Survey: What do people regift and self-gift the most?

With the holiday season approaching, kids are creating their wishlists, adults are attending ugly sweater and gift exchanging is taking place. When it comes to gifts, it can be tricky to know what to buy, especially for a coworker or a friend.

While it’s always a treat to receive presents, sometimes a gift doesn’t suit your taste. We surveyed 1,000 people to find out what gifts people prefer to buy for themselves and they’re likely to regift. Be sure to keep these things in mind when you’re buying your Christmas presents this year!

Be careful when gifting clothing and accessories

41% of participants said they’re likely to self-gift clothing and accessories, and 31% admitted to self-gifting electronics. It makes sense that people want to buy themselves clothing, since they know their style best! When gifting clothing or accessories, make sure you’re close to the recipient and really understand their fashion sense.

Our results also found that men are a lot more likely to self-gift electronics over all other gifts. This correlates with a past survey Gifts.com conducted, where 95% of men chose electronics as their favorite gifts. For women, half of all women surveyed prefer to self-gift clothing and accessories.

People appreciate electronics and appliances most

People tend to regift houseware items, and are least likely to regift appliances. According to a previous Gifts survey question on why people typically dislike gifts, the number one answer at 36% was they have no use for it. Therefore, people are most likely to keep appliances as they are useful gifts. Though people are commonly self-gift electronics, they also enjoy receiving them and are unlikely to regift them.

Your coworkers and friends may be regifting to you

When it came to regifting, the majority of people stated they would most likely regift to a coworker. It’s natural to not want to regift to the people that you are closest to, like family members, with parents at the bottom of the regift list.

However, people are more likely to donate than regift

If you couldn’t return a gift, what would you do? Though the responses were pretty split, most people (31%) said they would donate rather than regift or keep a gift they don’t like. The holiday season is a season for giving, with donations increasing immensely during this time. USA Today states that about 34% of all charitable giving is done in the last three months of the year.

Almost 50% of people hold onto the gift, but for different reasons. Over half are keeping the gift as to not offend the gifter, but 20% make practical use for each gift received.

Females are more likely to donate a gift they don’t like, 6% more than men. The WPI’s 2010 Women Give Study says that American households headed by single females give 57% more than those headed by single males. That’s a lot of giving ladies!

Fun Facts:

• 30% of purchases over the Thanksgiving holiday are attributed to self-gifting.
• The National Retail Federation claims we will spend just under $127 of our holiday spending on ourselves.
• National Retail Federation study also notes more than three-quarters of the shoppers who went shopping Thanksgiving weekend picked up “non-gift items” for themselves or others in their household.
• Self-gifting is becoming an integral part of the Christmas shopping experience according to this.

When getting a gift during the holiday season that you are not fond of, there are many different ways to put the gift to good use. As for self gifting, according to our research, we are more generous than ever! Remember to treat yourself to something nice as you take on the chaos of the holiday season.

Sources: Credit Donkey | Time | Mashable | Jezebel | USA Today | Indiana University