Mass Production vs. Personalized Customization: The Consumption Upgrade Battle of the Gift Economy

Mass Production vs. Personalized Customization: The Consumption Upgrade Battle of the Gift Economy

While Walmart’s shelves are stacked with uniformly packaged Christmas gifts, a pair of engineers in Silicon Valley are ordering a sterling silver bracelet engraved with their baby’s footprints on Etsy. This quiet consumer revolution is redefining the essence of gifting—from the industrial era’s “standardized delivery” to the digital age’s “emotional encoding engineering.” Part I: Cracks…