India’s festive shopping landscape is becoming harder to define by the old binaries of planned versus impulsive, online versus offline, premium versus convenient. The consumer who begins looking for a personalised gift weeks before a festival can also be the one turning to a digital platform hours before a celebration, expecting the same level of choice, relevance and reliability. Festive commerce is increasingly being shaped by this coexistence of behaviours, as technology compresses the distance between thinking about a gift and getting it delivered.
The acceleration of quick commerce has made immediacy a part of the gifting conversation, particularly for categories traditionally associated with time-sensitive celebrations. In 2025, 45% of festive shoppers surveyed by Meta said they used quick-commerce platforms for festival purchases, while gifting platforms also reported sharp growth through these channels. At the other end of the spectrum, personalised and premium gifting continues to grow as consumers look for products that feel specific to the recipient rather than interchangeable.
For gifting brands, this creates a more complicated marketing challenge. A discount can create urgency, but it cannot necessarily create meaning. A faster delivery can solve a logistical problem, but it cannot explain why one gift is more appropriate than another. And an algorithm can narrow down the choices, but the reason behind the gift still belongs to the person giving it. The category, therefore, is moving towards a model where commerce and emotion have to work together rather than compete with each other.
That evolution is also forcing brands to rethink what festive success actually means. The objective is no longer simply to capture a seasonal spike in orders, but to make the brand relevant at the next occasion as well. For IGP, that means looking beyond sales to repeat purchases, customer reviews, fulfilment performance, brand recall and the strength of the emotional connection created through a campaign.
Against this backdrop, Tarun Joshi, Founder & CEO, IGP, sees India’s gifting market moving towards a model where personalisation, technology, speed and storytelling have to coexist. In an interaction with Brand Beats, Joshi discusses how planned and last-minute gifting are increasingly converging, why personalisation has become central to IGP’s festive strategy, and why brands need to move beyond discount-led communication to understand the emotion behind the occasion.
The Festive Gifting Market Is Now Serving Two Kinds Of Consumers
The idea that consumers either plan their festive purchases well in advance or wait until the last minute is becoming increasingly outdated.
According to Joshi, both behaviours are now developing simultaneously. Personalised and premium gifts, which require customisation, are often planned earlier, while express delivery and quick commerce have made last-minute gifting increasingly convenient.
“Rather than replacing one behaviour with the other, we’re seeing both coexist,” Joshi said.
For IGP, this means building an omnichannel ecosystem capable of catering to both kinds of consumers without compromising on the quality or relevance of the gifting experience. The opportunity, he explained, lies in ensuring that consumers can make thoughtful choices whether they are shopping weeks before a festival or looking for a gift at the eleventh hour.
This shift also reflects a broader change in consumer expectations. Speed is becoming important, but it is no longer enough on its own. Consumers increasingly expect convenience without losing the thoughtfulness associated with gifting.
For IGP, Personalisation Is The Answer To Festive Clutter
Festive marketing has become increasingly crowded, with brands competing for attention through discounts, celebrity campaigns, influencer collaborations and social-first content.
IGP believes the way through that clutter is not necessarily louder communication, but more relevant communication.
“Festivals are deeply emotional moments, so communication has to go beyond promotions,” Joshi said.
For IGP, personalisation extends beyond customised products. The brand applies it across product recommendations, gifting journeys and communication, using customer insights to make interactions feel more relevant.
This approach is also reflected in its omnichannel presence across digital platforms, social media, influencers, PR and its growing offline retail network. The shift has been accelerated by younger consumers, particularly Gen Z, who Joshi says increasingly value authenticity, visual storytelling and experiences that are worth sharing.
“As a result, our festive marketing combines emotion-led narratives with creator collaborations and culturally relevant storytelling that stays with consumers well beyond the festive season,” he added.
Why Storytelling Matters More Than Discounts In Gifting
The growing importance of storytelling is closely linked to the emotional nature of the category.
While performance marketing remains important for driving immediate demand, Joshi believes it cannot do the entire job of building a brand.
“Consumers don’t remember discounts, they remember how a brand made them feel,” he said.
For IGP, the festive strategy therefore involves balancing data-led campaigns that drive relevance and conversion with emotionally resonant narratives that build brand affinity.
This distinction is particularly important in gifting, where the product is often only one part of the decision. The occasion, the relationship between the giver and receiver and the emotion attached to the moment all influence what ultimately gets purchased.
For brands, this makes festive marketing less about pushing a product and more about understanding the occasion around it.
Creators Are Becoming A Relevance Play, Not Just A Reach Play
Influencer marketing has also evolved considerably within the festive ecosystem.
Joshi believes the conversation has moved away from simply asking how many people a creator can reach towards understanding whether that creator is relevant to the particular audience and occasion.
“Influencer marketing today is less about reach and more about relevance,” he said.
IGP continues to work with celebrities and macro creators for awareness at scale, particularly around marquee festivals. At the same time, micro-creators can deliver stronger engagement because their content often feels more authentic, relatable and community-driven.
Rather than choosing one over the other, IGP sees both as complementary tools. The right mix, Joshi explained, depends on whether the campaign is designed to drive awareness, engagement or conversion.
Speed May Win The Order, But Reliability Wins The Experience
Festive demand puts significant pressure on the gifting supply chain, making fulfilment an important part of the customer experience.
IGP prepares for the seasonal surge by expanding fulfilment capacity, strengthening inventory planning and leveraging its network of retail stores, dark stores and logistics partners.
This becomes particularly important as demand expands beyond metros into Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, while regional festivals create additional layers of demand.
“Speed has certainly become a competitive advantage, but reliability and local relevance are equally important,” Joshi said.
The distinction is important. A faster delivery does not necessarily translate into a better gifting experience if the gift arrives late, damaged or without the expected level of convenience. For IGP, operational excellence therefore becomes part of the brand experience itself.
As Joshi put it, consumers expect gifts to arrive on time, in perfect condition, and with a seamless experience.
AI Can Remove Friction, But It Cannot Replace The Emotion Behind A Gift
Technology is becoming increasingly embedded in the gifting journey, particularly in discovery and personalisation.
IGP uses AI to personalise recommendations, improve product discovery, predict customer preferences and create smoother shopping journeys based on occasions and browsing behaviour. But Joshi draws a clear line between technology and emotion.
“AI doesn’t replace emotion, it enhances it,” he said.
The technology can help a consumer find the right product faster, but it cannot manufacture the relationship that makes the gift meaningful.
“The thought behind a gift, the relationship it celebrates, and the story it tells still come from the individual,” Joshi added.
This makes AI less of a replacement for the human side of gifting and more of an infrastructure layer that removes friction from the process.
Corporate Gifting Is Moving From Hampers To Relationships
The transformation is not limited to consumer gifting. Corporate gifting, too, is becoming more strategic, with organisations moving beyond standard festive hampers towards personalised, premium and experience-led options.
According to Joshi, businesses are increasingly looking for gifts that reflect their brand values and feel thoughtful rather than transactional.
Personalisation at scale, premium packaging, fulfilment and reliable delivery are becoming equally important. The bigger shift, however, is in how companies view gifting itself.
“Corporate gifting has evolved from a seasonal activity into a year-round engagement tool,” Joshi said.
That change creates a wider opportunity for brands operating in the space, moving corporate gifting from a once-a-year festive requirement towards a tool for employee recognition, client engagement and partner relationships.
The Biggest Misconception About Festive Commerce Is That It Is Driven By Discounts
For Joshi, one of the biggest misconceptions surrounding festive commerce is that consumers are primarily waiting for offers. While value remains important, he believes today’s consumer is equally influenced by convenience, relevance and emotional connection.
“People aren’t just buying products, they’re celebrating relationships,” he said.
That makes personalisation and storytelling increasingly important parts of the commerce experience.
Whether it is a personalised product, a curated recommendation or a more thoughtful gifting journey, brands have an opportunity to make the transaction feel like part of the celebration itself.
For IGP, the winning model combines authentic storytelling with the operational ability to deliver on that promise through personalisation, faster fulfilment and omnichannel accessibility.
India’s Diverse Festive Calendar Is Creating A Localisation Opportunity
India’s festive calendar is far from uniform, and national campaigns alone cannot capture the nuances of every celebration. IGP is responding by localising both its product assortment and communication, curating collections around individual festivals and regional preferences.
“India’s festive landscape is incredibly diverse, and consumers expect brands to recognise regional traditions with the same importance as national celebrations,” Joshi said.
For an occasion-first brand, this creates an opportunity to remain relevant throughout the year rather than concentrating the business around a handful of major national festivals.
The rise of Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets further strengthens this opportunity, with consumer celebrations becoming increasingly diverse geographically as well as culturally.
Perhaps the clearest indication of how the gifting market is evolving is the way IGP measures success. Sales and order volumes remain important, but Joshi says the brand also tracks customer reviews, repeat purchases, acquisition quality, fulfilment performance, on-time delivery and campaign engagement.
The objective is not simply to win one festive transaction.
“We also evaluate how effectively a campaign strengthens brand recall and builds an emotional connection with consumers,” he said.
That represents a broader shift in the role of festive marketing. Instead of treating festivals purely as high-volume sales periods, brands can use them to build relationships that extend into future occasions.
“If a festive campaign brings customers back for the next celebration, we’ve created value that extends far beyond a single transaction,” Joshi said.
For IGP, that may ultimately be the larger opportunity in India’s evolving gifting market: using technology to make gifting easier, personalisation to make it more relevant, and storytelling to ensure the transaction remains human.
