Fashion, home décor and beauty lead demand as Flipkart Minutes clocks 7X YoY growth amid last-minute gifting rush
Flipkart has released its latest #FlipTrends insights for Valentine’s Day 2026, revealing a sharp uptick in demand across categories as the occasion evolved into a week-long shopping event.
According to the ecommerce major, overall platform demand rose 1.42X between 7 and 12 February, with search queries increasing 1.26X and orders across popular gifting categories growing 1.41X. Fashion, home décor and beauty emerged as leading segments during the period.
From Thoughtful Gestures to Home-Led Celebrations
Valentine’s Week shopping reflected a shift towards personalised and experience-driven celebrations. Products such as showpieces, decorative lights and artificial flowers recorded 1.6X growth, indicating a stronger focus on home-led moments rather than large-scale outings.
As the week progressed, demand shifted towards cakes, pastries and mugs, signalling evolving purchase behaviour closer to the day itself. Cookies, biscuits, watches, stuffed toys and chocolates featured prominently among preferred gifting options.
Chocolates saw a 2X increase in sales, while baby pillows rose 21X, stuffed toys 15X, showpieces 14X, women’s fashion rings 14X, greeting cards 13X and curated Valentine gift sets 13X, underscoring strong traction for sentimental and playful products.
Quick Commerce Gains Ground
Flipkart Minutes, the company’s quick commerce arm, recorded 7X year-on-year growth between 7 and 14 February, reflecting rising demand for last-minute gifting. Order values peaked on 14 February between 9–10 am, with a second surge between 7–8 pm.
The in-app curated experience, ‘RelationShop’, allowed users to shop by relationship stage — from ‘situationship’ to ‘moving on’ — rather than by product category alone. The ‘talking phase’ emerged as the most shopped segment, driving purchases of earphones, late-night snacks, energy drinks, board and card games, and chocolates.
Gen Z and Regional Trends
Gen Z consumers embraced the occasion as an extension of self-expression, with Galentine’s Day on 13 February driving purchases of perfumes, greeting cards, rings and necklaces.
Geographically, metros such as Kolkata and Hyderabad, along with Tier 1-plus cities including Ranchi, Siliguri, Ludhiana and Dehradun, emerged as leading markets for Valentine’s Week demand on Flipkart Minutes.
With occasion-led retail becoming increasingly expressive and need-driven, Flipkart said it continues to expand assortment depth and delivery flexibility to meet shifting consumer expectations.
