Friendship Day 2024: Gifting companies expect double-digit growth; Gen Z and millennials driving the trend

Friendship Day 2024: The gifting industry has been witnessing a significant surge, with the Gen Z and millennials opting for personalized gift items to celebrate the occasion. Despite the online boom, where a friendship day message, or a social media post is just one tap away, companies have seen an uptick by 50-60 per cent as the occasions draw nearer.

“Historically, we observe a notable uptick in sales during such occasions. For Friendship Day specifically, we anticipate around a 50-60% increase in our sales compared to normal periods,” Varun Moolchandani, the executive director of Archies, told LiveMint.

The surge has been drawn by an increasing preference for customized hampers, and the convenience that the current generation seeks. Speaking to LiveMint, Avi Kumar, the chief marketing officer of Ferns N Petals(FNP), said although people do not plan for Friendship’s Day in advance, the sales pickup significantly in the last two days.

“So we’ve been seeing some uptakes for the last 4-5 days and this really pushes in the last two days, as the occasion approaches; impacting the sales by 50-60%,” said Kumar. He further expressed his optimism about the day, as the company anticipates a double-digit growth, he said.

Archies also shared a similar view, as the company reported net sales worth ₹196.98 crore during the days before and after Friendship’s Day in 2023.

Surge after Covid; ‘customised’ the new preference

Gifting trends had been different, when compared to the past years, as the companies reported a surge, especially after the pandemic. “ Earlier the trend was that maybe if you're in a different city, then you send them a gift and in the same city you think that you send them a gift online but that really changed during the pandemic time,” said the FNP marketing chief.

Archies, also reported a 60-70 per cent growth post covid, as their customised mugs reported the highest sales of ₹11.48 crore, for Friendship's day in 2023. Kumar from FNP, also said that every year the company has a challenge to curate unique offers and products to suit the increasing demand for personalized gifting items.