WeChat’s new feature streamlines product gifting on its platform, leveraging its social ecosystem to enhance shopping convenience and drive merchant engagement.

As major holidays approach, Tencent’s WeChat and its Chinese counterpart, Weixin, have officially begun beta testing a gifting feature for WeChat store products. This feature, designed to simplify the process of sending gifts within the platform, is being trialed across all product categories except jewelry and education. Products eligible for the feature must be priced below RMB 10,000 (USD 1,400). For merchants meeting these criteria, the feature is automatically activated, with an identifying label added to product detail pages.

To send a gift, users can select an eligible product, tap the designated gifting button, and proceed to the gift confirmation page. There, they can choose a design, view the price, select a friend from their contact list, and finalize the payment to send the gift. This new functionality removes the need for recipients to share their shipping address or preferred product design, making the process more convenient and discreet.

Once the recipient is notified of the gift, they can input their shipping address, switch to a different product variant of equal value, and confirm receipt with a single acceptance action. However, the gifting feature includes specific limitations: recipients cannot forward gifts to others, and senders are unable to cancel or modify the order within the first 24 hours after sending, regardless of whether the recipient accepts the gift. If the recipient does not accept the gift within 24 hours, the order is automatically canceled, and the payment is refunded to the sender through the original payment method.

Currently, the gifting feature is only accessible to a limited number of users as part of its beta testing phase. According to 36Kr, a merchant revealed that the feature is expected to become widely available to all users by the week of Christmas.

A game changer for merchants?

For merchants, this new feature represents a valuable opportunity to boost sales, particularly for products with strong gifting appeal. By eliminating the need for senders to inquire about recipients’ preferences or addresses, the gifting feature leverages WeChat’s vast social network to make gifting as seamless as sending a digital red envelope. This could significantly improve the success rate of gift transactions and expand customer bases.

A snack merchant disclosed to 36Kr that they are already planning to introduce more gift box options to capitalize on the feature and attract new customers. The merchant anticipates a surge in demand for gifts during upcoming holidays, including Christmas, New Year’s Day, Lunar New Year, Lantern Festival, and Valentine’s Day. “The need for gifting has always existed, but this feature lowers the barriers, which makes us very excited,” the merchant said.

The gifting feature has been designed with merchant convenience in mind. It integrates smoothly into existing systems, with a straightforward adaptation process. On the merchant order page, once the sender has paid for the gift, the order status is marked as “payment pending” until the recipient provides their shipping address and accepts the gift. At that point, the status changes to “shipment pending.” Merchants are only notified of payment and shipment after the recipient confirms acceptance of the gift.

It is worth noting that gift orders do not include buyer information. Currently, merchants cannot blacklist users via the gifting system, and any preexisting blacklisted users are barred from both sending and receiving gifts. For after-sale processes, gift orders are managed similarly to regular orders. Shipping insurance is included, with the recipient designated as the beneficiary. If the recipient initiates a return or refund, they are entitled to compensation under the terms of the order’s shipping insurance.

Merchants who prefer to opt out of the gifting feature can disable it through platform settings. However, WeChat’s policy requires merchants to enable or disable the feature at the store level—specific products cannot be excluded from gifting eligibility.

Significance for WeChat and Weixin

The gifting feature is a natural extension of WeChat’s red envelope functionality, designed to lower barriers to action in social transactions without necessarily creating new demand. Similar to how red envelopes made monetary gifting more engaging and frequent, the new feature simplifies product gifting while maintaining a social, thoughtful touch.

WeChat’s e-commerce strategy has historically relied on group-based transactions and peer-to-peer product recommendations. The gifting feature enhances this dynamic by embedding deeper functionality into the platform, allowing users to harness the power of social relationships in new ways. This is particularly crucial as Tencent works to differentiate WeChat’s e-commerce ecosystem from competitors that prioritize pricing and variety, such as Pinduoduo.

In August, Tencent extended Channels’ store feature to become WeChat stores, enabling merchants to share product information seamlessly across various in-app touchpoints, such as public accounts, live streams, mini programs, and search results. The introduction of the gifting feature complements Tencent’s overarching strategy to establish a cohesive and integrated e-commerce ecosystem within WeChat.

The viral potential of this feature could drive significant user engagement and introduce new customers to WeChat stores. First-time users, for example, may discover brands or products through gift links sent by friends, leading to their first purchases on the platform. This dynamic taps into the network effect that has been a hallmark of WeChat’s success in other domains.

During Tencent’s Q3 earnings call, chief strategy officer James Mitchell outlined plans to improve search functionality within Channels and mini programs. These enhancements aim to optimize content flow and create more commercial entry points, enabling users to discover products more easily. “We aim to build a unified and trustworthy shopping experience within the ecosystem, with indexing and standardization as the cornerstones,” said Tencent president Martin Lau.

Tencent also plans to integrate artificial intelligence and large language models (LLMs) to improve the relevance of search results, further reinforcing the ecosystem’s closed-loop growth. Drawing from data on other live commerce platforms, keyword-driven search often results in higher conversion rates, making this an area of strategic focus for Tencent.

#WeChatGifting #EcommerceInnovation #SocialCommerce #TencentWeChat #GiftConvenience