun to create entirely new value and to define new markets.

The dividend of the information gap is visibly ebbing away. The dividend of the aesthetic gap is only just beginning. This is the fairest and the most abundant opportunity the next decade leaves to ordinary people.

6.2 Social Media as a Product-Selection Radar: Catching Unsatisfied Desires on TikTok and Instagram

If traditional e-commerce platforms (Taobao, Amazon) are "supermarkets," where users walk in with a clear shopping list (their search terms), then social media (TikTok, Instagram, Xiaohongshu) is a "party." Users go there not to buy, but to have fun, to see something new, and to interact with friends.

The supermarket satisfies "needs."

The party ignites "desires."

In the era of the "information gap," our product-selection logic was to walk the "supermarket" aisles and see which products were selling well (analyzing needs).

In the era of the "aesthetic gap," our product-selection logic must flip: go to the "party," observe what people are screaming about, what they crave, what they show off—and then create a product for that "desire."

Social media is no longer merely your "marketing channel." It must become the "radar station" and "wellspring of inspiration" for your product selection.

[The Three Realms of Social Media Product Selection]

The first realm: chasing "viral topics"

• Approach: stare at the #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt hashtag every day, or at Xiaohongshu's "viral makeover" notes. The moment a product blows up, rush off to 1688 to find a copycat.
• Assessment: this is the most primitive form of play, essentially "chasing the wind" by another name. By the time you react, the market is already a red ocean. At best you get a sip of soup—and you are far more likely to choke on dead inventory.

The second realm: mining "scene complaints"

• Approach: this extends the "negative-review thinking" we discussed in Chapter 1. Search the comment sections of social media for hidden pain points.
  • Under a wildly popular "desk organization" video, someone may comment: "These storage boxes are gorgeous, but my desk is too small to hold them all." -- Opportunity: a "modular," "stackable" mini-storage system designed for "small desks."
  • Under a "winter camping" post, someone may grumble: "My feet were still frozen inside the sleeping bag. I did not sleep a wink." -- Opportunity: a USB-rechargeable "foot warmer" designed for use inside a sleeping bag.
• Assessment: this is already a fairly advanced approach. You are no longer chasing a "product"; you are capturing a "problem" that no one has solved well yet.

The third realm: catching "emotional undercurrents"

• Approach: this is the highest realm, and the direct embodiment of the "aesthetic gap." You no longer focus on individual products or problems. You ask what kind of "collective emotion" or "lifestyle trend" is forming beneath the flood of content.
• Examples:
  • Emotional undercurrent: you notice that on Instagram and TikTok, growing numbers of young people are sharing vlogs about "escaping the city" and "returning to the countryside." They grow flowers, plant vegetables, do handicrafts, bake. This kind of content conveys a longing for "slow living," "healing," and "creating with one's own hands." It is a "therapeutic" emotion that pushes back against the frantic pace of urban life.
    • Your product-selection opportunity (not to go out and sell shovels!): develop a line of products that carry this "healing" emotion. For example:
      • A "beginner's home herb-gardening kit" (seeds, pots, soil, and a guidebook).
      • A set of "healing-illustration-style baking molds."
      • A scented candle evoking "campfire" or "forest after rain."
  • Emotional undercurrent: you observe that among Gen Z, a nostalgia for the Y2K aesthetic (around the year 2000) is spreading. Low-rise pants, shiny accessories, pixel-art games, CCD cameras... This is a "retro" sentiment for a past era that was "imperfect yet real and fun."
    • Your product-selection opportunity:
      • Reissue a once-popular, now-discontinued "flip phone case" or "MP3 player."
      • Launch a line of accessories carrying "holographic," "fluorescent," and "butterfly" elements.
      • Develop an app or a physical camera that reproduces the "low-resolution, grainy" filter effect of CCD cameras.

How do you catch an "emotional undercurrent"?

1. Shed the "seller" identity: treat yourself as an anthropologist, or as an editor at a fashion magazine.
2. Look at "people," not "things": do not fixate on the product in the video. Look at the person who posted it. Who are they? What are they trying to say? What emotional resonance are the commenters sharing with them?
3. Look for "recurring imagery": are a lot of people filming "sunsets"? Are a lot of people using "film filters"? Are a lot of people posting "dinner for one"? Beneath these recurring images surges a collective emotion.
4. Ask yourself one ultimate question: "To serve this lifestyle and this collective emotion that are taking shape, what kind of 'props' and 'rituals' can I offer them?"

When your product selection rests not on a cold function but on a warm emotion, your product acquires "body temperature."

It is no longer a commodity. It becomes a "medium" through which users express themselves, find their own kind, and lay their souls to rest.

Such a product has a better chance of shifting comparison away from price alone toward identity, experience, and community meaning. Imitation, fading trends, and changes in purchasing power can still pull it back into price competition.

6.3 Brand-Oriented Product Selection: No More One-Off Deals, Build a Traffic Pool with a Product Matrix

Up to this point, everything we have discussed has revolved around creating a single "bestseller."

But bestseller after bestseller can make you a very wealthy "merchant."

What it cannot do is make you a genuinely respected "entrepreneur."

A merchant is forever hunting the next opportunity.

An entrepreneur is forever building a system.

That system is called "brand."

The word "brand" is also widely misunderstood. Many people think that registering a trademark and designing a logo makes a brand.

No.

A brand is a "trustworthy, enduring relationship" you build between yourself and your users.

A brand is your "long-term commitment" to a particular kind of user and a particular way of life.

"Bestseller thinking" is one-off. It is hunting. Bag a rabbit, then go find the next one.

"Brand thinking" is enduring. It is farming. Fence off a plot, work it deeply and carefully, and let crops keep rising from that soil season after season.

Why move from "bestseller" to "brand"?

1. Lower the cost of traffic: in an age when traffic grows more expensive every day, brand repeat purchase is among the cheapest sources of traffic. A user who trusts your brand will keep coming back, on their own initiative -- the return visit itself costs almost nothing in ad spend, even though building the brand took upfront investment.
2. Raise repurchase rates and average order value: a brand means trust. Because users trust you, they dare to buy more from you—and pay more for it.
3. Build a genuine moat: your bestseller can be copied, but your brand—the aesthetics, values, and user relationships it represents—cannot.

How do you evolve from "selecting a product" to "building a brand"?

The key is to shift from "point thinking" to "matrix thinking."

[The Three Acts of Building a Brand Product Matrix]

Act One: define your "origin audience" and "core value"

• Before making any product, answer one question: whom does my brand serve, and what "core value" do I provide them?
• This "whom" must be very specific.
  • Wrong example: "I serve all women who love beauty." (Too broad.)
  • Right example: "I serve 'urban minimalist' white-collar women striving in first-tier cities, who seek a balance between efficiency and refinement."
• This "core value" must be very clear.
  • Right example: "We provide them with design objects that make life simpler, more efficient, and more beautiful."

Act Two: build the matrix with "traffic products" and "profit products"

Once you have defined your origin, every product you subsequently develop must unfold around it like a galaxy. A healthy brand product matrix typically contains two kinds of products:

1. Traffic products (entry products / spearhead products):

   • Role: these are your "greeters," the first blade your brand thrusts outward. Their job is not to make money, but to use one intensely attractive point to pull your "origin audience" into your store.
   • Characteristics:
     • Usually the closest thing you have to a "bestseller."
     • Strikes a sharp pain point or boasts very high visual appeal.
     • Priced low enough that buying involves little decision pressure.
     • (For the "urban minimalist" brand above, the traffic product might be a "minimalist desk phone stand.")

2. Profit products (core products / deep products):

   • Role: these are your "cashiers," the main engine of your brand's profit. Once users have built initial trust through the traffic product, they begin exploring your profit products.
   • Characteristics:
     • Higher average order value and higher margins.
     • Solve deeper, more complex needs.
     • Share a consistent design language and brand philosophy with the traffic products.
     • (After buying your phone stand, a user may discover you also sell a "modular wireless charging pad that charges a phone, watch, and earbuds at once," priced at three times the stand. Because they love your design, they are quite likely to buy it.)

Act Three: expand the universe with "image products" and "related products"

Once your brand enjoys a steady flow of traffic and profit, you can begin expanding your "brand universe."

1. Image products (flagship products / spiritual totems):

   • Role: they are not necessarily built for sales volume. They exist to "elevate" your brand's image and positioning. They declare to the world that your brand is capable of making top-flight, technically sophisticated, artistically ambitious products.
   • Characteristics:
     • The most technically complex, the most avant-garde in design, and the highest in price.
     • (That "urban minimalist" brand might launch a smart desk lamp priced at 2,000 yuan, "co-branded with a top Danish audio brand." It may not sell many units, but it makes everyone regard the brand as something extraordinary and upscale.)

2. Related products (ecosystem products / peripheral products):

   • Role: they are like the asteroids and moons of a planetary system, building a complete lifestyle ecosystem around your core products. Their purpose is to deepen user stickiness, letting your brand "permeate" every corner of the user's everyday life.
   • Characteristics:
     • Usually low-priced, high-repurchase "consumables" or "small items."
     • (The brand might start selling "microfiber cleaning cloths" for the wireless charging pad, plus "mousepads," "storage boxes," and "coffee cups" in the same design language...)

When you use this matrix thinking to plan your product line, your store is no longer a messy shelf. It becomes a meticulously designed "world."

Users do not come in, buy, and leave. They wander, discover, and linger in this world the way they would through a fascinating museum. What they carry away is no longer a set of isolated goods, but a piece of this "world"—an admission ticket to the "lifestyle" your brand advocates.

This is the power of a brand.

It turns you from a "traffic buyer" worn down by endless acquisition into a star with your own "gravitational field."

It turns your one-off transactions into companionship that can last a lifetime.

Closing Words: Stay Hungry, Stay Sharp

We have finally reached the end of this book.

I have laid before you, without reservation, every hard-won lesson I have gathered over more than a decade -- paid for in countless failures, countless sleepless nights, and a great deal of real profit and loss.

I did not teach you the operation of any particular software, because tools go out of date.

I did not hand you any "bestseller list" guaranteed to make money, because opportunities vanish in an instant.

What I gave you is a foundational, timeless arsenal of thinking.

• I gave you a scalpel for dissecting human nature (Chapter 1).
• I gave you a detective's lens for spotting lies (Chapter 2).
• I gave you a magic wand that turns stone into gold (Chapter 3).
• I gave you a survival map for crossing the jungle (Chapter 4).
• I gave you a compass for navigating time (Chapter 5).
• And finally, I gave you a pair of God's eyes for seeing into the future (Chapter 6).

Armed with these, you possess the core capacity to find opportunity and create value in any era, on any platform.

But remember, this book is not the destination. It is only a starting point.

The market is forever changing. Human nature is forever fathomless.

A true "God's perspective" is not some "divine power" that, once acquired, you can never lose.

It is a state.

A state of staying hungry, staying sharp, and remaining endlessly curious about the world.

Product selection has no finish line—only cognition in constant evolution.

You must be like a student who never graduates, learning, observing, and thinking without cease, feeling for the faintest pulse of this era.

After you close this book, go and do three things immediately:

1. Visit the trendiest, coolest concept store in your city. Buy nothing. Just go and feel.
2. Uninstall the app you use most often to pass the time, then download one you have never used—one you may not even understand.
3. Find someone around you whom you completely fail to understand, someone from another world entirely (a post-2005 Gen Z kid who does cosplay, or a person in their sixties who loves playing with beads), buy them a coffee, and talk for an afternoon.

When you can see the microcosm of a way of life in the displays of that concept store;

When you can see a new logic of community in the interaction design of that unfamiliar app;

When you can see an unmet need in the complaints and joys of that stranger;

At that moment, you will truly possess your very own—the Eye for Hit Products.

To every e-commerce person still on the road,

May you never be swallowed by trends, but become the ones who define them.

May you never be troubled by price wars, but become the ones who create value.

May you, in this brutal and yet mesmerizing game of commerce, find your own sea of stars.

Now close the book. Go fight.