Australians are buying fewer Christmas gifts this year, and opting for more useful and inclusive gifts. Here, too, ‘more sustainable’ gifts for the end of the year period are a growing trend, because things have reached their peak.
Massive gifts for charity
The majority of Australian consumers say they are buying more useful Christmas gifts this year, especially donations or purchases for charity. As many as 87 % of Australians plan to buy gifts supporting charities, such as the local fire brigade (46 %) or companies that are struggling with the extreme drought that is ravaging the country this year (44 %), is the conclusion of a study carried out by payment platform PayPal.
An even greater number, 91 %, of Australians under the age of 35 is convinced of the usefulness of ‘charitable’ gifts. In addition, 69 % prefer gifts that support goals that are close to their hearts. For example, 71 % prefer to receive local products, while 73 % prefer to give gifts that were made in their own country.
One hundred dollars less
Moreover, Australians are planning to spend less on end-of-year gifts: on average, they are expecting to spend 100 Australian dollars (62 euros) less than a year before. They also plan to buy an average of ten gifts this year, for a total value of 494 Australian dollars (305 euros).
One driver behind the shift is the extremely tough year that Australia’s rural areas have had, due to catastrophic drought and fires. A shift in mentality also contributes to the changes in purchasing behaviour, and the latter is happening worldwide: in Western Europe (including the Benelux) as well, there is a noticeable shift towards fewer, but more sustainable, gifts.
Dutch webshop Bol.com is surfing the waves and is launching a sustainable webshop just before the holidays, where the only products on offer have an independent sustainability label, originate from social entrepreneurs or or are second-hand. With this new section, Bol.com is aimed at the growing group that wants to receive or give responsible Christmas gifts.
Over the peak?
Already by 2016, 79 % of Belgians felt that the holiday period had become too commercial. 52 % of them said that they felt they were spending too much money during the holidays. From the outset, the success of second-hand gifts is growing every year: 2dehands.be had a quarter more visitors on the virtual shop floor in the run-up to the Christmas period.
Transformation consultant Jo Caudron pointed out the same trend at the RetailDetail Night last week, using terms such as “peak stuff economy”, a term coined by Ikea‘s sustainability leader, Steve Howard. “If we look on a global basis, in the west we have probably hit peak stuff. We talk about peak oil. I’d say we’ve hit peak red meat, peak sugar, peak stuff… peak home furnishings”, Howard told British newspaper The Guardian.
According to Ikea, and Caudron, this peak does not mean the end of growth, but rather it does mean momentum can switch to a different model – a model that puts more effort into sustainability, into services and into solutions, rather than into stuff. For example, the Scandinavian furniture chain invests heavily in the circular economy, smart home technology, and furniture rental.
Ever more new models that fit into ‘peak stuff economy’ are popping up: even fast-fashion giant H&M is setting up a rental and clothing repair service in its new stores. Will people give each other a clothing subscription as a gift next Christmas?
