WeChat's "Send Gifts" feature is now in gray testing, netizens: Red envelopes are no longer popular

WeChat has launched a new feature, called "Send Gifts", which is currently in grayscale testing. It allows users to purchase items in WeChat stores and send them directly to friends, providing recipients with a brand new gift receiving experience.

A new trend in holiday gift-giving may be coming this year.

Recently, some users discovered that WeChat is conducting a grayscale test of the "Send Gift" function and released a related usage guide on December 17.

Users can pay for products in WeChat stores and send them directly to WeChat friends. Gifts can be claimed within 24 hours after they are sent.

So how do you send this gift? And how do your friends receive it?

Donor’s perspective:

Products/stores that meet the rules will automatically enable the "Send Gifts" function, and the product details page will display the "Support Gift Sending" entrance.

When the user clicks "Send to a Friend", the "Confirm Gift" page will appear:

Next, select the style, browse the amount, and select the friend you want to send the gift to on the "Send Gift" page. After completing the payment, the gift will be sent automatically.

Receiver's perspective:

The gift is officially accepted only after the recipient clicks on the gift message in the chat, fills in the delivery address and clicks "Accept Gift".

Before accepting the gift, you can also choose to change to other styles of the same price under the product. After confirming "accept the gift", you will not be able to change the style.

After the recipient receives the gift, he or she can view the relevant orders in "WeChat>Me>Orders and Card Wallets".

If the friend does not accept the gift within 24 hours, the order will be automatically cancelled and a refund will be given to the sender. In addition, gifts cannot be transferred.

Currently, categories such as jewelry, education and training do not support gift sending. The rest of the WeChat store products support the "send gift" function by default, and the original price of the product style must not exceed 10,000 yuan.

In response to this news, netizens said that in comparison, red envelopes are not so attractive, after all, red envelopes only support 200 yuan, and even the upper limit of the Valentine's Day red envelope amount is only 520 yuan.

However, some netizens believe that requiring the other party to actively fill in the address reduces the sense of surprise.

Industry insiders believe that perhaps during this year's Spring Festival, this function may be able to replicate the impact of "WeChat red envelopes" on the payment market that year.

During the Spring Festival in 2014, WeChat, which had just entered the mobile payment field, launched the red envelope function. With its accurate understanding of user psychology, WeChat red envelopes became a national hot topic with almost no promotion costs.

Statistics show that the number of users using WeChat’s red envelope feature reached 5 million that year, bringing a very high number of card bindings to WeChat Pay.

As 2025 approaches, during the Spring Festival period, which is a time when high-intensity social demands explode, the launch of the “Send Gifts” function on WeChat is a stroke of genius.

In the past, sending red envelopes has always been one of the traditional customs during the Chinese New Year, and in the future, sending gifts may be added. Sending gifts on WeChat may become an emotional exchange or social etiquette during major festivals.

Some netizens also believe that it is foreseeable that a large number of brands will rush into WeChat stores, especially brands that offer products suitable for gift giving, and the Spring Festival marketing war is about to begin.

It is understood that WeChat Stores is an online shopping model based on the WeChat platform. Merchants can display and sell their products through WeChat Stores, and users can browse products, place orders and pay directly on WeChat.

Previously, on August 25, the video account store was officially upgraded to the WeChat store, further connecting the official account, video account, search, mini program and other scenarios, which means that merchants can operate in these scenarios;

In September, the WeChat store customer service tool was launched;

In October, WeChat launched an independent app, WeChat Store Assistant;

On November 25, the pace of upgrading video account stores to WeChat stores further accelerated, and merchants must upgrade before they can continue to operate.

It can be seen that WeChat is accelerating its efforts in the field of e-commerce sales, which is obviously welcomed by merchants who have entered the WeChat ecosystem. The addition of the "send gifts" function may bring more traffic and exposure opportunities to merchants, thereby promoting product sales.

Will you try this feature?

Edit:cc