September 12, 2022

CHINA GIFTING CONSUMPTION TREND INSIGHT 2022: FUTURE GIFTING TREND OF GENERATION XYZ

China people have a habit of giving gifts to make friendly contacts, especially when visiting relatives and friends who have been away for a long time, willingness to choose souvenirs as gifts. But as the demographic change, Gen XYZ, the most influential generation in consumption, has different trends in consumption and gift-giving.

Who is Gene XYZ?

“Gen X” refers to those born in the mid-1965s to the late 1980s; “Gen Y” refers to those born from the 1980s to the 1995s; and “Gen Z” refers to those born from the 1995s to the 2010s.

Recently, Leadleo Research Institute conducted a survey on “The Future Gifting Trend of XYZ Generation” to observe their overall consumer industry trends.

2022 Holiday Gifting Overview for Generation XYZ

According to the report, in terms of the purpose of gift-giving, 65% of Gen Y and 59% of Gen Z hope to improve their relationship through gifts, while 69% of Gen X hope to achieve their purpose through gifts.

What about the gift-giving trends in Gen XYZ?

Trend 1: Experiential gifts become the first choice for Gen Z gifts

The current phenomenon of high homogeneity in the gift market has led to a decline in the experience of gift recipients and gift-givers. Gen Z believes that the high experience and customized experience brought by experiential gifts will be more attractive than homogeneous gifts, so they will give priority to experiential gifts (such as play, courses, travel, etc.). In contrast, in Gen X and Gen Y, taking into account factors such as the understanding of the recipient’s preferences and social distance, the gifts given to customers are mostly gifts (such as cigarettes, wine, tea, snacks, etc.), and gifts given to children are mostly gifts as an experiential gift.

Trend 2: Home-related gifts have become the mainstream gift-giving

The changes in life and work scenarios affected by the epidemic have led to a gradual increase in the importance of each generation to the home scene, and various electronic products, pets, and lifestyle gifts have become the mainstream of gift-giving. According to the report, gender classification can be seen in gift-giving differences. For example, women pay more attention to the concept of health and beauty in gifts, while men give gifts through high-priced tobacco, alcohol or tea.

Trend 3: Gen X favours in health-care-related gifts, Gene Y and Z favours in healing-gifts

Gen X will pay more attention to health as they grow older, so gift-givers will choose products related to health categories; due to high workload and the trend of younger stress, gift-givers are guided to pay more attention to healing and relaxation when choosing gifts for Gen Y and Z. Given the trend of gift-giving, it can be seen that the same age gift-givers of Gen Y and Z are more likely to determine and understand the preferences of the recipients, and in general gifts and experiential gifts are decided through their own preferences and suggestions from friends. As Gen X focuses on wellness, 31% and 17% of Gen X gift-givers choose electronics and health supplements as gifts, while 15% choose outdoor activities as experiential gifts.

Trend 4: Customized gifts capture a non-conformist attitude

Research and statistics show, gift givers’ ranking of gift consumption and purchase factors are brand, product, service, price and channel, among which brand and product are the decisive factors for gift giving for each generation.

Although brands and products are the decisive factors for gift-givers to purchase products, Gen Z is more receptive to emerging ideas, determining the gifts through social media product longing and personal preferences and paying more attention to customization in gift-giving, and does not care about brands.

Trend 5: With the greatest intention, the price of gifts can exceed the affordable range

The research shows that although the price is a secondary factor in the consideration of gifts, gift-givers usually refer to the price of the other party’s gift before giving gifts, most gift-givers give gifts in the range of 500 to 1000 yuan, and the price of gifts grows with disposable income. Most Gen X choose the price of gifts based on their level of intimacy with the gift receiver. 80% of Gen X value their greatest intention, thinking that preparing gifts themselves is more able to express their goodwill, thus they are not interested in one-stop services.

Trend 6: Gen Y and Z tend to diversify gift-giving styles

According to the research, 76% of Gen X who prefer preparing gifts themselves are giving gifts for certain purposes, and 78% of Gen Y who prefer one-stop services are for the purpose of giving gifts to increase their affection, gift-giving purpose becomes the main factor in determining the choice of gift-giving styles.

Trend 7: Gift-giving pays more attention to uniqueness and novelty

At present, thanks to the rapid development of big data on various platforms, consumers are more likely to be “longing” via the internet. Therefore, uniqueness and novelty are the decisive factors in deciding whether to buy experiential gifts. Most gift-givers are not sensitive to the price of experiential gifts. As the demand for experiential gifts increases, more unique experiential gifts will be developed.

Trend 8: Social distance determines gift-receiving tendency

The strong functionality of experiential gifts makes the recipients tend to receive experiential gifts, while some recipients prefer to receive gifts in consideration of factors such as social distance and reciprocity. In human society, the recipients of gifts in different scenarios will have different considerations, but in any scenario, the meaning of the gift itself is higher than the value of the gift. 57% of Gen Ys prefer experiential gifts, while 100% of Gen X prefer receiving physical gifts to preserve memory.

Different generations, different ways of giving gifts. Over time, future gift-giving trends may also differ from today.

Contact us to download the full report!