Despite the difficulties we are facing, with 500 Italians locked up at home struggling with the Omicron variant, citizens have not wanted to give up the traditional gift exchange. According to the data provided by Confcommercio-Imprese for Italy as part of the Christmas 2021 consumption survey carried out by Confcommercio, three out of four Italians – 74% in percentage terms – they exchanged gifts with relatives and friends, while the remaining 26% decided not to give them. A choice, the latter linked to savings needs or to avoid meetings to exchange gifts or perhaps to wait for the sales season.
Among the most popular gifts, however, are products of food and wine, books and toys, gifts that never fail under the Christmas tree. But for a couple of years there have been some "new entries" in the ranking of the most popular gifts, i.e. types of products driven by the new situation also influenced by Covid: gift cards, streaming subscriptions and pet products.
Who buys online mainly chooses streaming subscriptions (85,3%), gift cards (79,9%), books and ebooks (56%) and clothing (49,1%). Four out of ten respondents consider Christmas gifts a necessary expense that they are happy to deal with. On the other hand, 38,5% consider them an expense they would gladly do without and 20% an expense they are obliged to face.
