Liu Qiangdong joins the "Gift War"

Author | Liu Baodan

Editor | Zhou Zhiyu

As the Spring Festival of 2025 approaches, major e-commerce platforms have begun to stir up a wave of "gift-giving."

On January 17, JD.com launched a gift-giving feature in its new version of the app, allowing users to log into a dedicated page by searching for "JD Gift." It is reported that the products offered by JD.com this time mainly come from self-operated sources and will be delivered during the Spring Festival through JD Logistics.

This means that after WeChat, Taobao, and Dongfang Zhenxuan, JD.com has also joined the e-commerce battle for the Spring Festival. Behind this move, JD.com aims to seize the opportunity of the Spring Festival, the most socially active long holiday of the year, to achieve more performance growth.

On the same day, JD.com's stock rose nearly 6% in pre-market trading in the U.S.; the closing price in Hong Kong was 146.70, with a stock price increase of 4.71%.

On November 14, JD Group announced its third-quarter earnings report for the period ending September 30, benefiting from strong sales momentum in major categories, with JD's revenue and profit exceeding expectations.

According to the third-quarter financial report, JD achieved a net revenue of 260.39 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.1%; the net profit attributable to shareholders was 11.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 47.8%; adjusted earnings per ADS were 8.68 yuan, a year-on-year increase of 29.5%.

JD Group's CEO Xu Ran stated, "In this quarter, we fully leveraged the leading supply chain and fulfillment infrastructure capabilities accumulated over the past twenty years to support the national old-for-new project, while continuously enhancing user experience and user perception, driving strong growth in daily necessities categories this quarter."

However, in the context of increasingly fierce e-commerce competition, JD.com is not yet in a position to take a breather. In recent years, the rise of the low-price model represented by Pinduoduo, coupled with live-streaming e-commerce becoming a new growth engine for the industry, has led to daily promotional activities on e-commerce platforms, intensifying competition to a close combat state.

Today, WeChat has opened an important entry point for the "gift-giving" feature in its latest iOS version. Users can see the newly added "Gift" option by clicking the "+" icon in the WeChat chat box. This is a significant signal, indicating that "gift-giving" is now on par with core functions such as video calls and sending red envelopes.

Socially adept WeChat intends to strengthen e-commerce awareness during the Spring Festival through this feature and capture a wave of e-commerce growth. To this end, WeChat began a gray-scale test of the "gift-giving" feature in its small store a month ago. Currently, Taobao, Dongfang Zhenxuan, and others have also launched related "gift-giving" features.

JD.com also needs to keep pace with changes in the e-commerce market, and the launch of "JD Gift" is a response from the company.

Specifically, users can search for "JD Gift" in the JD app, enter the dedicated page, select products as gifts, click "Send to Them" on the product detail page, and share it to WeChat with one click, allowing friends to receive gifts and fill in their addresses.

In addition to personal gift-giving, JD.com has also launched group gifts. Users can select gifts, choose to join the gift list, and then click "Group Gift," where recipients can grab gifts through a luck-based mechanism JD.com’s advantage in the gifting feature lies in its good service. Firstly, the range of gifts is mainly JD.com’s self-operated products, which have good quality control, especially in consumer electronics and home products. Secondly, gifts can be delivered by JD.com Logistics during the Spring Festival, meeting the requirements for timeliness.

However, as a pure e-commerce platform, JD.com does not have the advantage of social scenarios. Users need to place an order on JD.com and then share it on WeChat, which is not as convenient as sending gifts directly through WeChat.

Overall, “gifting” is essentially just a marketing activity. Although it generates a lot of discussion, it remains uncertain to what extent this new product can drive e-commerce growth during the Spring Festival.

As the Spring Festival holiday approaches, the “gifting” battle among e-commerce platforms is about to officially kick off. This will be a new attempt that not only promotes e-commerce growth but also innovates the tradition of gifting during the Spring Festival. For JD.com to get a share of the pie, more effort is needed.

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