No one wants their gift returned.

I mean, you have to be realistic, your gift might not become their favorite thing in the world.

But if your gift is returned you’ve done worse than just getting them a gift card.

They have to find where the gift came from, get credit or cash from the store, and then pick their own gift.

At least with a gift card they don’t have to go through the hassle of returning the original.

Despite that the most commonly given gift in America is also the most likely to be returned.

Commonly Given, More Commonly Returned

You may have already guessed what it is (I need to stop giving my secrets away in the pictures) but I’m talking about clothes.  1 in 4 gifts are gifts of clothing in America – but those gifts are the most likely to be returned.  In fact, they are almost the only type of gift to be returned -85% plus of returned gifts are clothes which means that fully 40% of clothes given as gifts are returned.

The reasons are obvious – some clothes literally don’t fit.  But what does this say about how we give gifts.

Besides asking if the recipient wants the offered gift, the gift giver couldn’t be bothered (wasn’t comfortable) asking if the given gift would even work.

Is there a better example of how important it is to ask your giftee what they want before giving them a gift?

Other Reasons That Clothes Are Returned

Of course, simple fit is not the only reason that clothes are returned.

As the psychologists who found this fact note: because there is a socially acceptable reason to return clothes (sizing) it is much easier to return clothes that we don’t like.

A book that the giftee doesn’t like is likely to just hang around on her bookshelf without getting read – but since she doesn’t have to feel bad when returning clothes she does.  Many gifts that aren’t returned are likely kept because the giftee would feel awkward returning a gift.

So what have we learned from this lesson today class?  Oh, yes, ask first. Especially when giving something like clothes that have to fit not only her style but also her figure.

Click here to read the article about how important it is to ask the giftee for ideas before buying a gift or you can go to the advanced class and read our article about sneaky ways to get ideas without being obvious.