Father's Day Spending Expected to Grow in 2012

GDA Staff -- Gifts and Dec, 6/6/2012 3:35:21 PM

WASHINGTON - Dads everywhere may be cashing in when it comes to gifts this Father's Day. The average gift-giver is expected to spend $117.14 on fatherly gifts, up 10 percent from $106.49 in 2011, according to the National Retail Federation's 2012 Father's Day spending survey, conducted by BIGinsight.

Even though the numbers are slightly lower than the monies shelled out for moms this Mother's Day (total $18.6 billion), total spending for Father's Day is expected to reach $12.7 billion.

And consumers are buying a wide range of gifts — everything from golfing, eating out or heading to a sporting event ($2.3 billion vs. $2.0 billion in 2011). They will also invest in electronic gift items ($1.7 billion vs. $1.3 billion last year), apparel ($1.7 billion vs. $1.4 billion in 2011), sporting goods ($641 million) and books or music ($645 million); Gift cards or certificates are expected to take in $1.7 billion of sales.

Most shoppers will opt for department stores (41.6%), but 28.6 percent will choose to buy their fatherly gifts in specialty stores, including greeting card/gift and electronics stores; specialty clothing stores (10.7%), and online retailers fell just below specialty with 28.4 percent of consumers predicted to virtually shop.

The kind of dad on the gift-receiving end also varies more this year. Gift givers are buying for their father or stepfather (53.9% vs. 50.3% in 2011) and their husband (29.2% vs. 26.1% last year), while others will gift a son (9.7%), grandfather (5.3%), brother (6.8%) and friend (5.7%).