News

When it comes to gift returning, Gen Z is the leader

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September 23, 2019

A whopping 77% of consumers expect to return at least one gift this holiday season and Gen Z shoppers will be leading the pack.

Nearly 20% of those polled expect to return more than half of their presents, according to a survey, commissioned by Oracle Retail and conducted by Savanta, which polled 15,800 global consumers, a news release said. Of those polled, 32% will return gifts by mail and 65% via the physical store, according to a release on the study. The latter statistic bodes well for retailers as it presents another opportunity to engage customers and boost post-holiday sales, noted the release.

"Retailers need to seize the moment when shoppers return gifts. The traffic generated by holiday returns holds significant opportunity for retailers to build better customer profiles and generate new opportunities for engagement by personalizing the returns experience," said Jeff Warren, vice president of retail solutions management, Oracle Retail, in the release.

"Preparing for returns is a best practice, leveraging returns intelligence to inform product development and new customer acquisition strategies is next practice retail," he said.

According to the survey 75% will shop in-store and bring purchases home, compared to 55% who will shop online and ship to their home. Additional findings include:

• Generation X (ages 35-54) leads the way in shopping online and shipping to home at 57%. Generation Z and millennials demonstrated a stronger desire to pick up the gifts they ordered online in the store.
• Among consumers who choose to ship rather than shop in-store, millennials are sending 33% of purchases to locations other than their homes, with many instead shipping to work (18%) or to pickup lockers (15%).
• Baby boomers, who were the second most-likely generation to ship to their homes, were by far the least likely (13%) to use an alternate location for online purchases.