Lunar New Year marketing 2027: an email plan for online shops

Key dates for 2027 by market#

Lunar New Year’s Day 2027 is Saturday, February 6, and the eve, when families gather for the reunion dinner, is Friday, February 5. The day is the same across markets, but the length of the break is not, and the break decides when you can ship and when customers stop buying.

Valentine’s Day falls on Sunday, February 14, 2027, eight days after Lunar New Year. The restart email and a Valentine’s gift guide can be the same campaign.

A five-email campaign timeline#

The example brand is Ninefold, an apparel shop that sells knitwear, outerwear and basics online. Wearing new clothes for the new year is a tradition in Chinese and Vietnamese families, so apparel has a natural reason to be in the conversation. Five emails cover the season without crowding the inbox:

Smaller shops can drop email 2 and send four. What matters most is that every email before the holiday states the last order date, because that date, not the holiday, is when sales stop.

Shipping cut-offs and the logistics shutdown#

Around Lunar New Year, carriers, warehouses and factories across East and Southeast Asia work reduced hours or close, and staff often return gradually after the official break. For an online shop, that creates two deadlines: the last day an order can still arrive before the holiday, and the day orders start shipping again.

1. Find your carrier’s holiday notice. Carriers publish their final pick-up and delivery days a few weeks ahead. Use those dates, not last year’s.
2. Set your own cut-off two or three days earlier. That margin absorbs packing time and the late-January volume peak.
3. Put the cut-off in the subject line or the opening sentence of emails 1 to 3, and on product pages and the cart.
4. State the restart date before the holiday. Customers who order during the break should know when their parcel will leave.
5. Separate domestic and international dates. Orders to customers abroad need an earlier cut-off, often a week or more before the domestic one.

If you source products from suppliers in China, Vietnam or Taiwan, place restock orders for February and March before the break. Supplier closures usually last longer than the public holiday, and stock gaps show up in the restart weeks.

Red envelope offers and gift sets#

Red envelopes (紅包, lì xì in Vietnamese, angpao in Indonesia and Thailand) carry money as a blessing for the new year. A shop can borrow the idea without turning the season into a discount race:

• A red envelope voucher for existing customers, sent as a thank-you rather than a public sale. A tiered version works well: a fixed amount off above two or three order values.
• A gift with purchase, such as a knit scarf or a red gift box, instead of a percentage off. It protects margin and fits the gifting mood.
• Gift sets by price band, for example a set for parents, a set for colleagues and a set for the host of the reunion dinner. Customers buy several at once, so show the total delivery date clearly.
• Lucky numbers in prices and amounts, such as 8 or 88, are common in Chinese-speaking markets. Avoid 4, which sounds like the word for death in Chinese.
• Wrapping and a card message as an option at checkout, if your warehouse can handle it before the cut-off.

Keep the tone warm and family-centered. Red and gold are the season’s colors, but a native speaker from each market should review copy and imagery, since symbols and greetings differ between Taiwan, Vietnam and Indonesia.

Restarting sales after the holiday#

The week after the break is a second opportunity. Customers have received red envelopes, return to work and pick up the browsing they paused. A restart email does three things:

1. Confirms that the shop is open and orders ship again, with the current delivery time.
2. Shows what is back in stock or newly arrived. If you used the break to restock, the back in stock template fits here.
3. Connects to the next moment: in 2027, Valentine’s Day is February 14, and end-of-winter sales follow in late February.

Send the restart email to the whole list in the celebrating markets, and a second version to people who clicked a gift email in January but did not order. The email segmentation guide explains how to build that group.

Selling to customers abroad and cross-border#

Lunar New Year is also celebrated by Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean and other Asian communities in North America, Europe and Australia. Two kinds of shop need a plan even if their home market does not have the holiday:

• Shops selling to Asian-diaspora customers abroad. Segment by country or shipping address, send in the customer’s time zone, and use the greeting and language of the community, such as Tết for Vietnamese customers. International shipping takes longer, so the last order date comes earlier.
• Shops whose supply chain is in Asia. Tell customers in advance if pre-orders or made-to-order items will slow down in February. A short note in a regular newsletter in January avoids support requests later.
• Shops selling into Asia from abroad. Cross-border parcels stall when local carriers close. Show a clear cut-off for each destination, or pause shipping to those countries during the break.

The holiday email marketing calendar lists the other moments in early 2027 that overlap with this season, including the start of Ramadan around February 8.

Planning the campaign in Claude or ChatGPT#

With Tellnod connected to Claude or ChatGPT, each row of the timeline can become a campaign in one conversation. For example:

• “Draft a Lunar New Year gift guide for customers in Taiwan, three price bands, last order date January 29. Schedule it for January 6 at 10 am.”
• “Make a Tết version for customers in Vietnam, in Vietnamese, with the same gift sets.”
• “Write a short closure notice for February 5: we are closed until February 11 and orders ship again that day.”

Each draft appears as a desktop and mobile preview, and you can send yourself a test. When it is ready, Tellnod shows an approval card with the recipient count, exclusions and schedule. Segments are described in plain words, such as “subscribed customers in Vietnam”, as long as your contacts include a country. You approve every send, and a scheduled campaign can be cancelled until it goes out, so the whole season can be scheduled in early January.

Plans and contact limits are on the pricing page, and you can add Tellnod from the connect page.

FAQ#