South Africa’s gifting habits, 2026: What over 10 million orders reveal about how we as a nation, express emotion
What 25 years in the business of gifting taught NetFlorist co-founder and Managing Director Ryan Bacher about consumer behaviour
Behind every birthday bouquet, congratulations hamper, sympathy arrangement and late-night apology, there is a relationship, a milestone or a moment someone felt deserved to be acknowledged. These moments, says Ryan Bacher, co-founder and Managing Director of NetFlorist – South Africa’s oldest and largest online florist and gifting retailer, offer a window into how South Africans express love, gratitude, support and care.
“I’ve spoken so much about the world of ecommerce and the dot-com boom of the 90s and early 2000s, but after 25 years in this business, what’s far more interesting to me are all the things this business and industry has taught me about human behaviour and how people connect with one another,” says Bacher.
Since its founding in 1999, the company has facilitated over 10 million gifting occasions, each accompanied by a personalised message card. Those messages, drawn from the company’s order data from January to April 2026, point to five clear patterns in how South African consumer behaviour has evolved.
By the numbers
| 70% | of NetFlorist customers are women |
| 70,800+ | birthday message cards accompanied NetFlorist orders, January–April 2026 |
| 1 in 3 | orders qualified for same-day delivery, January–April 2026 |
| 1 in 5 | purchases were placed after 6pm, January–April 2026 |
| 5,200+ | orders were placed after 11pm, January–April 2026 |
Source: NetFlorist internal order and message-card data, January- April 2026.
Women remain the custodians of connection
Women’s Month offers an interesting lens through which to understand gifting behaviour. Despite the common assumption that men dominate gifting because they’re often thought to be the ones buying flowers for partners, NetFlorist’s data between January and April 2026 indicates around 70% of its customers are in fact women.
“Women are often the people remembering birthdays, organising celebrations, sending sympathy gifts and making sure important moments don’t go unnoticed,” he says. “They’re maintaining relationships every day. Behind many of life’s important moments is someone who remembered, planned and reached out, and our customer data shows that, more often than not, that someone is a woman.”
Personalisation has become the new thoughtfulness
One of the biggest behavioural shifts Bacher has observed over the past decade (2016-2026) is consumers’ growing desire to make every gift feel uniquely personal. “As consumers, we all want to own the experience,” he says. “When you personalise something, there isn’t another gift exactly like it. It becomes yours and that of the person you’re gifting, kind of like an expression of identity through expressions of love or gratitude.”
Recognising this shift, NetFlorist has continued expanding its personalisation offering beyond the message card, where customers can now customise everything from the design of their message card to engraved gifts, embroidered textiles and personalised ribbons, creating an experience that feels considered from the moment a gift is opened.
For today’s consumer, it’s often those thoughtful details that transform a gift from something expected into something memorable. “You can send someone a beautiful gown, or you can send them a beautiful gown with their name on it. It immediately becomes a much more special gift.”
Birthdays are a big deal
While calendar events (like Valentine’s Day and Christmas) remain pivotal in the gifting industry, NetFlorist’s data showed that birthdays are comfortably the country’s biggest gifting occasion, with more than 70,800 birthday message cards accompanying NetFlorist orders between January and April 2026 alone.
“Valentine’s Day remains another significant peak, but anniversaries, congratulations, new babies, get well soon wishes and sympathy messages also account for substantial gifting activity,” says Bacher.
“Momentous life events are more important to us than we may realise, and it shows that South Africans are a caring bunch, wanting to offer support or in difficult times and a pat on the back for a great achievement,” he adds.
Convenience hasn’t replaced care
Another trend emerging from the 2026 data challenges the assumption that convenience has made gifting less meaningful. With one in three orders delivered the same day, NetFlorist operates one of the country’s most extensive same-day delivery networks. One in five purchases were made after 6pm, while more than 5,200 orders were placed after 11pm.
It’s tempting to dismiss those purchases as procrastination or remembering someone’s birthday at the last minute, but Bacher sees something different. “People are busy, but they still want to show up for the people who matter to them,” he says. “Technology allows them to act on that thought, even if it’s late at night. So, rather than replacing thoughtfulness, convenience has made it easier to act on good intentions before the moment passes.”
The human need to connect
Across the hundreds of thousands of personalised messages that accompanied gifts during the first four months of 2026, recurring themes of love, gratitude, encouragement and celebration appear time and again, reinforcing that South Africans increasingly see gifting as a complete expression of emotion rather than simply the delivery of a product.
“They remind us that every gift represents a relationship,” he says. “People aren’t simply sending flowers or chocolates. They’re expressing appreciation, celebrating milestones, offering comfort or reminding someone they’re thinking about them. Even in a world that’s overwhelmingly digitally driven, meaningful human connection remains remarkably consistent.”
For Bacher, the biggest lesson from 25 years in business has very little to do with retail. Instead, it speaks to something fundamentally human.
“We’re not solitary beings. We need community, because human connection is, I think, the most reliable predictor of our wellbeing. We need community, generosity and connection, especially in a world where relationships are increasingly maintained through screens and busy schedules. So, to me, consumer behaviour isn’t driven by transactions alone. More often, it’s driven by a very human desire to make someone else feel seen,” he concludes.
About NetFlorist
NetFlorist is a South African online florist and gifting retailer, founded in 1999 by Ryan Bacher, Lawrence Brick and Jonathan Hackner. The company is headquartered in Waterfall, Gauteng, with three additional fulfilment warehouses in City Deep, Cape Town and Durban, enabling nationwide delivery of flowers, plants, gift hampers and personalised gifts across South Africa, including Johannesburg, Pretoria, East London and Port Elizabeth, with same-day delivery available in major metros, and international delivery to the UK, Australia and the USA. NetFlorist also offers corporate gifting solutions, including custom branded gifts and merchandise for businesses. More information is available at www.netflorist.co.za .
