Father's Day Buyers Survey Results 2023

Almost 80% of UK consumers struggle to come up with gift ideas for their dads and father figures in the lead up to Father’s Day, with many typically opting for practical gifts like food, clothing and grooming accessories. But with 86.3% revealing that their dads would enjoy a more thoughtful, personalised gift, are the days of BBQ sets and beard trimmer gifts becoming a thing of the past?

We surveyed over 1,000 UK consumers who will be buying gifts for either their dad, their partner or another father figure in their life this Father’s Day to find out about the gifts they typically look for, their spending habits around Father’s Day and whether these will be impacted by the cost of living crisis, as well as the various considerations they take when buying gifts online. 

Emily Carr, co-founder of personalised gift company Create Gift Love, says, “we’ve always known that dads can be hard to buy for – I certainly struggle around Father’s Day! – but until now we didn’t realise just how many shoppers are having difficulty. The lead up to Father’s Day is a massively busy time for us, especially the last week before, so we’re not surprised to see many people (almost 60%) admitting to being last-minute shoppers.

“The cost of living crisis has forced many of us to cut back on spending, a trend we have certainly noticed amongst our own customers over the last six months, and from our research we are expecting to see this have an impact on Father’s Day too. However, it seems the majority of consumers plan to spend between £10-£30 which correlates with Create Gift Love’s typical average order value from previous years. Price, quality and sustainability are the three most important considerations for shoppers, as shown in the data, so it’s great that we can offer our customers high quality, sustainably made products that fit within the typical UK budget.

“This survey, in addition to our recent survey of over 1000 UK dads, has shown that personalised gifts are popular with our father figures, despite the fact that many of us still proceed with caution when buying for the men in our lives and lean towards the “safe bet” of practical gifts rather than emotive ones. Perhaps it’s time more of us used Father’s Day to celebrate our dads’ sensitive sides too.”

Want to know how the two surveys compared? Read the highlights here.

 Key Data

• 78.22% of UK shoppers struggle to come up with gift ideas for their dads and father figures on Father’s Day.

• The main source of inspiration for Father’s Day gifts in the UK is searching on Google, with 68.23% of UK shoppers turning to the search engine for present ideas.

• The five most popular gift categories for dads in the UK are food and drink (58.24%), fragrance and grooming (45.85%). clothing (45.35%), mugs (36.56%) and personalised gifts (35.56%).

• 53.85% of UK shoppers leave it until the week before to buy their Father’s Day gifts.

• £10-£30 is the most common price bracket for Father’s Day gifts in the UK, favoured by 44.36% of shoppers. 41.76% also cited that they will be spending less in 2023 than previous years due to the current cost of living crisis

• Almost 60% of shoppers admit to spending more on their own parents than their in-laws, if they are responsible for buying the gifts for both sides of the family. 30.87% also admit to spending more on Mother’s Day presents than they do on Father’s Day.

• 99% of respondents consider product quality to be either important or very important when buying gifts online.

Highlights of our gift buyers survey findings include:

Gift ideas and where they come from

• Do you struggle with gift ideas/inspiration for Father’s Day gifts?

• How do you get ideas for Father's Day gifts?

• Would you prefer to give a gift that’s practical or emotive?

• What kind of gifts would you typically choose for your dad or for someone on Father's Day?

Typical spending habits

• How far in advance do you buy Father’s Day gifts?

• How much do you usually spend on gifts for Father’s Day?

• Will the current cost of living crisis impact how much you spend this year on Father's Day?

• Which do you tend to spend more on, Mother's Day or Father's Day?

• If you're the main gift shopper in your family, would you spend more on your parents or your in-laws?

Factors that influence purchasing decisions

• How important are the following considerations when buying gifts online?
• Product price
• Product quality
• Free delivery
• Next day delivery
• UK made
• Sustainably made

• What (if anything) puts you off from buying sustainable products?

• Would you be willing to pay more for an item that was made in the UK?

• Given the option, would you choose to buy a personalised gift over a non-personalised gift?

• Do you think your dad or father figure would enjoy a personalised gift?

We also found out...

• How will you be celebrating Father’s Day this year?

• Who will you be buying gifts for this Father’s Day?

• What’s the best present you’ve bought for your dad/father figure?

• What’s the best memory of your dad or father figure?

• What’s your best bit of advice received from your dad or father figure? 

Do you struggle with gift ideas/inspiration for Father’s Day gifts?

78.22% of shoppers in the UK struggle to find gift ideas and inspiration when buying Father’s Day presents for their dads and father figures.

Dads (and men more generally!) are notoriously hard to buy for when it comes to gift shopping, and an overwhelming majority of our survey respondents admitted that they have difficulty coming up with gift ideas for their fathers. However, 21.78% felt confident that they can come up with a gift idea for their dad without needing to look for inspiration.

How do you get ideas for Father's Day gifts?

Searching on Google is the most common way UK shoppers find gift ideas for Father’s Day, with 68.23% using the search engine to look for inspiration. 56.74% turn to family and friends for help with gift ideas and 29.07% ask the receipts themselves to find out what they would like. Over 40% get their gift ideas by already having an idea of the recipient’s interests.

Online spaces such as social media (28.87%) and online articles (20.08%) are also common sources of gift inspiration, and, perhaps unsurprisingly, these were a more popular method amongst 18-34 year olds compared to the older generations.

Browsing high street shops was also a common source of inspiration named by our respondents.

Would you prefer to give a gift that’s practical or emotive?

64.14% of gift shoppers would prefer to give their dad a Father’s Day present of a practical nature over an emotive one. With many citing a difficulty in finding suitable gifts for their dads, perhaps something practical is considered a safer option if you’re unsure what the recipient would enjoy.

Meanwhile, 35.86% of shoppers prefer to lean into their fathers’ more sensitive side with emotion-led thoughtful gifts.

But what kinds of gifts are most popular with UK shoppers?...

What kind of gifts would you typically choose for your dad or for someone on Father's Day?

The most common gift for Father’s Day is food and drink (typically chosen by 58.24% of UK gift shoppers). Fragrance/grooming gifts and clothing are also popular choices (45.85% and 45.35% respectively), as were mugs with 36.56% of shoppers typically choosing them for Father’s Day.

On the emotive side, 35.56% said they would opt for personalised gifts and 33.57% typically buy a card, while almost 20% would choose to treat their dads to less tangible options like shopping vouchers, experience days and dinners out.

Almost 25% of UK shoppers typically opt for the classic dad gift: a pair of socks.

How far in advance do you buy Father’s Day gifts?

Over half of UK shoppers wait until the week before Father’s Day to buy their dad a gift.

53.85% are likely to buy their gifts a week ahead while 3.5% are leaving it right to the last minute, buying their gifts just one day before the occasion.

However, we are not a nation of completely disorganised shoppers: 41.36% actually buy their Father’s Day gifts a month ahead of the deadline.

How much do you usually spend on gifts for Father’s Day?

The majority of gift buyers (44.36%) spend between £10-£30 on their dads for Father's Day. 31.07% usually spend £30-£50 and 14.19% will spend between £50-£100.

7.39% typically spend over £100 for Father’s Day, while at the other end of the scale, 3% will be spending under £10.

Will the current cost of living crisis impact how much you spend this year on Father's Day?

The UK cost of living crisis has impacted households up and down the country and forced many of us to change our spending habits. This Father’s Day, 41.76% will be spending less on gifts than they did in previous years. Meanwhile 48.45% expect to spend about the same as usual on their Father’s Day gifts and 9.79% will be spending more than they have in the past.

Our research suggests that 25-34 year olds have been hit hardest by the financial crisis with over 50% of respondents in this age group planning to spend less than usual. Perhaps unsurprisingly, respondents aged 45+ are most likely to stick to their typical spending habits.

Which do you tend to spend more on, Mother's Day or Father's Day?

And where are the mums in all this? Well, over 60% of us try to keep things fair and spend the same amount on Father’s Day as we do on Mother’s Day however 30.87% of our survey respondents admitted to treating their mums to more expensive gifts. Are female-orientated gifts typically pricier or do almost a third of us simply favour our mums (that’s a question for another day!).

The dads don’t always lose out though, 8.19% say they shed out more on Father’s Day gifts.

If you're the main gift shopper in your family, would you spend more on your parents or your in-laws?

And when it comes to the in-laws, we’re not always playing even-stevens. Over 60% of people who are responsible for buying gifts for both sets of parents will spend more on their own mum and dad than they do on their in-laws! 35% try to spend the same whereas 2.63% usually spend more on their other half’s parents.

How important are the following considerations when buying gifts online?

We wanted to know how various factors influence consumer decision making when buying gifts online, namely product price, product quality, delivery options and whether sustainable or UK made items were preferential. We asked the respondents whether each factor was “very important”, “important” or “not important” when present shopping and these were the results…

Product price

Over 50% of respondents considered product price to be an important factor when gift shopping, while 36.76% believe price to be a very important factor. These statistics are no surprise, given the above data on the ways the cost of living crisis will affect shoppers this Father’s Day. 11.59% said that price was not an important influence on their purchase decision.

Product quality

Of all the factors listed, product quality was the one that most respondents ranked highly, with 69.63% saying it was a very important factor. Almost 30% considered product quality to be important to them, while less than 1 in 100 (0.8%) do not consider product quality to be important.

Free delivery

We asked our respondents how much the promise of free delivery influenced their decision, and this had the most evenly distributed responses out of all the factors listed. 43.66% saw this as an important factor and 22.58% named it ‘very important’. However, a third of the respondents said that free delivery was not important to them, and they would be willing to pay for their delivery costs.

Next day delivery

As reported above, our research found that 57.35% of UK shoppers typically buy gifts a week in advance or less, a statistic which is supported by the number of shoppers who favour next day delivery, with almost half of respondents naming it an important (31.77%) or very important (15.98%) factor. Meanwhile the more organised amongst UK shoppers are happy to wait a little longer for their online gift orders, with 52.25% saying that speedy delivery was not important to them.

UK made

We then asked respondents about their preferences around the manufacturing of their gifts. Interestingly, 60% of respondents said that choosing items that were made here in the UK was not important to them, and only 10.39% considered supporting UK manufacture to be very important.

Sustainably made

While choosing UK made items was not overwhelmingly important to our respondents, 68.83% said that buying items that have been sustainably made was either important (46.25%) or very important (22.58%) to them. With a growing trend towards eco-friendly items and sustainable lifestyles, it’s encouraging to see that those who do not favour sustainably made gifts are in the minority. However, this group currently stands at 31.17% and we hope to see this decline further in the years ahead.

So what is stopping consumers from shopping sustainably?

What (if anything) puts you off from buying sustainable products?

61.34% of UK shoppers named price as the main factor that puts them off from buying sustainable products, which suggests a common belief that sustainably made goods are out of budget for many customers.

The availability of sustainable options was the second most common barrier (according to 28.57% of respondents) while the perceived quality and the styles on offer also prevent consumers choosing sustainably made products (24.98% and 21.38% respectively).

13.39% of respondents said that sustainable products were simply not important to them.

Would you be willing to pay more for an item that was made in the UK?

52.45% of UK gift shoppers would be willing to pay more for items made in the UK and almost 80% (79.02%) would prefer to support UK manufactured products if money was no object, suggesting that price is a key barrier preventing UK consumers from shopping locally.

With 60% earlier stating that UK made products were not important to them, this implies that more shoppers would in fact prefer to buy UK made products if the price was not impacted.

Would you be willing to pay more for an item that was made in the UK?

If money was no object, would you prefer to buy something made in the UK?

Given the option, would you choose to buy a personalised gift over a non-personalised gift?

When asked about personalised gifts (a popular choice for Father’s Day customers), 77.92% would prefer to buy a personalised gift, while 19.38% would opt for something not personalised.

2.7% respondents were undecided, explaining that it would depend on the gift, recipient or occasion.

Do you think your dad or father figure would enjoy a personalised gift?

Despite 19.38% preferring non-personalised gifts over personalised options, an overwhelming majority of respondents believed that their dads and father figures would enjoy a personalised gift.

86.31% were in favour of buying personalised gifts for their dads, commenting that they are “more thoughtful”, “more unique” and would “come from the heart with personal emotion and meaning to it”.

However, 13.69% were less confident that their dads would enjoy personalised gifts. Some respondents explained that their dads were “not sentimental”, others thought that personalising gifts was “a bit naff” and “cheesy” while another said “[He’s] much more practical, he would rather have something he’ll use than something personalised”. 

Access this survey's raw data in Excel format