Gumtree’s Unwanted Gifts Report
- Written by: Gumtree
- More than half of Australians (53%) received at least one unwanted gift last Christmas.
- Of those who received unwanted gifts last Christmas, the estimated value of these unwanted gifts on average is $87, equating to $572 million in ‘unwanted’ Christmas spending across the nation.
- Australians reported receiving 19.3 million unwanted gifts last Christmas, which is up 8% year on year.
The most common Unwanted Gifts
- The most common unwanted gifts are clothes and accessories (20%), self-care items such as beauty products (15%) and household items such as furniture, décor or homewares (9%).
What we do with Unwanted Gifts
- One in three (34%) Australians re-gift their unwanted gifts to someone else.
- Over 2 million (13%) still throw unwanted gifts in the bin.
- Only 15% of Australians sell their unwanted gifts for cash
- Two in five (40%) people admit to still having their unwanted Christmas gifts lying around.
Selling Unwanted Gifts
- Savvy Australians who sold unwanted gifts last Christmas injected $322 million into the Australian economy from the sale of unwanted Christmas goods alone.
- For those that sell their unwanted gifts, half (49%) sell them in the new year, 13% sell them right away, 6% sell them on Boxing day and 19% sell them at some point in the holiday season.
Reasons for selling Unwanted Christmas Gifts
- For half (51%) of Australian adults, the main driver for selling is because they believe someone else can get more use from the item.
- Other Australians sell unwanted gifts to buy something else they would like (38%), to start the year with some extra cash (18%) or to fund a holiday (8%).
- Minimalism (28%) and embracing conscious living and environmental sustainability (23%) are also reasons why Aussies sell unwanted Christmas gifts.
Who is giving Unwanted Gifts and why?
- The main culprits for giving unwanted gifts are friends (31%), parents (21%) and work colleagues (21%).
- Of those who have given someone an unwanted gift, four in ten (42%) say it was because they did not know the recipient’s individual style or taste and one third said it was due to financial factors such as having a limited budget (33%).
