“Gift guide for the coolest girl you know.” “Gift guide for the niche luxury chic girl.” “Gift guide for the guy that has everything.” “Gift guide for your whimsical friend.” “The only gift guide you’ll ever need.” By now, your TikTok FYP has probably been flooded by gift recommendations, and that’s before heading to Instagram to see what retailers and publishers are suggesting, or your inbox to read the guides authored by your favourite Substackers.
Gift guides have long been a holiday season staple, but as short-form social content continues its reign, they’re ballooning far beyond traditional media. Algorithms increasingly shape how people shop — serving hyper-specific micro-personas and niche lifestyle archetypes — and gifting content has followed suit. The act of choosing a gift has been reinterpreted as a commodified personality-matching exercise. In creator marketing company Fohr’s recent survey of over 500 creators, 93% said they plan to put together a gift guide this year.
When I asked people on Instagram about their perceptions of gift guides, responses were mixed. Some said they love these guides and often find ideas they haven’t seen elsewhere. Others were more skeptical. “Gift guides are too much and often too commercial,” student Sarah Arsalan tells me. “I tend to look at them and play ‘spot the advert’ that warranted or forced them to do the gift guide in the first place,” adds consultant and content creator Scott Staniland.
While Substack is a growing platform for gifting advice, it has also provided an outlet for skepticism. In September, “Shop Rat” Substack author Emilia Petrarca hosted a shopping summit that included a session titled “Have we reached peak gift guide?”. Rachel Tashjian, who writes invite-only newsletter “Opulent Tips”, quipped in a Substack post: “So many gift guides, so few gifts given!” Meanwhile, Emily Sundberg, author of “Feed Me”, wrote: “How many hours of your one precious holiday season per year do you want to spend pattern-matching objects to people in your life?”
This backlash is unfolding against a backdrop of weakened consumer confidence. In the US, sentiment is down almost 30% year-on-year, nearing the lowest level on record, according to a survey from the University of Michigan. There’s a risk of overwhelming the consumer with product-heavy content, especially as their wallets tighten.
Against a softer consumer backdrop, shoppers are looking for more personalisation and emotional connection from gift guides.Photo: Courtesy of The Go-To
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