Instamart data shows chocolates, cakes and wellness gifts led Mother's Day orders
By 8-9 PM, Mother’s Day carts were loading up with chocolates, ice cream cakes and wellness add-ons like massagers and sleep gummies.
The biggest Mother’s Day panic buys were not generic at all. Instamart’s orders showed shoppers reaching for chocolates and ice cream cakes first, then padding the basket with care-first extras like massagers, sleep gummies, premium perfumes and candles.
Chocolate was the anchor of the holiday rush. It appeared in 15 of the top 20 most-ordered gifting items, while ice cream cakes rose 69% and bouquets nearly doubled, up 97%. The busiest gifting window landed between 8 and 9 PM, a clear sign that plenty of people waited until the evening to pull together a present that still felt thoughtful. The biggest carts clustered around 5,500, a sweet spot that says a lot about how last-minute gifting works now: one part treat, one part polish, and just enough budget to make it feel intentional.
The fastest-growing add-ons leaned heavily into self-care. Massagers jumped 136%, premium perfumes rose 134% and beauty gift packs climbed 77%. Candles, diffusers and décor were up 34%, a smaller move than the wellness items but still enough to show that shoppers were buying mood, not just merchandise. Chocolates and flowers remained the most universal gifts across major cities, but the basket had clearly widened beyond the classic “grab a box and go” formula.
City by city, the pattern looked local but familiar. Bangalore led India’s Mother’s Day gifting, followed by Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Delhi. Flowers peaked in the morning, cakes in the evening, and the mix of orders showed how quick-commerce gifting had become a national habit rather than a one-city quirk.
The scale of the demand had already been visible in 2024, when Swiggy Instamart said chocolate orders hit 143 a minute and Mother’s Day volumes surpassed New Year’s Eve, Valentine’s Day and Holi. Orders for flowers and chocolates began the day before and surged on Saturday evening, while plants ran 7.7 times higher than a usual Sunday, jewellery climbed 11.4 times versus the previous week, and handbags, perfumes and watches jumped 141%. The message from both years was the same: last-minute Mother’s Day shopping was no longer about scrambling for anything available. It had become a fast, feel-good ritual built around sweets, fragrance and self-care.
This article was produced by Prism’s automated news system from verified source data, official records, and press releases, then run through automated quality and moderation checks before publishing. The system is built and supervised by the people who set the standards it runs under. Read our full AI policy.
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