Graduates Want Cash And Electronics

By Christine Kern, contributing writer

Average graduation gift is $102.50 this year.

Good news for retailers: the average person buying graduation gifts this year is spending $102.50 per graduate and is shopping for approximately two graduate, according to NRF’s Graduation Spending Survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics. The study also found that overall spending on electronics, gift cards, apparel and other items will hit an all-time high at $4.77 billion.

The top gifts this year included cash, cards, gift cards, apparel, and electronics.

The survey found that more than half of gift-givers will present cash to help bulk up savings for new grads.  More than 40 percent plan to give a card, 13 percent choose gifts of apparel, and more than 10 percent choose to spend on electronics, up from 8 percent last year. 

There was also a distinction based on the age of the gift-giver, with adults 45-54 giving more money to graduates than other age groups, spending an average of $125.43.

Interestingly, the research also showed a decrease in the number of adults purchasing at least one graduation gift this year, compared to the two previous years.  This year, approximately 32 percent of adults reporting that they were planning to buy at least one graduation gift.

But while the number of gift-givers may have fallen, the number of recipients per gift-giver actually rose, from 1.88 in 2014 to 1.92 in 2015. 

Last year, the survey found that Americans were poised to spend $4.7 million on graduation gifts, with the average gift costing $97.79.

The 2015 results are available here.