Author | Wang Xiaojun

Editor | Zhou Zhiyu

Sending the first cup of milk tea in autumn or preparing a Christmas gift for a loved one can be done by sending a "WeChat red envelope". A quietly launched feature by WeChat has stirred up the ever-evolving e-commerce Industry.

On December 18, WeChat Mini Store announced the official launch of the "Gift Giving" feature for gray testing. The announcement stated that, except for the two categories of jewelry and Education, all other categories in the WeChat Mini Store with an original price not exceeding 0.01 million yuan will default to support the "Gift Giving" feature.

Specifically, for the products in the current WeChat Mini Store that meet the requirements, there will be an entry for "Support Gift Giving" publicly displayed on the product details page. Users only need to click on "Send to a Friend," pull up the "Confirm Gift" page, select a style, and browse the amount.

When selecting a friend on the "Gift Giving" page and completing the payment, the gift will be sent automatically. For the gift recipient, they can fill in the shipping address after clicking to accept the gift.

The whole process is as simple and fun as turning gift giving into sending a WeChat red envelope. Industry insiders view this as WeChat's new attempt at a social e-commerce model through "WeChat Red Envelope 2.0."

The timing of the launch of this feature is also worth pondering. With the upcoming Christmas, New Year's Day, Lunar New Year, and Valentine's Day holidays, this feature is expected to spread quickly among users, boosted by the holidays.

Since the beginning of this year, there have been many attempts in the e-commerce field within the WeChat ecosystem. In August of this year, the WeChat video number store was upgraded to WeChat store, and the video number e-commerce has connected a series of functional components within the WeChat ecosystem, which is seen as WeChat preparing to make major moves in the e-commerce field.

Tencent President Liu Chiping stated in the second-quarter Earnings Reports conference call that Tencent has adjusted the positioning of live streaming e-commerce to resemble WeChat e-commerce.

However, looking at the entire year, WeChat has not made many more moves in the e-commerce sector. Compared to PDD Holdings, Taobao, and JD.com competing fiercely on 'Low Stock Price' and 'refund only', there are doubts in the market about whether WeChat e-commerce can create waves again.

Indeed, Tencent has made many attempts in the e-commerce sector, from the early Paipai.com to the Xiaoe Pinpin discontinued in 2022, but the survival of its own projects is not optimistic. Instead, it has formed an e-commerce empire through investments, including PDD Holdings and JD.com.

Especially in the early stages of PDD Holdings' explosion, it relied heavily on the support from WeChat to quickly accumulate a large number of users through social viral spread via WeChat channels.

The social network formed by WeChat is a rich mine, but apart from the simple and monotonous 'cutting a knife', what other possibilities exist for e-commerce under the social model? This is a question WeChat needs to focus on.

Last year, video number e-commerce grew from nothing to a GMV of 100 billion in just one year. Although this year the video number has not further disclosed its GMV data, individuals close to WeChat indicated that this year there is a strong emphasis on GMV internally.

With the "gift-giving" feature entering gray testing, it is clear that WeChat has new ideas in the field of e-commerce.

In the current e-commerce situation, focusing on e-commerce requires finding a way to leverage the platform's advantages to establish a relatively stable development approach.

For WeChat, its greatest advantage is the traffic pool consisting of 1.382 billion users. WeChat's social virality can allow white-label products to succeed in a scenario where the price is good but not solely competing on Low Stock Price; for brand owners, with the gameplay similar to WeChat red envelopes, there can be more innovative marketing attempts.

CSC pointed out in the Research Reports that WeChat continually cultivates users' habits of shopping in the ecosystem leveraging its mature social network, which is of great strategic significance for unlocking the GMV space of WeChat e-commerce.

In 2015, it was precisely with the collaboration on the 'Shaking' red envelope during the Spring Festival that WeChat achieved over 10 billion shakes that night, transforming WeChat Pay from a tool few wanted to use into one that surpassed Alipay.

CSC pointed out that the gray testing of the gift-giving feature in WeChat stores aims to replicate the breakthrough of WeChat red envelopes in the e-commerce market and is expected to shift the WeChat e-commerce ecosystem from infrastructure perfection to Operation, with considerable collaboration space remaining with Taobao/Tmall.

Including WeChat e-commerce Saas service provider Weimob, which also experienced a significant surge. Today, Weimob's stock rose over 50% at one point. A relevant person from Weimob stated to Wall Street Watch that as one of Tencent's important ecological partners, Weimob's mini program is the first to connect with WeChat stores, supporting merchants to participate in the WeChat e-commerce ecosystem, and relevant products are currently being integrated.

It is anticipated that the upcoming WeChat "gift-giving" feature will have more attempts in gameplay and marketing across various levels, creating a wave. WeChat e-commerce can also take a different approach from the currently mainstream e-commerce based on this.

The e-commerce world will also be stirred up with WeChat's "gift-giving" entry, creating a huge wave.