2025
9
UK Gift Purchasing Journey Consumer Report 2025
2025-10-02T10:01:48+00:00
REP8A542EA4_B9F4_4E55_B910_011F856E9A84
2195
187305
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Report
en_GB
The gifting market sees strong engagement, with 84% of consumers making a gift purchase in the past year. Younger consumers, those aged 16-34, are a driving force behind this engagement.
UK
Retail
simple

UK Gift Purchasing Journey Consumer Report 2025

Shoppers want affordable, meaningful gifts – and digital tools to help them find the right balance. Retailers who implement AI-powered gifting tools are better equipped to address these complex needs.

Emily Viberg, Retail analyst

Emily Viberg, Retail analyst

UK Gifting Market – Trends and Insights

  • The UK gifting market sees strong engagement, with 84% of consumers making a gift purchase in the past year. Younger consumers, those aged 16-34, are a driving force behind this engagement. They eagerly adopt digital tools, embrace personalisation and explore emerging trends – pushing the sector to innovate and adapt to evolving preferences.
  • Birthdays remain the top occasion for gift giving, driving consistent demand across the sector. While seasonal events and other special occasions fuel ongoing growth, highlighting the market’s resilience.
  • Seasonal event gifting has grown increasingly competitive, with a heavy reliance on key holidays creating significant operational pressures during peak periods as retailers compete for consumer spend. By diversifying into smaller, alternative seasonal events, retailers can ease this pressure, protect margins and drive growth – especially with events that require minimal adjustments to their product offerings.
  • Modern gifting needs require a personalised, streamlined shopping experience – that remains both cost-effective and affordable. As gift buyers’ expectations grow more complex, the opportunity to leverage technology becomes increasingly significant. By harnessing advanced tools, retailers and brands can deliver highly tailored gift recommendations that better align with evolving gifting needs.

This Report Looks at the Following Areas:

  • An overview of the key gifting occasions, the most popular product categories and the key demographics driving gifting trends.
  • A look at the opportunities for retailers and brands that successfully leverage AI-powered gifting tools, and how to do so.
  • Why looking towards smaller and alternative calendar events will help grow the competitive gifting market.
  • An in-depth look at the importance of personalisation, further fuelled by AI technology, in the gift purchasing journey.
  • Analysis of the methods gift buyers use to buy gifts, and where retailers need to step up.
  • Exploring future tools to simplify gift shopping, and why AI technology is the best solution.
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  1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

    • What you need to know
    • Outlook for the UK gifting sector
    • Opportunities
    • Turn gift buyers into self-treaters with promotions
    • Tap into smaller calendar events for fresh gifting opportunities…
    • Leverage AI to meet increasingly complex gifting needs
  2. THE MARKET

    • Gifting offers must cater to polarised confidence
    • Graph 1: British household financial confidence, 2020-25
    • Continued spending on seasonal events fuel wider gifting growth
    • Graph 2: estimated consumer spending on seasonal events, 2023/24-2024/25
    • Seasonal events are critical to specialist gifting sectors
    • Graph 3: number of customers, 2024-25
    • Broader market factors impact more niche gifting occasions
    • Chocolate and confectionery categories face sticky inflation
    • Graph 4: CPI, 2025
    • Celebrate diverse household structures
    • Changing ethnic demographics create new gifting opportunities
    • Encourage singles to embrace self-care through self-gifting
    • Graph 5: single status, by age, 2025
  3. THE CONSUMER

    • Gifting purchasing occasions and products purchased as gifts
    • Birthday and seasonal holidays top gifting occasions
    • 16-34s lead life event gifting as they celebrate key milestones
    • Graph 6: gifting occasion, by age, 2025
    • Learn from Kazoom’s creative packaging
    • Gift buyers are selective about which occasions they buy for
    • Graph 7: repertoire of gifting occasions, 2025
    • Children top crowded gifting lists
    • Graph 8: gift purchasing recipients in the last 12 months, 2025
    • Clear gender split across gifting categories
    • Graph 9: products purchased as gifts, by gender, 2025
    • Cost-conscious gift shopping behaviours
    • Gift buyers are cost-conscious and savvy
    • Cost pressures heightened for those struggling financially
    • Pressure to buy the right gift can increase impulse buying
    • Graph 10: ‘The pressure to get the right gift often makes me spend more than I intended’, by age, 2025
    • Celebrating milestones for others is a great chance to celebrate your own
    • Personalisation in the gift purchasing journey
    • Gift buyers take a personalised approach to gift buying
    • Pick and mix formats help gifters maximise budgets across multiple recipients
    • Personalised gifting is popular across key life events
    • Graph 11: ‘I purchased a personalised gift’, by gifting occasion, 2025
    • Retailers must tackle concerns over AI driven gifting tools
    • 16-34s lead concerns over AI gifting tools
    • Graph 12: concerns when using AI gifting tools, by age, 2025
    • Streamlining the gift purchasing journey
    • Gift shoppers are resourceful when looking for the right gift
    • Graph 13: top five methods gift buyers use to help decide on a gift to purchase, 2025
    • 16-34s draw on multiple  sources to help them select the right gift
    • Graph 14: repertoire of sources used to find the right gift, by age group, 2025
    • Gift buyers look for ways to automate gifting
    • The need for gift tracking is high when buying gifts for milestone occasions
    • Graph 15: ‘I would be interested in using a tool that tracks what gifts I have given to people in the past’, by gifting occasions, 2025
  4. RETAILER ACTIVITY

    • Advertising spend across calendar events
    • Graph 16: above the line advertising spend by all retailers acropss calandar events, 2024
    • Tap into positive sentiments around Eid
    • Second-hand gifting set to grow
    • Delivery services expand gifting offers
    • The Perfume Shop brings digital innovation in-store with new app launch
    • indu teams up with SoPost for peer-powered gifting
    • Grocers expand wedding offers
    • Pick and mix formats help gifters maximise budgets across multiple recipients
  5. APPENDIX

    • The market
    • Changes in family structures
    • Number of single-person households increases
    • Graph 17: number of single-person households, 1996-2024
    • The consumer
    • Consumer research questions
    • Consumer research methodology
    • Other data source methodologies
    • Snoop SpendMapper methodology
    • Infegy Starscape coverage
    • Nielsen Ad Intel coverage
    • Abbreviations
    • Abbreviations and terms

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