Note: This article covers New Year (Oshogatsu) campaign strategies specific to Japanese shopping customs and calendar. This will not directly apply outside Japan.
The New Year (Shinshun/Oshogatsu) period is a key moment that can have a major impact on an e-commerce site's start to the year. Running a "Shinshun campaign" or "Oshogatsu campaign" makes it easier to boost sales, but there are also cases where efforts end up relying on discounts alone and do not lead to lasting results.
This article is a systematic guide for e-commerce site operators, covering the purpose of a Shinshun/Oshogatsu campaign, concrete tactics, schedule design, points to watch during execution, and how to think about sustaining sales after the campaign ends.
Why Run a Shinshun/Oshogatsu Campaign on Your E-Commerce Site
A Shinshun/Oshogatsu campaign isn't just another New Year sale — it's an important tactic for generating sales right at the start of the year. Designing it around the consumer behavior unique to the year-end/New Year period lets you aim not just for short-term sales, but for results that carry forward into your broader e-commerce operations.
It's a Good Window for Securing January Sales
While January sales tend to dip after the year-end shopping season, there's still a meaningful segment of users whose purchase intent rises thanks to bonuses and New Year gift money (otoshidama). Running a Shinshun/Oshogatsu campaign lets you capture this demand and generate sales right at the start of the year.
You can also offer inventory carried over from last year, or slow-moving items, as bundles or lucky bags (fukubukuro) — letting you address sales and inventory cleanup at the same time, rather than relying purely on markdowns.
A Sale Can Be a Way to Acquire New Customers
A Shinshun/Oshogatsu campaign is a good opportunity to create touchpoints with new customers. At the start of the year, people are often in a "let's try something new" mindset, which tends to lower the barrier to a first purchase.
If a discount or perk gets someone to buy, that's an opportunity for them to discover your e-commerce site for the first time. That said, it's important not to stop at the discount — you need a path that carries them forward from there.
It's an Entry Point Into Sales After the Campaign
A Shinshun/Oshogatsu campaign can be used not just for in-the-moment sales, but as an entry point for generating sales afterward too. Encouraging account registration at the point of purchase, and setting up follow-up tactics, makes it easier to drive repeat purchases.
Designing your New Year campaign so it isn't a one-off event is the key to lifting your overall e-commerce sales.
Designing Your Shinshun/Oshogatsu Campaign Schedule
Starting preparation for a Shinshun/Oshogatsu campaign right before the new year can make it hard to keep up. Working through inventory, creative assets, and announcements in stages makes it easier to manage the workload and avoid trouble during the year-end/New Year period, while staying ready for launch.
November: Securing Inventory and Selecting Products
November is when you secure inventory and select products for your Shinshun/Oshogatsu campaign. If you're sharing inventory with your year-end sale, it can sell through faster than expected, leading to stockouts before the campaign even begins. That's why it's important to plan your regular sales inventory and your campaign inventory separately.
Combining your best-sellers with slow-moving items or inventory carried over from last year also makes it easier to work through your stock. If you're planning a lucky bag or bundle offer, deciding on the contents at this stage will make the rest of your preparation go more smoothly.
Late November to Mid-December: Creating Banners and Updating Your Site
Once your products and tactics are decided, move on to creating banners and updating your site. The key is to set up paths — homepage banners, a dedicated landing page, and so on — that make it easy for users to notice the campaign.
It's also a good idea to do basic functionality checks at this stage, like confirming mobile display and page load speed, to help avoid trouble once the new year begins.
After Christmas: Starting Your Campaign Announcements
Once Christmas is over, consumer attention naturally shifts toward the year-end/New Year period. This is the time to start announcing your Shinshun/Oshogatsu campaign and sharing information about your Hatsuuri sale.
Announcement channels can include email newsletters, LINE messages, social media posts, and on-site banners. Since there's typically a lot of information competing for attention at year-end, it's important to communicate the dates, offer details, and duration concisely.
January 1: Shinshun/Oshogatsu Campaign Launch
Since New Year's Day is your campaign launch date, traffic tends to spike, so you'll want to check your stock levels, pricing, displayed content, and checkout flow in advance. Since staffing is often limited during the New Year holidays, it also helps to sort out your rules for handling inquiries and inventory management ahead of time.
If you're combining push notifications and social media posts to spread the word, it's important to plan around an operating structure your team can realistically sustain.
Effective Shinshun/Oshogatsu Campaign Tactics for E-Commerce
For a Shinshun/Oshogatsu campaign, it's important to choose tactics based on your goals and the nature of your products, not just run a discount. Here are tactics that are relatively easy for e-commerce sites to adopt and that pair well with a New Year campaign.
Discounts and Coupons
Discounts and coupons are one of the tactics most commonly used in Shinshun/Oshogatsu campaigns. Combined with a limited time window or limited quantity, they make it easier to nudge undecided shoppers toward a purchase.
That said, excessive discounting can hurt your margins and your brand image, so caution is warranted. In e-commerce, designing not only product-level discounts but also conditional offers — like "valid on orders over X yen" or "members only" — makes it easier to manage with an eye toward average order value and membership sign-ups.
The blog article below introduces how to use discount features and recommended Shopify apps for advanced coupon issuance. Take a look for reference.
Lucky Bags (Fukubukuro) and Bundle Sales
Lucky bags and bundle sales are tactics that make it easy to create a New Year-specific sense of excitement. Even products that don't move well on their own can sometimes sell better in bulk when bundled together.
If you're running a lucky bag offer on your e-commerce site, it's important to decide in advance how you'll present it — whether to "reveal all the contents" or "reveal only part of it." A format where the contents are unclear can make shoppers hesitant to buy, or lead to returns and inquiries, so it's important to design it in a way that keeps expectations aligned with reality.
The blog article below introduces recommended Shopify apps for bundle sales. Take a look for reference.
Points-Based Rewards
A points-reward tactic is a good way to convey a sense of value without leaning as heavily on discounts. Combining it with account registration makes it especially useful when your goal is to grow your membership base through the campaign.
Points that can be used immediately tend to nudge purchase decisions along, while points awarded later tend to encourage a return visit or repeat purchase. Which one to choose depends on whether you're prioritizing short-term sales or long-term engagement.
The blog article below introduces recommended Shopify apps for building a points system. Take a look for reference.
Online Omikuji (Fortune Draw) / Lottery
An online omikuji (fortune slip) or lottery is a good way to bring some New Year-style fun into your campaign. Setting up a mechanism users can participate in when they visit your site, and awarding coupons or points based on the result, can help encourage more browsing across the site.
Since it can be worked into either the pre-purchase or post-purchase experience, it's also useful for creating a touchpoint with first-time visitors. That said, if the offer details or terms aren't clear, it can cause people to leave, so it's important to keep the content simple and easy to understand.
The blog article below introduces how to run a lottery sale on Shopify. Take a look for reference.
Social Media Hashtag Campaigns
A social media hashtag campaign is often used as a tactic aimed at raising awareness and generating buzz. By having users post with a designated hashtag, you can encourage them to spread the word organically.
Making it easy for people to participate is essential for driving engagement. Setting a simple theme to post about — like a screenshot of the purchased item or the campaign screen — makes it easier for people to join in. It's also important to clearly state the offer details and winning conditions, and keep the rules simple, to help avoid trouble.
Easy-to-Use Example Messaging for a Shinshun/Oshogatsu Campaign on Your E-Commerce Site
With a Shinshun/Oshogatsu campaign, how you word things can shape a user's impression just as much as the tactic itself. That's why choosing the right messaging is also an important consideration.
<Representative Messaging Phrases>
- Shinshun Sale (New Year Sale)
- Hatsuuri (First Sale)
- Shinshun Limited (New Year Exclusive)
- Limited Quantity
- Limited Time
It also helps to state conditions and deadlines concretely — for example, "through [date]" or "first [number] customers" — to make the offer easy to understand.
On the other hand, overly exaggerated phrases like "now only" or "lowest price," or discount claims based on a reference price that doesn't actually reflect reality, risk misleading consumers. Depending on how it's displayed, this could be considered a misleading representation under Japan's Act against Unjustifiable Premiums and Misleading Representations, so caution is needed.
Conveying the special feeling of the Shinshun/Oshogatsu season while keeping conditions and deadlines clear, and avoiding misleading language, is the basic principle for messaging in any campaign.
Tactics for Sustaining Sales After Your Shinshun/Oshogatsu Campaign
A Shinshun/Oshogatsu campaign shouldn't just end when it's over — it's important to think about how it leads into sales afterward. Using the purchase data gathered during the campaign, along with appropriate follow-up, makes it easier to create touchpoints that lead to the next purchase.
Segmenting Customers Who Bought During the Shinshun Campaign
When planning your post-campaign tactics, it's important not to treat all buyers the same, and instead organize them by attributes and behavior. Since a Shinshun campaign tends to mix new and existing customers, sending the same content to everyone often doesn't perform as well.
Common ways to segment include "first-time buyer / repeat customer," "by order amount," and "by product category purchased." Varying the content and offers by segment makes it easier to carry out your follow-up communication.
Timing Your Follow-Up Emails to Buyers
Being intentional about timing makes follow-up emails easier for users to accept. Right after purchase, pairing a simple thank-you message with your order confirmation or shipping notice helps reassure the customer.
After the product arrives, sending information on how to use or get the most out of it is a good opportunity to deepen their understanding of the product. Since there's usually a lot of information competing for attention right after your Shinshun campaign, it's important to hold back on the hard sell and focus mainly on genuinely useful content.
Designing Exclusive Coupons That Lead to the Next Purchase
An exclusive coupon can be used as a trigger to get customers thinking about their next purchase. That said, distributing it unconditionally risks creating a dependence on discounts, so caution is needed.
Setting conditions — like "valid on orders over X yen" or "limited to certain categories" — makes it easier to encourage repeat purchases while being mindful of your margins. The key with post-campaign coupons is to treat them not as a simple discount, but as part of building an ongoing relationship.
Points to Watch When Running a Shinshun/Oshogatsu Campaign
While a Shinshun/Oshogatsu campaign tends to attract attention, it's also a period when operational trouble can easily arise. Here are two points worth keeping in mind in advance.
Announcing Shipping Dates With Year-End/New Year Logistics Delays in Mind
During the year-end/New Year period, shipping can take longer than usual due to carrier closures and higher parcel volumes. That's why it's important to communicate shipping schedule information in advance when running your campaign.
Adding notes like "ships in sequence starting [date]" or "shipping may be delayed during the New Year period" to your product pages or campaign page helps align user expectations.
Clearly Stating Your Customer Support Structure During the Holidays
It's not uncommon for customer support hours to differ from normal during the Shinshun/Oshogatsu period. Because of this, you'll want to communicate in advance whether inquiries will be handled, and during what hours.
If there's a period when you won't be able to respond, state it concretely — for example, "closed from [date] to [date]" or "replies to inquiries will resume after [date]." Preparing an auto-reply email and an FAQ page alongside this also helps reduce the burden of handling inquiries.
Key Takeaways for Designing a Shinshun/Oshogatsu Campaign
This article organized the purpose, tactics, preparation approach, and points to watch when running a Shinshun/Oshogatsu campaign.
A Shinshun/Oshogatsu campaign is an opportunity to use the start of the year to reassess your e-commerce operations. Designing it with an eye not just on sales, but on new customer touchpoints, membership growth, and inventory cleanup, makes it easier to carry the benefits into your ongoing operations.
Use this article as a reference to consider a Shinshun/Oshogatsu campaign that fits your own situation.
