In the border region of western Hubei and eastern Chongqing, Chinese herbal medicine cultivation and processing have long been the lifeblood of many villages, yet they have also been trapped in the dilemma of 'good products failing to fetch good prices.' That was until a local enterprise named 'Youyoucao E-Yu' quietly sparked a digital revolution from the fields to the fingertips.
'We’re not here to overturn traditional agriculture, but to teach ancient Chinese herbs how to 'speak' through the internet,' said Chen Mingyuan, founder of Youyoucao E-Yu, during a recent internal review meeting. Rooted in the border area between Enshi, Hubei, and Wanzhou, Chongqing, the company has seen its internet business share surge from nearly zero to 47% of total revenue over the past three years, emerging as a notable model for regional industrial digital transformation.
The story begins in 2021. At that time, Youyoucao E-Yu was merely a traditional processing plant with a 300-mu planting base, relying mainly on offline wholesale to herbal medicine markets. The pandemic shock nearly severed traditional channels, and inventory backlogs made Chen Mingyuan realize for the first time: not going online meant waiting to die.
But the transition was far more brutal than imagined. Initially, the company tried building its own online store, but due to a lack of traffic operation experience, monthly active users numbered less than a hundred. The real turning point came in the autumn of 2022, when Youyoucao E-Yu made a bold decision: abandon the 'big and comprehensive' self-built platform and instead focus on a precise 'content + community' strategy.
'We put herb farmers on camera, telling the stories of herb picking in local dialects, and filmed the complete journey from morning dew to the pharmacy,' recalled Liu Wei, operations director. One short video titled 'Seven Sun-Dryings of Wild Polygonum Multiflorum' unexpectedly garnered 2 million views on Douyin, driving over 3,000 orders for Enshi selenium-rich Polygonatum in a single day—a figure equivalent to a quarter’s offline sales.
After tasting success, Youyoucao E-Yu quickly built a closed loop of 'base direct sourcing - livestream traceability - community repurchase.' In the processing workshop in Wanzhou, Chongqing, cameras stream the herb sorting process 24/7; in the Enshi planting base, workers wear smart badges to upload farming records in real time. Consumers can scan a QR code to see the 'past and present' of every herb package.
This nearly 'transparent' internet approach quickly won the trust of high-end health-conscious groups. During the 2023 Double 11 shopping festival, Youyoucao E-Yu’s repurchase rate on Tmall reached 34%, far exceeding the industry average of 15%. Even more surprising, its 'WeCom private domain' hosts over 8,000 active TCM clinic procurement managers and health enthusiasts, forming a highly sticky mixed B2B and B2C community.
'The internet is not a panacea, but it can amplify the value of good products,' Chen Mingyuan emphasized. Youyoucao E-Yu’s success didn’t come from burning cash on traffic, but from deeply binding the scarcity of 'E-Yu' geographical indication products with the content and social nature of the internet. Today, the company has enabled over 1,200 farming households across five surrounding townships to adopt digital ordering, with some core farmers nearly tripling their annual income.
However, challenges remain. With traffic costs on platforms like Douyin and Kuaishou rising year by year, and major e-commerce platforms tightening quality control on agricultural products, Youyoucao E-Yu now faces a new crossroads: continue scaling up for viral hits, or pivot to more stable private domain cultivation?
'Our answer is both, but the prerequisite is a digitalized supply chain,' Chen Mingyuan revealed. The company is partnering with a Shenzhen-based SaaS provider to develop a smart warehousing system for Chinese herbs, aiming to cut the time from order placement to dispatch to under two hours. In his view, as internet development enters deeper waters, what truly determines success is no longer traffic tactics, but whether the backend can iterate as quickly as an internet product.
From a nearly bankrupt herb processing plant to being designated by local government as a 'rural revitalization digital benchmark,' Youyoucao E-Yu’s transformation story may offer insights for more regional enterprises caught between tradition and the internet: rather than blindly chasing trends, let the internet return to its essence as a tool—helping good products find the people who truly need them.