Personalized gifts: it’s price for Gen Xers, uniqueness and durability for Gen Ys

(SANEPR.com) June 8, 2009 -- Sydney, Australia, June 8, 2009. A new survey on personalized gifts finds that retailers will have to create diffrerent messages to attract purchases from Gen Ys, Gen Xers and Baby Boomers as the economy has an impact on gift-buying practices.

The survey at http://www.itsinthestarsonline.com/verve/_resources/personalized-gifts-survey-findings.pdf created by Elizabeth Ball, director of astrology gift report website, It’s In The Stars at www.itsinthestarsonline.com, reveals fascinating buyer behaviour differences in purchasing customised gifts between the generational groups.

“Perhaps because they have the heaviest demands on their wallets, Generation X is most concerned about the price of personalized gifts (98.3%),” said Elizabeth Ball. “The one-of-a-kindness attribute of personalized gifts and their durability was most valued by Generation Ys (93.8% and 85.7%).”

“The Baby Boomers were far more concerned than the other two age groups about the perceived brand or prestige value of the personalized gifts (75.7%) as well as the number of personalization choices (66.7%) to customise them, “ said Elizabeth Ball.

Nearly nine in 10 people (88.5%) have bought at least one personalized gift in the last 12 months with 60.0% buying 2 or more in the past year.

“Perhaps because they have more disposable income and more people – parents, children, grandchildren and friends – to buy for, Baby Boomers are the biggest purchasers of personalized gifts with 46.1% buying four or more in the last year,” said Elizabeth Ball.

“Overall, 40% of personalized gifts are bought online. Generation X is most likely to buy from personalized gift websites (32.3%), boutique gift stores (24.6%), department stores (13.8%), and mall kiosks (5.2%), while Baby Boomers outnumber the others in preferring large gift websites (14.2%) and fairs/bazaars/markets (11.4%). Generation Y is the most likely to buy personalized gifts from chain stores (13.0%),” she said.

The most popular gift occasions to give personalized gifts are birthdays (27.9%), christenings (15.8%), new babies (12.8%), anniversaries (8.6%), Mothers Day (8.5%), Christmas (6.6%), Fathers Day (6.3%), weddings (5.2%), Valentines Day (4.4%) and engagements (4.0%).

“People give personalized gifts to those they know well. The highest numbers of personalized gifts are given to partners/spouses (63.1%), friends (43.8%), children (43.1%), parents (40.0%), and nieces/nephews (24.6%), “ said Elizabeth Ball.

The most popular types of personalized gifts include jewellery (18.5%), day of birth gifts (including astrology reports, newspaper front pages - 17.9%), art (usually involving photography of the recipient - 17.1%), books (10.7%) and home décor (9.6%).

“And if you’ve ever wondered whether you should add a gift wrapping service for your customers, over half (55.2%) would rarely or never use it because they buy their gifts in enough time to wrap them themselves or wouldn’t spend the extra money," siad Elizabeth Ball.

"However, Gen Ys a (31.1%) would always or often get their personalised gifts wrapped because they couldn’t “giftwrap to save themselves” or they had left it too late, “ she said.

It’s In The Stars at www.itsinthestarsonline.com creates beautifully presented hardcover personalized astrology gift reports for couples and parents for anniversaries, birthdays, christenings and other important gift occasions.