Online Gifts vs In-Store Gifts: What Do Buyers Prefer Today?
You walk into a store to buy a gift. Ten minutes later, you’re still moving section to section, looking for something specific. It’s hard to find without someone helping you out. What should’ve been a quick trip down to the market becomes a treasure hunt. That’s the idea behind why people today, in the online gifts vs in-store gifts competition, the former wins.
We at IGP have seen this shift and understand it well. Our products are meant to serve a huge segment. These are people looking for gifts, cakes, decorations, and that’s the kind of variety that has helped us study the change.
As per customer patterns, we can now discern the criteria that make online shopping the better choice as of 2026.
Understanding the Customer Psyche Behind Gifting
Physically browsing, checking the quality and putting a certain amount of time and effort into picking a gift is charming. But, is it practical? Today, trust has a different definition. People look for reviews from other customers, trust influencer choices and are influenced by a good marketing strategy.
This is something we’ve observed with our customers as well. The first-timers mostly go with the popular products. Once they’re satisfied with the quality, they browse more, order more, and trust better. This trust is what steers consumer gifting preferences in favour of online gift shopping. To give you a more specific idea, here are some nuances to this preference.
Guided Interface
The strongest point of buying gifts online is the guided approach. What that means, simply, is that online, most marketplaces work in an anticipatory manner. They know what occasion is coming; they know how to utilise it. To explain it better, for example, in India, whenever a festival rolls around, there is gift-giving.
That is known and also comes as a part of the common customer behaviour. Now, what happens there is, if you go to our website, and a certain occasion is coming up on the calendar, you will find that category right at the top of the page. What this does is it saves you from putting in vague search prompts, looking for something to gift on a particular day.
You go on the website, you click on that option, you browse for anything and everything that is under it, and you place your order. It has that feel of being helped by an in-store person. The difference is just that it’s now online.
Transparent Pricing
Pricing is another part of it. It can get uncomfortable sometimes. Take this scenario into consideration. When you go to a store, you’re likely to have your eyes on about 10 to 15 products. Mostly the prices are mentioned, but sometimes you may have to ask for them. When you shop online, this part of it completely goes away.
You can see the prices up front, make comparisons, and go through reviews as well. Based on that, on IGP, you get this option to sort by price, popularity, or relevance, whatever approach you’re going for. You can still choose something that suits your budget and your taste.
This transparency with the price is a big reason why, in-store shopping versus online shopping gifts tilt is majorly going towards the online part.
Gifting Over a Distance
In India, if you go by understanding the traditional route, giving gifts has always been a way for families to feel a personal connection with each other. Now, demographically, if you look at the Indian population, a lot of people go and settle outside. That also means that families settle in different parts of the world.
But it does not mean that sending gifts far away should be a problem there. When you shop for gifts online, this problem is sorted. On IGP, you get worldwide delivery and also shopping options in the UAE, USA, Australia, Singapore, and more.
Now that the online gifting trends in India are not just limited to India, online shopping needs to make sure to adopt this in their options as well.
Why Buy Gifts From IGP Online?
At IGP, you get a selection of over a thousand products. You get them sorted by occasion, gender, your recurring events, perishables, non-perishables, personalised gifts, and the list goes on. There’s hyper-local delivery of under 30 minutes, and also that stretches up to 90 minutes, but not longer.
There’s doorstep delivery and easy, helpful filters that help you choose your gift with an easy-to-use online interface. If good quality, wide selection, and reliable service are what you’re looking for, go on to IGP today and place your order.
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