Gumtree’s Unwanted Gifts Report

 

• 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%).