{"id":714995,"date":"2025-11-20T08:56:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T05:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=714995"},"modified":"2025-11-20T08:56:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T05:56:10","slug":"are-gift-guides-going-out-of-style","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=714995","title":{"rendered":"Are Gift Guides Going Out of Style?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Consumer Behavior<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Are Gift Guides Going Out of Style?<\/h1>\n
By <\/span>Maliha Shoaib<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

November 20, 2025<\/p>\n

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    A model at the premiere of Confessions of a Shopaholic<\/em> in London.<\/span>Photo: Jon Furniss\/WireImage<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<\/div>\n
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    \u201cGift guide for the coolest girl you know.\u201d \u201cGift guide for the niche luxury chic girl.\u201d \u201cGift guide for the guy that has everything.\u201d \u201cGift guide for your whimsical friend.\u201d \u201cThe only gift guide you\u2019ll ever need.\u201d By now, your TikTok FYP has probably been flooded by gift recommendations, and that\u2019s before heading to Instagram to see what retailers and publishers are suggesting, or your inbox to read the guides authored by your favourite Substackers.<\/p>\n

    Gift guides have long been a holiday season staple, but as short-form social content continues its reign, they\u2019re ballooning far beyond traditional media. Algorithms increasingly shape how people shop \u2014 serving hyper-specific micro-personas and niche lifestyle archetypes \u2014 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\u2019s recent survey of over 500 creators, 93% said they plan to put together a gift guide this year.<\/p>\n

    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\u2019t seen elsewhere. Others were more skeptical. \u201cGift guides are too much and often too commercial,\u201d student Sarah Arsalan tells me. \u201cI tend to look at them and play \u2018spot the advert\u2019 that warranted or forced them to do the gift guide in the first place,\u201d adds consultant and content creator Scott Staniland.<\/p>\n

    While Substack is a growing platform for gifting advice, it has also provided an outlet for skepticism. In September, \u201cShop Rat\u201d Substack author Emilia Petrarca hosted a shopping summit that included a session titled \u201cHave we reached peak gift guide?\u201d. Rachel Tashjian, who writes invite-only newsletter \u201cOpulent Tips\u201d, quipped in a Substack post: \u201cSo many gift guides, so few gifts given!\u201d Meanwhile, Emily Sundberg, author of \u201cFeed Me\u201d, wrote: \u201cHow many hours of your one precious holiday season per year do you want to spend pattern-matching objects to people in your life?\u201d<\/p>\n

    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\u2019s a risk of overwhelming the consumer with product-heavy content, especially as their wallets tighten.<\/p>\n

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    Against a softer consumer backdrop, shoppers are looking for more personalisation and emotional connection from gift guides.<\/span>Photo: Courtesy of The Go-To<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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    Brand and communications consultant Chinazo Ufodiama says that at the luxury end, gift guides are \u201camong the most competitive yet least effective forms of product placement\u201d, and tend to bring more value in terms of visibility than conversion. \u201cHaving successfully placed products at varying price points within Christmas gift guides, it\u2019s actually quite rare for these placements to generate commercial returns, particularly when compared with everyday trend or style-led product stories,\u201d she says. \u201cGift guides often fall on the side of generic, feeling more like an SEO play.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Experts say the winners will be those who stand out with the human touch, offering specificity and emotional connection.<\/p>\n

    How to get it right<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    Niche and emotive gifting is what the consumers I spoke to are looking for. \u201cI feel like I need super specific gift guides, like \u2018What to get for your friend of two years who\u2019s into fashion and art that\u2019s not useless and actually will be used by them,\u2019\u201d jokes Arsalan. She adds that she\u2019s more likely to trust a gift guide if the person who is making the recommendation \u2014 via TikTok, a newsletter or otherwise \u2014 has expertise or interest in the gift category they\u2019re recommending.<\/p>\n

    This element of trusted curation is essential. While the overall ecosystem is becoming oversaturated, the guides that perform are the ones anchored in personality. \u201cShoppers aren\u2019t browsing for gifts the way they used to. They\u2019re starting their searches with the people whose taste they already trust, and those creators will continue to become more niche and trusted,\u201d says Tiffany Lopinsky, co-founder and president of affiliate and influencer marketing platform ShopMy. \u201cInstead of wading through endless lists, they\u2019re relying on creators, editors and stylists who feel like an extension of their inner circle, and are doing that earlier and more often than we\u2019ve seen in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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    Despite some of the fatigue, ShopMy\u2019s data suggests that gross merchandise value (GMV) from gift guides is up 90% compared to last year, aided by strong connections between the creator and their audience, as well as better feedback loops. \u201cBecause curators are starting earlier, their audiences are actively informing their gift guides for the rest of the season, so I anticipate we\u2019ll see more of this dynamic emerge, almost like having a personal shopper,\u201d says Lopinsky. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen brands spending more, pulling budgets from other marketing spend and starting earlier, so the connection between brands and creators is working better than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Online shopping platform Collagerie says it tends to see a 60% uplift in sales during the Q4 gifting period versus Q3. Its approach to gifting content spans \u201cthe unusual, the beautiful, the meaningful and the necessary, and this is across all price-points\u201d, says co-founder Serena Hood, who co-founded the company with fellow former British Vogue<\/em> editor Lucinda Chambers in 2019. Collagerie\u2019s gift guides are tightly edited, prioritizing curation over volume, and relying on the founders\u2019 editorial eye and taste-led recommendations. \u201cTrust and authenticity is reflected front and foremost throughout our gift guides,\u201d says Hood.<\/p>\n

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    Collagerie gift guide.<\/span>Photo: Courtesy of Collagerie<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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    With more consumers looking to ChatGPT for quick gift suggestions, sorted by budget, personality type or aesthetic, gift guides need to come with a sense of intimacy. The task for curators is to convince readers not<\/em> to outsource gifting to AI, by signaling the value of a human-led guide informed by taste, culture, discernment and emotional connection. As consumers grow increasingly skeptical of generic roundups, they\u2019re also looking for transparency around value: products that a curator has actually tried, owns or genuinely recommends, rather than a list of affiliate-friendly products.<\/p>\n

    During times of softer consumer sentiment, Victoire Tardy-Joubert, founder of gifting marketplace The Go-To, has seen personalized gifts perform particularly well, as they offer something unique without breaking the bank. The Go-To offers advanced filtering tools, as well as a bespoke gifting concierge. \u201c[With the gift concierge], we basically put together a gift guide for an individual person \u2014 it\u2019s a visual edit of what that you could get for them,\u201d says Tardy-Joubert, who founded the company in 2022 after gaining a reputation at luxury retailer Matches, where she worked in customer relations, for creating a spreadsheet of unique gifts passed between employees.<\/p>\n

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    A bespoke visual edit from The Go-To’s gift concierge.<\/span>Photo: Courtesy of The Go-To<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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    New platform A List, which is still in beta mode, was born from founder Aida Vrazalica\u2019s gifting frustrations. \u201cWhat people keep telling me is: \u2018I don\u2019t need more recommendations, I need clarity on what I actually want and what my peers want,\u2019\u201d says Vrazalica. A List allows users to create gift wish lists and registries. \u201cInstead of being told what to want, users identify their own aesthetics, needs and long-term desires, creating a personal, intentional and sustainable guide for gifting, shopping and everyday decision-making. It removes the emotional labor of gift-finding and the guesswork of gifting.\u201d<\/p>\n

    There are opportunities for the scope of gift guides to expand. In the luxury market, there\u2019s been a shift toward consumers preferring to spend money on experiences over products. With that in mind, creators could explore opportunities to share gift guides that include dining experiences, workshops, concert tickets or personalized services. With sustainability concerns rising and consumers increasingly wary of overconsumption, a pivot to experiential gifting could resonate with these values. Gifting recommendations could broaden to clothing customization or repair workshops, or brands could tap in by presenting experiential gifting opportunities for creators or publishers to include in gift guides, in conjunction with typical product placements.<\/p>\n

    We may have reached peak gift guide, but it\u2019s not the end of the format. The next phase will be defined by curation, trust and emotion \u2014 standing out as unmistakably human in a sea of algorithmic recommendations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

    Source URL: http:\/\/vogue.com\/article\/are-gift-guides-going-out-of-style<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Consumer Behavior Are Gift Guides Going Out of Style? By Maliha Shoaib November 20, 2025 A model at the premiere of Confessions of a Shopaholic in London.Photo: Jon Furniss\/WireImage \u201cGift guide for the coolest girl you know.\u201d \u201cGift guide for the niche luxury chic girl.\u201d \u201cGift guide for the guy that has everything.\u201d \u201cGift guide […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":714996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[50],"class_list":["post-714995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-vogue-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=714995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/714996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=714995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=714995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=714995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}