Have a great Chinese New Year: A practical guide to New Year gifts

As the end of the year approaches, many people tend to develop a contradictory state of mind.

On the one hand, with the New Year drawing near, people always hope to make some changes at home: replace an appliance that has been used for years, buy some practical New Year goods for parents, or simply replace those things that have been made do with for a year during the Spring Festival.

On the other hand, when opening shopping platforms, people find that the discounts are becoming more and more complicated, and the rules are getting more and more convoluted. Grabbing a bargain has instead become a “technical task” that requires energy.

Under such circumstances, the word “benefits” is becoming more and more practical. What users want are real benefits that can be clearly calculated and put to use.

As the Year of the Horse is approaching, VIP.com has launched the event “Refresh for the Year of the Horse, Enjoy Wonderful Gifts”, which will last from now until December 31, 2026. Rather than being a traditional promotion, it is more like an attempt to gradually deliver benefits to users.

No more competing for speed, New Year benefits are returning to the daily rhythm

If we look back at the mainstream practices of e-commerce in recent years, we can find an obvious change: promotions are becoming more concentrated, the promotion periods are getting shorter, and users are getting more tired.

Limited-time offers, flash sales, and countdowns, these once-effective means have been amplified to the extreme after short videos and live broadcasts fully intervened in sales. Almost every platform and every industry is using similar methods to compete for attention.

In many people's memories, VIP.com is not an unfamiliar platform. It was once among the top three in the e-commerce industry. It was the entrance for many people to buy genuine luxury goods at lower prices for the first time, and it was also the shopping choice that some families repeatedly made in the early days of e-commerce popularization. The first branded coat in the wardrobe, the household appliances bought for parents at the end of the year, or even a “peace-of-mind purchase” before an important event may have all happened during that period.

These memories are not ostentatious, but they truly exist and form the earliest connection between the platform and a generation of users.

However, the path chosen by VIP.com this time is obviously different. The core mechanism of the “Refresh for the Year of the Horse, Enjoy Wonderful Gifts” event is not complicated: by signing in continuously, users can gradually unlock gifts. The threshold is not high, and there is no need for additional consumption. However, as time goes by, users can receive more and more valuable rewards.

Judging from the event gift settings, this is not a list that pursues gimmicks. Starting from grains, oils, toiletries, and daily necessities, to kitchen appliances, health appliances, and smart devices, and then to more valuable durable goods, almost every stage of gifts corresponds to the real needs in family life.

For many families, the meaning of “refreshing” during the New Year is not to buy luxury goods, but to gradually update those details in life that have affected the experience. In this context, a benefit that can be obtained over time seems more reliable.

What the New Year really needs may be a bit of certainty

For many people, the Year of the Horse New Year is a restart of life.

Some people want to make their homes more comfortable, some want to make their parents' lives easier, and some just hope to have more predictable rewards in an uncertain environment.

An easily overlooked detail of this event is that the time span is very long.

It allows users to continuously participate and gradually accumulate over a long period of time. This way, there is almost no burden on users, but it requires more patience from the platform.

However, in the current situation, this may be a more practical choice. When promotions are becoming more and more like a war of attrition, a mechanism that can be used for a long time and that users can return to repeatedly is more valuable. Signing in is not the purpose. What really matters is whether the platform can appear repeatedly in users' lives.

In this context, VIP.com has chosen to respond to users' New Year expectations with a low-key but continuous benefit event. It doesn't create a sense of urgency or amplify anxiety. Instead, it breaks down the “benefits” into time itself.

Perhaps this is not the most exciting way, but for many ordinary users, a New Year gift that can be gradually redeemed is reassuring enough.

Not all presence needs to be proven by high volume. Sometimes, being remembered is because you do the right thing at the right time.

As the Year of the Horse is approaching, VIP.com has put benefits into time and has also put itself back into users' life rhythms. For those who are looking forward to a more relaxed New Year, such an appearance may be just right.