How a Returnee Designer Built a Sock Startup: 6,000 Influencers, Billions in GMV—All Thanks to One Spreadsheet?

Artificial intelligence is redefining the efficiency of small teams.

In today's world where AI is quietly reshaping business, a nimble and highly efficient entrepreneurial model has become reality—single-person companies and super individuals are no longer just ideas but real-life phenomena happening around us.

AI is empowering small teams with intelligent capabilities that were once exclusive to large enterprises. On Taobao, there’s a homegrown designer "trendy sock" brand called AlmondRocks. This startup, generating tens of millions in annual sales, uses DingTalk’s “AI Spreadsheet” to enable its small new media and business team to effortlessly manage a social media influencer network comprising over 6,000 collaborators. Underpinning this "small yet beautiful" organizational structure is China's unique digitalized textile manufacturing ecosystem.

Mature flexible supply chains make it possible to produce high-quality, affordable, and stylish products. As founder Zhang Qi put it: "The product capability offered by Chinese manufacturing is unprecedented in history and hard to imagine anywhere else globally."

An active digital ecosystem further enables rapid adoption of AI tools, allowing small and medium-sized brands low-barrier access to top-tier AI capabilities. Competition in e-commerce is no longer just about traffic acquisition—it has evolved into a final showdown of cross-platform operational efficiency. Merchants still struggling through major sales events with Excel spreadsheets may not realize that their competitive gap could come down to a single AI-powered spreadsheet capable of automatic updates.

Zhang Qi, Founder of AlmondRocks

Socks as Personal Expression

During her time studying abroad, Zhang Qi observed an intriguing phenomenon on the streets of Britain:

Even when dressed in elegant, minimalist British attire, people would reveal their individuality through their choice of socks. This seemingly subtle fashion detail sparked her entrepreneurial insight—socks could be more than functional items; they could serve as the "finishing touch" in everyday outfits.

In the language of today’s social media, “basics for clothes, never basics for socks.”

In 2010, Zhang Qi returned to China and founded the brand AlmondRocks. At the time, the domestic sock market was dominated by generic white-label products lacking brand identity, leading to intense homogenized competition.

"Basic styles have no moat," Zhang Qi believed. She trusted there was always a consumer segment willing to pay for design. To this end, the brand invested heavily in materials and craftsmanship—studying the texture of different yarns, exploring fabric structures and knitting techniques, and applying complex garment-making methods to sock production. From concept sketch to final product, each sock typically undergoes three to four months of refinement, incorporating multiple knitting patterns and advanced processes, including the use of combed cotton that resists pilling and withstands frequent washing.

"Expensive often means better—and this holds true in many contexts," said Zhang Qi.

Selected AlmondRocks Products

This commitment to design and material quality gradually earned AlmondRocks market recognition. The brand successfully attracted young consumers who value lifestyle quality and personal expression, building a sales network centered on Taobao while expanding across multiple platforms.

Taobao currently contributes the majority of the brand’s revenue, while AlmondRocks also leverages content platforms like Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book) and Douyin for influencer marketing and live-streaming sales.

However, omnichannel operations brought increasingly complex management challenges. Starting from just a few hundred influencers, AlmondRocks now collaborates with over 6,000 active influencers across various social media platforms. Managing the entire process—from initial contact and collaboration to sample shipping, posting, and performance tracking—is primarily handled by just four business development staff. As cooperation volume grew, employees found themselves trapped in repetitive, routine tasks.

"Most of their daily time is spent checking information, exporting data, and making spreadsheets..."

Wu Xian, AlmondRocks’ platform manager for content e-commerce, admitted that prolonged engagement in high-repetition work made it difficult for employees to feel a sense of professional fulfillment. Moreover, information such as pricing, contracts, logistics details, and content scripts were scattered across different files and communication apps, increasing the risk of errors.

Shanzhu, a frontline business specialist at AlmondRocks, shared: "Before weekly meetings, we always had to stay late because all the report data needed to be compiled that day."

We can easily picture the scene: on the eve of the weekly meeting, frontline business and operations staff face computer screens filled with seven or eight browser tabs, multiple Excel sheets, and countless WeChat chat windows confirming details. They must manually extract influencer data from these fragmented sources—such as post links, likes, comments, and product URLs—and copy, paste, and verify each piece to assemble what appears to be a unified weekly report.

Clearly, for an omnichannel e-commerce startup like AlmondRocks, limited organizational capacity and manpower create persistent operational pain points:

Measuring ROI and forecasting data for influencer collaborations and brand investments across multiple platforms is challenging due to severe data fragmentation and high integration costs;

There’s no effective tool to standardize the workflow from influencer outreach, collaboration, to performance tracking—for growing small-to-midsize brands, adopting a full SaaS system is not only costly but often results in rigid systems that cannot dynamically evolve with changing business needs;

Employee turnover risks loss of critical business data;

...

Moreover, as business volume grows, Excel spreadsheets can no longer meet management demands—the files grow larger, data accumulates, real-time updates lag, error rates rise. It resembles the infamous software “code屎 mountain,” a bloated system burdened by years of unmanaged updates.

As early as 2017, AlmondRocks began using DingTalk for office work, but initially only for basic communication, meetings, and OA approvals—mainly administrative and managerial tasks. "We used it quite superficially," Zhang Qi admitted.

Later, as influencer and data management issues became increasingly complex, she realized a smarter solution might be necessary.

This year, AlmondRocks started migrating core operations onto DingTalk’s AI Spreadsheet. Now, the founder says, "Our company has about 50 people, and half of them are working on this one spreadsheet."

Workflow Revolution Powered by AI Spreadsheets

When discussing product design, Zhang Qi frequently uses the word "iteration." She believes product design should continuously evolve in response to societal changes—an approach reflecting long-term thinking in business. For instance, socks—a product traditionally seen as a "basic"—are being reinvented by AlmondRocks with added design and conceptual value. This represents an evolution in how such products are defined, aligning with today’s emotion-driven consumption trends.

We believe that a consumer brand deciding to deeply integrate AI into its operations is also engaging in a conscious iteration of its organizational structure and leadership philosophy.

Currently, AlmondRocks primarily applies the "AI Spreadsheet" to two key business areas: influencer marketing ("grass planting") and live streaming.

At AlmondRocks, collaboration with the "AI Spreadsheet" feels like a quiet transformation of daily workflows. Wu Xian shared a telling detail: "Unlike the past, when we manually entered data into Excel sheets, now we simply input a post link into the spreadsheet, set up relevant AI fields, and the AI automatically pulls like and comment counts—even updating sample shipment logistics status in real time. This frees us from repetitive tasks."

This shift manifests concretely in the team’s daily collaboration rhythm:

One Sheet, All Influencer Data Unified

Business staff open a single spreadsheet to view dynamic updates on all influencer partners. The system automatically flags high-priority influencers based on engagement metrics and past hit records, making collaboration progress transparent and turning chaotic multi-platform management into a thing of the past.

Automatic Data Population, No More Manual Copy-Paste

Employees only need to define required "core fields" in the spreadsheet. Whether it’s content metrics or logistics tracking, the system achieves “input equals output.” Instead of manually entering 10 fields, they now enter just five or six—freeing up manpower from the start.

System Alerts for Potential Hits

When a post suddenly gains traction, the AI Spreadsheet automatically detects the surge and sends a notification via DingTalk workflow to the responsible business staff, ensuring promising content is identified and followed up immediately.

Multiple Roles Collaborating on One Sheet

AlmondRocks’ business, operations, legal, and other team members collaborate daily on the same spreadsheet, with information synced in real time—gradually replacing the fragmented coordination methods of the past. Wu Xian explained: "We want to build a smoother workflow so everyone can focus on what they do best. For example, our colleague responsible for influencer outreach doesn’t need to get bogged down in backend data—she can instead concentrate on communication skills and brand understanding—this is where human uniqueness adds value."

In AlmondRocks’ revenue, influencer live streams on social platforms account for about 30% of total GMV, driving tens of millions in annual sales. Previously, operations staff functioned like ferry operators shuttling between isolated islands—manually transferring conversion data from platforms like Xiaohongshu and Douyin, piecing together fragmented insights. This was time-consuming and made it difficult to capture real-time trends in live stream performance.

DingTalk’s "AI Spreadsheet" now automatically aggregates live stream performance data, presenting it clearly at a glance.

One Sheet to Break Down Data Silos

Using lightweight tools like RPA, the AI Spreadsheet automatically consolidates data from multiple platforms such as Xiaohongshu Pugongying and Douyin Xingtou, creating a clear "data cockpit" for monitoring sales trends and performance. This enables management to analyze key metrics like channel ROI, cost per traffic unit, and marginal profit margins based on quantifiable data. Wu Xian says this is his most frequently used tool—the first thing he does every morning is open the "cockpit" to review the latest performance feedback.

From "One-off Transaction" to "Long-term Partnership"

The AI Spreadsheet continuously tracks core metrics for each streamer—return rates, average output per session—essentially equipping the brand with a built-in "influencer analyst." Based on accurate, continuous data feedback, the brand can precisely identify influencers whose style aligns with the brand, enjoy strong user reputation, and deliver stable conversions—enabling a shift from single-session collaborations to long-term partnerships. Meanwhile, influencers benefit from consistent support and resources, fostering mutual growth and a virtuous cycle built on trust.

Tracking Product Trends and Sensing Market Shifts

Fashion items like clothing and socks are non-standardized products whose sales fluctuate with seasons and trends. The AI Spreadsheet monitors live stream sales dynamics across channels and influencers in real time, generating an overall bestseller ranking for the brand, helping the team quickly spot potential hits. Combined with inventory data, management gains clear visibility into product popularity, turnover speed, and channel health.

We learned that AlmondRocks also uses the AI Spreadsheet for competitor brand monitoring, enabling operations to instantly sense external competitive moves, understand rivals’ strategies, and respond promptly.

The transformation of AlmondRocks’ workflows essentially illustrates a case of "human-AI collaborative operations." And with it, the team’s organizational logic has shifted. Wu Xian told us that while the brand previously emphasized "well-rounded competence" in hiring, it now encourages "specialized strengths."

"Since AI can easily level out certain general capabilities, individual strengths now matter more," he explained. For instance, a quiet but data-savvy employee who was previously bogged down by coordination tasks can now focus on uncovering patterns from data—providing valuable sales strategy insights—thus better realizing his professional value.

A New Paradigm of Lightweight Growth

AlmondRocks’ experience highlights two key advantages available to today’s e-commerce startups: China’s leading supply chain infrastructure and mature AI tools.

On the supply chain side, AlmondRocks can flexibly connect with high-quality suppliers in specialized segments based on product needs, maintaining close communication from yarn selection to production—backed by the robust support of China’s manufacturing supply chain. Zhang Qi explained that in recent years, the brand has focused on sourcing premium yarns at the source, "experimenting with blends of silk, linen, modal, wool, and cashmere to develop ideal fabrics." Of course, this also means longer R&D cycles and higher trial-and-error costs, pushing AlmondRocks toward a brand path centered on design and concept as core values.

On the operations side, tools like DingTalk’s "AI Spreadsheet" have significantly boosted efficiency. Especially in e-commerce—a field characterized by multi-platform, multi-threaded operations involving thousands of influencers—AI effectively reduces labor spent on routine processes and minimizes human error, truly achieving "one sheet, one complete application."

Zhang Qi added: "For teams like ours without a technical background, if setting up AI spreadsheets were costly or difficult to use, it would become a barrier. But DingTalk’s AI Spreadsheet offers great flexibility and scalability, quickly adapting to evolving business scenarios. Plus, their responsive customer service—all these factors made it our preferred choice." This underscores that the value of AI tools lies not only in technological empowerment but also in accessibility and low barriers to entry—precisely what many small and medium enterprises need most.

In fact, AlmondRocks is not alone. Intime Department Store used AI spreadsheets to launch an online group-buying business, achieving "one person managing live streams across 62 malls, generating over 20 million yuan in monthly sales per individual." E-commerce company "Mizhu" efficiently operates 20,000 private domain groups and handles millions of customer inquiries using a single AI spreadsheet, delivering "extreme after-sales service."

Robust supply chains ensure product strength, while AI tools enhance operational efficiency—these cases collectively point to a more sustainable business model: AI effectively absorbs the complexity brought by business expansion, allowing team size to remain lean even as operations scale. A lightweight growth model based on "human-AI collaboration" and "focus on core competencies" is becoming increasingly viable.

Brand pop-up store at Xuhui West Bund, Shanghai

Looking ahead, AlmondRocks has begun expanding into overseas markets, with its standalone website for Europe and North America即将 launching. Domestically, the brand is accelerating physical store rollouts and exploring distributor models. Zhang Qi said: "Next, we hope to apply the AI Spreadsheet to store management, enabling real-time tracking of inventory adjustments across locations."

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