The most popular gift this holiday season will be the same as last year’s, according to a new study.
“For the 12th year in a row, gift cards are the most popular item on wish lists,” says the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Prosper Insights & Analytics in a survey.
Consumers will spend more than they did in 2017 to spread around a lot of ho, ho, ho, because times seem good, said NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay.
“Confidence is at an all-time high, unemployment is the lowest we’ve seen in decades and take-home wages are up,” he said. “All of this is reflected in consumers’ buying plans.”
NRF predicts that holiday spending will be up some 4 percent this year over 2017. Consumers, the NRF said in the survey, will spend an average of $1,007.24 during the holidays compared with the $967.13 they said they would spend last year. About two-thirds of that sum will be spent on gifts, NRF said.
This year, gift cards “were requested by 60 percent of those surveyed,” according to the survey. NRF interviewed some 7,300 adults in October about their holiday spending plans.
The biggest complaint about gift cards is that they are “impersonal,” the survey said. After gift cards, the most popular items were clothing, accessories, books, movies and music as well as electronics and home décor gifts.
Even though gift cards remain highly popular, there are some caveats about giving and receiving them, according to consumer advocates.
One is that gift cards can be a great deal for the seller, but not always for the buyer. In many cases, a buyer antes up $100 or more for a gift card, then the card is never used by the person receiving it.
“When you’re struggling to decide whether or not to give someone a gift card, be sure you give a gift card to someone who is going to use it, who likes that kind of gift,” says Bill Hardekopf, the founder of LowCards.com.