The curse of the unwanted gift
Ahh, the curse of the unwanted gift. It’s something we’re all familiar with and — regardless of if you’re the giver or receiver — we can all empathise with the embarrassment and awkwardness that ensues. WhatWeWant was actually born from a particularly poorly-thought out Christmas present from one of our co-founders to his (then) girlfriend, but that’s a story for another time.
We wanted to dig a little deeper into this issue, so we did what any self-respecting tech company would do and conducted a survey. The results? 52% of people surveyed had received an unwanted gift in the last 12 months. A staggering 43% of people admitted to having a gift sitting in their house that they had received and never even taken out of its original packaging, and 55% of people admitted to feeling guilty about receiving gifts that they knew they would never use.
So — what gives? If we’re all receiving gifts we don’t want and then feeling bad about it, why are we sticking to the same tried and testing gifting routines? There must be another way. How do we give gifts that people actually want to receive?
Plan ahead
While it is tempting to leave all your Christmas shopping to 22nd December, planning is the key to giving good gifts. This not only will ensure that you can get a gift that someone will cherish, this also means you’re more likely to stay inside a budget, rather than panic buying something outside your budget!
Budget
Which leads us nicely onto our next point — how many of us are guilty of panic buying an expensive present to make up for a lack of thoughtfulness? Throwing money at a problem is not the solution, and as much as your loved ones enjoy receiving presents, it’s unlikely that they’d be happy with you going into debt for the sake of one. Buying something that is too expensive leaves both the giver and the receiver in an awkward situation, so create a budget and stick to it.
Find out what they want
It’s a familiar narrative in films: a character wants their partner to buy them a gift, so drops a series of elaborate hints, only for them to go completely unnoticed, leading to an uncomfortable birthday/Christmas morning. Do you know what was missing in all of these scenes? The characters just having a conversation about what present they would like. Or, if you’d prefer to keep the element of surprise, why not do a bit of detective work? If you’re running low on ideas, get in touch with their close friends for help!
Chip in!
If you think someone’s dream gift may be slightly out of your budget, a great way around this is by making it a group present. This is good for a number of reasons; it means nobody overspends, you can share the pressure of buying a large present with a group, and it allows you to buy someone something special that they’d never purchase for themselves. Win-win!
Download our app
If you like the idea of sharing the cost of presents between friends, why not download the What We Want app, the new app that’s on a mission to end unwanted gifts by making group gifting super easy!
