Finding the perfect gift can be a tough challenge. With countless blogs, articles, and online groups dedicated to helping people find the ideal gift, it’s clear that many individuals are in need of guidance when it comes to choosing the perfect present. But what do people actually think are good gift ideas? To shed some light on this, we, at The Gift Bot, conducted our own study by analysing the last six months’ worth of threads on the r/GiftIdeas subreddit – the largest gift idea-related community on Reddit. Our goal was to determine what people genuinely considered to be good gift ideas and whether different types of recipients responded better to different types of gifts. In this blog post, we will break down all the key results for you, so you can have a better idea of the trending gift ideas for your intended recipient.

If you are not sure what gift to get, we are always happy to help with our free gift suggestion service. Check out our article covering the service in detail to find out more!

Summary Infographic

If you prefer to take information in using more visual media, you might like the infographic on this statistical study we prepared!

Methods

Before we delve into the results, let’s take a moment to understand the methods and categories we used for our analysis. To conduct our study, we analysed over 930 threads and almost 5500 qualifying gift suggestions from the r/GiftIdeas subreddit over the past six months. This subreddit serves as a platform where users can post threads seeking gift ideas, and other members of the community provide suggestions in the comments. It’s an excellent resource for exploring popular and appreciated gift ideas. In order to conduct a sensible analysis, we created key categories for both gift recipients and gift types.

For gift recipients, we identified the following categories:

1. Partner_Relationship: This category includes recipients involved in romantic relationships, such as partners, husbands, wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, etc.
2. Relatives: This category encompasses recipients who are family members, including mothers, fathers, siblings, cousins, etc. Please note that spouses are not included in this category, as they fall under the Partner_Relationship category.
3. Work Related: This category includes recipients who have a work relationship with the requestor, such as bosses, employees, co-workers, etc.
4. Friend: This category covers recipients who are friends or buddies. It also includes cases where the requestor describes the intended gift recipient without specifying any relationship other than friendship.
5. Other: This category encompasses recipients who do not fall into the aforementioned categories. Examples include group gifts for students in a dorm or charitable gifts.

For gift types, we created the following categories:

1. Activity: This category includes experience-based gifts.
2. Bundle: This category comprises gifts that come as a bundle, such as hampers, baskets, starter packs, etc.
3. Cash Equivalents: This category covers gifts that involve cash, checks, or similar forms of monetary value.
4. Education: This category encompasses education-related gifts, such as online courses or how-to books.
5. Gift Cards: This category includes any type of gift card.
6. Subscription: This category covers subscription-related gifts, including physical products or services.
7. Other: This category includes gift types that do not fall into the aforementioned categories, which generally refers to physical, singular items.

Having established these categories, we analysed each thread and its corresponding comments to deduce which gift ideas had the most impact. To determine the impact, we utilised Reddit scores, among other metrics. The Reddit score is a sum of upvotes and downvotes, with each upvote contributing +1 and each downvote contributing -1 to the score. For example, if a comment has 10 upvotes and 9 downvotes, the score would be 1.

Results

Now, let’s move on to the results of our analysis, which shed light on the gift trends according to Reddit.

People overwhelmingly tend to suggest singular physical items for gifts

One of the key findings is that people overwhelmingly tend to suggest singular physical items as gifts. Regardless of the recipient group, the majority of suggestions revolved around singular items falling under the “Other” gift type category. The “Other” recipient group had the highest percentage of suggestions for physical items at 93.41%, followed by the Partner_Relationship group at 84.85%. Gift cards came in a distant second place as the most suggested gift type. They were often recommended for work-related recipients, with 12.02% of suggestions in this category involving gift cards. However, it’s important to note that while people commonly suggested singular, physical items, this doesn’t necessarily mean those suggestions were best received, as we will explain shortly.

Gift idea requestors strongly preferred gift suggestions involving bundles, subscriptions and activities

 

Interestingly, our analysis revealed that gift idea requestors strongly preferred gift suggestions involving bundles, subscriptions, and activities. To determine the quality of the gift suggestions, we looked at the percentage of suggestions for each gift type that received specific approval or expressions of gratitude from the original requestor in the comments. This is a strong indicator of the gift’s perceived value, as the requestor knows the intended recipient best and expressed their appreciation for the suggestion.

The top-performing gift category in terms of requestor approval was the bundle gift category, with an impressive 15.08% of suggestions receiving explicit approval. Bundles have the advantage of being highly customisable and tailor-made for the recipient, which likely contributes to their strong performance. Subscription-based gift suggestions came in second, with 13.51% of suggestions receiving specific approval. Subscriptions add an element of surprise and elevate otherwise ordinary gifts, which may explain their positive reception. Activity and experiential gifts ranked third, with 12.11% of suggestion comments receiving explicit approval. Activity gifts are a popular choice because they do not clutter the recipient’s space and instead create lasting memories.

As illustrated in the chart above, the top three gift categories mentioned significantly outperformed the remaining categories in terms of requestor approval, indicating that these are the types of gifts that were deemed truly worthy by the original gift idea requestors. However, we also wanted to examine the wider r/GiftIdeas community’s opinion on the suggestions and whether the approval of different gift ideas varied based on the type of intended gift recipient. Let’s explore these aspects further.

Get bundle gifts for your friends, relatives and your other half

When it comes to friends, relatives, and partners, the community’s top choice was the bundle gift. This is evident from the chart, which represents the ratio of Reddit scores to the count of suggestions for each gift type and recipient type. Higher numbers indicate a higher average approval from the Reddit community for a particular gift suggestion. Bundle gifts scored the highest for relationships, relatives, and friends, with average Reddit scores of 7.24, 7.05, and 6.03, respectively. This indicates that the community found bundle gifts to be a great choice for relationships that are deeply personal and require a customized approach.

For work related relationships, go with a gift card, or cash

However, for work-related relationships, gift cards and cash emerged as strong gift options. This aligns with the notion that you may not know your colleagues as well as you know your friends, and therefore, gift cards and cash provide the flexibility for recipients to choose their own gifts. Gift cards and cash scored well in this category, reflecting the practicality and versatility of these options. If you are considering gifting cash directly to a co-worker, it’s essential to do so in an appropriate manner, such as contributing to a leaving collection for the co-worker.

Conclusion

In conclusion, our analysis of gift trends according to Reddit has provided valuable insights into what people consider good gift ideas. Singular physical items were the most commonly suggested gifts, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they were the best-received suggestions. Bundle gifts, subscriptions, and activity gifts stood out as top performers, receiving specific approval from the original gift idea requestors. Bundles were particularly favoured for friends, relatives, and partners, whereas gift cards and cash were preferred for work-related relationships. By considering these trends and aligning them with your recipient’s preferences, you’ll be well-equipped to choose a trending and well-received gift. If you’re still unsure about what gift to go for, we encourage you to try our free gift suggestion service. Simply head over to our gift questionnaire to get started on finding the perfect gift for your intended recipient. Happy gifting!