How Women Hunt for the Perfect Gift

In late 2010, eBay published the results of a nationwide study identifying different kinds of gift givers from an online gift shop and greeting cards depending on their holiday shopping fashions. In the eBay-commissioned survey called"The Psychology of Gifting" conducted by Kelton Research, mature American women were asked to identify their holiday gift shopping behaviors. The study led to four types of holiday shoppers, each kind corresponding to another gift giving fashion.

eBay's Survey of Gift Giver Types

As stated by the eBay-sponsored poll, American girls can be grouped into four kinds of gift givers. Which group do you belong to?

Emotional Givers. About 4 out of 10 American women are Emotional Givers. They generally seek out exceptional gifts after giving much thought to the gifts and the recipients on their gift lists. Emotional Givers wish to demonstrate how much they understand the present recipients, and they tend to plan their gifts, usually wrap the presents themselves, and also deliver the gifts typically with a handwritten note or card.

Practical Givers. About 1 out of 5 American women fall into this category of givers. When they provide, the ideal present items are either cold money or gift cards (gift certificates or gift cheques). The rule of practicality dominates their gift giving, thus they give recipients the freedom to choose what item the receiver thinks is best. And, the ideal instrument for that sort of freedom is either cash or a gift card.

Convenience Givers. About 16 percent of the poll's participants identified themselves beneath this type. Convenience Givers are efficient shoppers. They often prefer to purchase gift items from only one shop or source. For all these girls, looking for great gift ideas is a chore that they eventually need to (often grudgingly) achieve. Most frequently, Convenience Givers barely feel any excitement or joy in seeking the perfect gift to offer.

Last-Minute Givers. These are the girls who shop for presents at the eleventh hour. They seem to take pleasure in the mad rush of last-minute buying. Approximately 13% of America's women fall under this category. These gift shoppers ordinarily do not plan their presents way ahead of their holidays.

It appears possible to exhibit a number of the characteristics of the different types of givers. For many folks, however, one attribute dominates, while one or two usually are just secondary behavioral traits.

One blogger, for instance, wrote that he really became a cross between Emotional Giver and Convenience Giver. Evidence of this, he stated, was that he shopped for Christmas gifts-all of which he had carefully thought out and planned for particular recipients-from just one online store. Before his transmogrification to the Emotional-Convenience hybrid, he maintained he was definitely of the Last-Minute breed.

Skepticism of Such Surveys

EBay's survey is apparently well-designed and was reported to possess a 95% confidence level with a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points. When I first heard of the poll, my initial urge would be to self-check and ascertain what sort of gift giver I am. ThenI gradually realized that I should take such surveys with a grain of salt.

First of all, this type of survey, like many other comparable surveys, emphasizes the material and financial/economic facet of giving gifts-as if generosity can be objectively measured or quantified. By categorizing gift givers according to their shopping fashions, the unspoken advocacy seems to be that"The perfect gift to give to anyone during the holidays is something that can be shopped from a gift shop that is certainly not absolutely true in all instances. There are, in fact, infinite opportunities for anyone to give non-material, non-store-bought, non-monetarily-quantifiable gifts.

However, majority of people today feel compelled to give presents to one another only due to fear of social sanction. This brings me to my next reason for being skeptical: authentic giving-just like true love-conquers all fear, including the fear of social sanction and also the fear of jumping off the bandwagon.

Seeming Lack of Spiritual Footing

There's a spiritual dimension to the individual heritage of gift giving, yet so many today have forgotten the real soul of self-sacrificial generosity. Instead, we let our capitalistic economy to encourage sentimentality in gift giving, as in the instance of the Emotional Givers, who must deal with the temptation of committing the sake of giving-quite a big leap from the more noble and more thoughtful goal of giving for the sake of helping someone in need.

Or, take the instance of the Convenience Givers and the Practical Givers who favor gift cards or money. I can think of two possible motives for this audience to favor advantage when they set out to find the ideal gift.

1 possible explanation is they haven't really warmed up to the concept of vacation giving nevertheless, or they just may be too lazy to sort out hundreds of gift ideas and find the perfect gift. They could be generous in 1 manner or another, though searching for presents for the holidays just may not be their idea of enjoying the holiday season.

Another potential explanation is they feel obliged to engage in the social custom of looking for the best gifts to give during the holidays or on particular occasions. They give presents to avert the societal frown that they would get if they do not. This avoidance could be the main reason for their preference to discover the ideal gift out of convenient, quick, hassle-free, and generally one-stop sources. Find out more info click online gifts

So, they seek the least troublesome street, especially the one with the indication that says"This way to the perfect gift idea that will take up just an iota of your thought, time, or effort."

In terms of Last-Minute Givers, I think they just lack the time or store at the last minute purely for the adrenaline rush. Nothing terrible about the latter, but the former has question marks sprayed all over it. Truly loving men are generous not just with their gifts but also with all the time they utilize to find the perfect present. If your gift is supposed to be a material representation of your passion and concern for the welfare of another, then devote time to locate the best gift. The time you forfeit for finding the ideal gift is part of the present itself.

Giving, in the true spirit of generosity and charity, always needs some kind of sacrifice from the giver. It is a sacrifice that the giver voluntarily makes for the interest of the recipient. Generosity and giving are constantly other-centered. After reflecting on eBay's survey, I am wont to mention that unless you're inebriated by that self-sacrificing soul, you will never be able to find the ideal gift in any way.