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An unwanted gift is a present the recipient doesn’t like, can’t use, or already owns. It usually ends up returned, exchanged, regifted, or left in a drawer. For a store, it turns a happy holiday sale into a refund, a restock, and a lost customer.
An unwanted gift happens when a giver buys on a guess instead of on information. The giver knows the person but not their size, their taste, or what’s already in their cupboard. So they pick something that seems safe, and it misses. In short, the gift fails because the giver lacked one small piece of information.
Gift buying is a bit like ordering dinner for a friend who isn’t at the table. You can make a good guess, but you’re working from memory and hope. Givers also tend to pick items that look impressive when unwrapped, not items that get used every week.
Clothing is the riskiest category because size and style are so personal. Home goods are next, since people already own a toaster or a set of towels. On top of that, nobody coordinates. Three cousins can each buy the same board game without knowing it.
An unwanted gift doesn’t vanish at the recipient’s door. It often travels back to the store that sold it. Each return means a refund or store credit, a shipping label, and someone checking whether the item can be resold.
Meanwhile, some gift returns arrive after the holiday price drops. In that case, the item goes back on the shelf at a lower margin. Your returns management process ends up doing its heaviest work in January, when staff are already tired.
There’s also a hidden cost in lost goodwill. The recipient never chose your store, so their first experience is a return form. If that process feels slow or strict, they leave with a poor view of your brand. By contrast, a smooth exchange can turn them into a new customer.
Many givers feel that asking spoils the surprise. Recipients, in turn, feel awkward handing out a shopping list. As a result, both sides stay quiet, and the store gets a sale that may not stick.
A shared list removes that awkwardness. When the recipient keeps a public wishlist or registry, asking isn’t needed. The giver just opens the link and picks something they know is wanted.
Unwanted gifts are common, according to several consumer surveys. A 2024 Finder survey projected that 53% of Americans would open at least one unwanted gift that season. Finder also estimated that shoppers would spend $10.1 billion on presents nobody wanted.
A separate YouGov poll found that 66% of US adults got no gift they disliked or that didn’t fit. Put the other way, about one in three people did. That’s a lot of presents heading back to stores.
Retailers feel it too. In the National Retail Federation’s 2025 returns report, retailers expected 17% of holiday sales to be returned. The NRF noted that this rate is consistent with previous years.
An unwanted gift in practice looks like a busy December followed by a painful January. Here’s a hypothetical example. Imagine a small WooCommerce store called Hearth & Home that sells kitchenware and table linens.
Hearth & Home makes $60,000 in December sales, and most of those orders are gifts. Shoppers pick popular items like stand mixers, cast-iron pans, and linen napkin sets. None of them can see what the recipient already owns.
For example, a shopper named Dana buys her sister a $180 cast-iron set. Two days later, their brother buys the same set from the same store. Neither knows about the other until the gifts are opened.
After the holidays, returns start arriving. Suppose 17 out of every 100 gift orders come back as duplicates, wrong sizes, or wrong colors. That’s about $10,200 in December revenue that the store has to refund or credit.
The refunds aren’t the only cost. Let’s say each return costs Hearth & Home $12 in labels and handling, across 85 returned orders. That adds $1,020 in costs on top of the lost sales. Plus, a handful of linen sets come back stained and can’t be resold at full price.
Then there’s the support load. The owner spends most of the first week of January answering “Can I swap this?” emails. Some of those recipients never buy from the store again.
The next year, Hearth & Home adds shareable wishlists and a gift registry to the store. Customers save the items they actually want and send the link to family. Gift givers open the list, see what’s still needed, and buy that.
Now Dana’s brother can see the cast-iron set is already bought. So he picks the linen napkins his sister also saved. In this scenario, suppose returns on list-based orders drop to 6 out of every 100. On the same $60,000, that keeps about $6,600 more in the store’s pocket.
You prevent unwanted gifts by letting the recipient tell the giver what they want, in a way that feels natural. Most of the tools for this live on your product pages and in your customers’ accounts.
Shared lists also help with group gifting. When several people chip in, everyone can see what’s been covered. For a deeper walkthrough of registry setup, see this guide to a WooCommerce gift registry wishlist.
Timing matters as much as tools. First, remind customers to build and share their lists a few weeks before the holidays. Next, put a “Share your wishlist” prompt in your account pages and order emails.
Finally, make the shared list easy to open on a phone. Many givers shop straight from a link in a message.
| What you’re comparing | Unwanted Gift | Gift Card |
|---|---|---|
| Who chooses the item | The giver, often on a guess | The recipient, later on |
| Main risk | Wrong item, size, or duplicate | Card goes unused |
| What the store sees | Returns and exchanges | Delayed or partial redemption |
| How personal it feels | Very personal, even when it misses | Practical but less personal |
An unwanted gift and a gift card are two sides of the same guessing problem. A gift card hands the choice to the recipient, so it can’t be the wrong size. However, it can sit forgotten. Bankrate found that 43% of Americans have at least one unused gift card, worth $244 on average.
For most stores, the best answer is both. Sell store gift cards for shoppers who truly can’t decide. Then steer everyone else toward a shared wishlist, so the gift is personal and still right.
Most people regift it, exchange it, or keep it. Exchanging is often the best choice when the store offers it, because you get something you’ll use. If it’s unused and still in good shape, regifting to someone who’ll love it also works.
It depends on the store’s return policy. Many stores accept receipt-free returns for store credit or an exchange. Some limit the refund to the item’s lowest recent selling price. Checking the policy, or asking the giver for a gift receipt, saves a wasted trip.
The simplest way is to buy from the person’s own wishlist or registry. If they don’t have one, ask a close friend or family member what they’ve mentioned lately. When you’re still unsure, include a gift receipt so an exchange is easy.
An unwanted gift matters because it quietly undoes your best sales season. Every miss becomes a return, a support ticket, or a recipient who never thinks of your store again. Stores that help shoppers give the right gift keep more of their holiday revenue and win new customers.
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