90% of Consumers to Gift Graduates With Cash or Gift Cards, Finds NRF Survey
Thursday, 24 May 2007
Good things will come in small packages for millions of high school and college graduates this year. According to the National Retail Federation’s inaugural Graduation survey, conducted by BIGresearch, gift cards (31.3 percent) and cash (58.8 percent) will be the most popular graduation gifts.
Other graduation day gift favorites are apparel (9.1 percent) and electronics (11.5 percent). In addition to gifts, many consumers also plan to give a greeting card (35.7 percent).
According to the survey, one-third of Americans will purchase at least one graduation gift this year. The average consumer buying graduation gifts plans to give a gift to two graduates this year and will spend about $50 ($51.05) on each present.
The survey found that Americans will spend $4.5 billion on graduation gifts this year.
“For students heading off to college or moving out into the real world, cash and gift cards are the ideal graduation present,” said NRF President and CEO Tracy Mullin. “Retailers can expect to see a nice bump in sales later this summer as students redeem gift cards and make big purchases with graduation money.”
Parents and grandparents will spend the most on graduation gifts this year, with the average American over the age of 45 spending over $110 on gifts.
The NRF 2007 Graduation Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted for NRF by BIGresearch, was designed to gauge consumer behavior and shopping trends related to graduation. The poll of 8,353 consumers was conducted from May 2 – 9, 2007.