The UK personalised gift market is predicted to reach £1 billion over the next 12 months, according to a European study of consumers from Roland DG.
The research found that UK shoppers are set to spend over £750 million on personalised gifts over the coming festive season, with buyers of personalised gifts expected to spend more than £40 each on unique gifts.
According to the survey, the average UK shopper is prepared to spend an extra 7% on gifts that have an element of personalisation, such as adding a name, personal message or image, with one of the most popular categories of personalised gift being clothing and babywear (24%).
The number one driving force behind purchasing personalised gifts was found to be that shoppers consider them more thoughtful (21% of respondents), closely followed by the fact that they are unique and can’t be bought straight-off-the-shelf (20%).
Online retailers, such as NotOnTheHighstreet and Etsy, were the most popular places to buy personalised gifts amongst the respondents (24%), while high street businesses with in-store personalisation offers were also popular amongst those surveyed (8%).
In the research, younger shoppers were also found to be far more willing to spend more on personalised gifts than their older counterparts – on average, the 18-34 year olds surveyed were willing to fork out an extra £30 compared to shoppers over 55 years old over the next 12 months.
Stephen Davis, EMEA marketing director at Roland DG UK, commented: “These might be turbulent times, but the British public does not intend to let the pandemic interfere with their appetite for personalised gifts.
“Our desire to treat each other in difficult times may well be a factor in the huge projected spend over the festive period. But make no mistake: the market for gift personalisation is vast, and only set to grow as it becomes easier and faster to source gifts with that personal touch.
“It represents a lucrative source of revenue for manufacturers and retailers.”
Conducted by Censuswide in November 2020, the online poll surveyed 5,014 18+ years old consumers across Europe, including 1,000 respondents from the UK — all statistics mentioned are based on UK respondents.
