Every year, we spend thousands of rupees on gifts for people we love or care for. We offer expensive premium bouquets for anniversaries or greeting occasions. We offer the most premium Hampers at Diwali and gift the most delicious Chocolates on birthdays. And how can we forget the golden all-time favourite greeting cards with pre-printed sentiments we did not write?

The gifting industry in India has grown significantly, the CAGR looks remarkable, but have you ever considered what it is designed for? In my opinion, it is almost completely designed for some special moments, not for presence or relationships that require daily nurturing. There is a different question we must ask: What about the days that are not the occasion? Do they not deserve to be celebrated? And that’s where the market ecosystem looks so ill-designed. And guess what, we don’t even want to look beyond the days we have been told to celebrate.

Occasion is a ‘trap’

As per reports, India has a Rs. 2.5 lakh crore gifting market, and it is fully built on one fundamental that love needs a trigger. A birthday. An anniversary. A festival. Congratulations. A success. If you remove these occasions, the whole gifting industry will almost fall apart. The flower shops will disappear, the most premium chocolates will vanish overnight, and the jewellery will also lose its shine. I have been observing this phenomenon closely and have concluded that it is not a market gap but a category gap.

The occasion-based gifting market is crowded and commoditised. Flowers, cakes, chocolates, personalised mugs, every other platform and market is chasing the same customer, and every next shop is preparing for these occasions. Nobody is building for the rest of the ‘so-called ordinary’ days. Nobody wants to ask the real question: what does presence look like between these occasions?

Why does ‘presence’ matter?

Now, let’s face a serious issue: observe how society is quietly changing. Urban relationships are becoming very fragile to withstand even two or three shocks, let alone the ‘Zindagi ke sath bhi, Zindagi ke baad bhi’ philosophy in action. From living in to moving out, the bonds are constantly growing weak. I’m not passing any moral judgment, but as someone on the same journey of discovering happy relationships, struggling with the same silence, I see some patterns worth sharing.

In my understanding, most urban (metro, to be precise) relationships struggle not just because of major issues but mainly because of silence. Detached from family systems and living in nuclear setups, couples trying to chase their dreams by working different shifts often struggle to be present for each other. Social pressures increase expectations, and Instagram paints an entirely different picture. Many couples first argue, then fight and then gradually fall silent. Their birthdays, anniversaries, and success parties can’t fill the void created by this growing silence.

What this market doesn’t want you to know is that your happiness can never be an outcome of one expensive necklace, a dashing suit, a 5-star diner or a foreign trip alone. These do offer temporary dopamine just like a good sex, but what about the ‘’after that ’. The market doesn’t have a word for that. Ritual sounds religious; presence doesn’t feel exciting and modern enough. But like the old saying, boring is successful. I find this business rule perfectly fitting for the modern-day relationship crisis. What this market must cater to is to create an environment of daily celebration. Therapists say so, gratitude masters say so, spiritual gurus say so, but that is not enough.

Ourthird-worldd countries need the market to validate it. Every morning must be celebrated, and every evening must be lit with gratitude and moments of true undivided presence. The money, the villa, the palace, the car, or the so-called ‘exclusive clubs’ fail miserably when it comes to offering support to a falling relationship. It is always the constant, conscious effort of the two individuals to make the effort. Dr John Gottman’s four-decade study on couples presents the same picture. He calls ‘small moments of turning toward’ each other as the single most predictive factor of relationship longevity. He advocates that a long-lasting happy relationship doesn’t require grand gestures, nor does it demand an expensive holiday. All that matters is a small, repeated act of acknowledgement.

Daily celebration: India’s next big market

I can’t conclude yet. But I strongly believe that the market has the capacity to bring about any change in society. Society is ready; the time is ripe. We only need to push the idea of daily celebration within it, and validation will automatically follow. This will not diminish the importance of ‘occasions’; rather, it will create a larger market opportunity for every stakeholder. The category can be easily addressed as Ritual Gifting. On the other hand, it will help make a better society.

Relationships of parents and children, couples and our with self need an anchor, and we all need it now. That is a felt need, not a triggered need. It takes longer to activate. It converts at lower rates on impulse channels. But when it converts, the customers are the most loyal, most evangelising customers a brand can have, because they bought something that matters to them. The Blue Ocean India’s urban couples, aged 28-42, dual-income, educated, emotionally self-aware yet drained, are underserved by every gifting brand. They want to move beyond flowers and chocolates. They just do not find anything that speaks to their pain points and problems.

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