Retail data
U.S. retail gift spending from NRF and Census sources, covering holiday sales, shopper budgets, online share, and occasion behavior. Charitable and nonprofit giving use separate source sets.
Shopping budgets, holiday retail sales, and e-commerce share. Nonprofit giving uses separate source sets.
Figures come from original releases or official reporting pages. Forecasts stay labeled as expected or planned when the source does.
| Counts | Sources |
|---|---|
| Retail gift shoppingIncludedHoliday retail sales, online share of retail, planned shopper budgets, and occasion-specific gift buying. | NRF retail and occasion releases; U.S. Census Bureau retail e-commerce data |
| Nonprofit givingSeparateDonations, grants, fundraising, and gifts to nonprofit organizations. | Nonprofit, fundraising, and tax-deductible donation datasets |
Top lines
4.1%
2025 holiday sales growth
NRF said U.S. holiday sales grew 4.1% year over year from November 1 through December 31, 2025, finishing near the top of its forecast range despite cautious shopper sentiment.
Source: S2 · National Retail Federation (Trade body), January 12, 2026
16.6%
Q4 2025 retail sales completed online
The U.S. Census Bureau put fourth-quarter 2025 retail e-commerce at $316.1 billion, or 16.6% of all retail sales in the quarter.
Source: S4 · U.S. Census Bureau (Government), March 10, 2026
$34.1B
Mother's Day 2025 expected spend
NRF expected Mother's Day 2025 spending to reach $34.1 billion, its biggest average-spend occasion after the winter holidays, with 84% of U.S. adults planning to celebrate.
Source: S5 · National Retail Federation (Trade body), April 28, 2025
$24B
Father's Day 2025 expected spend
NRF called Father's Day 2025 a record $24 billion, with shoppers leaning toward unique gifts, special memories, experiences, and subscription boxes.
Source: S6 · National Retail Federation (Trade body), May 29, 2025
$29.1B
Valentine's Day 2026 expected spend
NRF's 2026 Valentine's Day forecast set a new record at $29.1 billion and pushed the average expected budget to $199.78 per shopper.
Source: S7 · National Retail Federation (Trade body), January 27, 2026
35%
Valentine's shoppers buying for pets
A record 35% of Valentine's Day celebrants planned to buy a gift for a pet in 2026, lifting expected pet-gift spending to $2.1 billion.
Source: S7 · National Retail Federation (Trade body), January 27, 2026
Media-ready charts
These exports are built from the same source data as the page, sized for quick placement in newsletters, decks, and news coverage.
Figure 01
A clean comparison chart for the three occasion-spend spikes GiftHint cites most often in outreach and source checks.
Sources: S5 · National Retail Federation (Trade body), April 28, 2025; S7 · National Retail Federation (Trade body), January 27, 2026; S6 · National Retail Federation (Trade body), May 29, 2025
Figure 02
A simple share chart for the online slice of U.S. fourth-quarter retail, plus the supporting dollar totals reporters usually ask for next.
Sources: S4 · U.S. Census Bureau (Government), March 10, 2026
Figure 03
A market-size snapshot for the winter holiday baseline: trillion-dollar forecast, average planned spend, and peak shopping volume in one exportable asset.
Sources: S1 · National Retail Federation (Trade body), November 6, 2025; S3 · National Retail Federation (Trade body), December 2, 2025
What the numbers imply
Uniqueness and memory-making are the useful gifting signals inside the retail totals: NRF reported 48% of Mother's Day shoppers prioritized uniqueness, while Father's Day subscription-box interest rose from 34% to 43% in six years.
The biggest U.S. gift moments are still large enough to matter at a national retail scale. NRF forecast the 2025 winter holiday season at more than $1 trillion, and its post-season card-data read later said holiday sales still grew 4.1% year over year.
NRF projected U.S. November-December 2025 retail sales at $1.01 to $1.02 trillion, the first time the winter holidays would clear the trillion-dollar mark.
Source: S1 · National Retail Federation (Trade body), November 6, 2025
U.S. shoppers planned to spend $890.49 per person on average across gifts, food, and decor, the second-highest seasonal budget in NRF's 23-year Prosper survey history.
Source: S1 · National Retail Federation (Trade body), November 6, 2025
NRF counted a record 202.9 million consumers shopping Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday 2025, including 85.7 million online on Black Friday and 75.9 million on Cyber Monday.
Source: S3 · National Retail Federation (Trade body), December 2, 2025
The spring and early-year gifting occasions are still growing, and the biggest jumps are happening on emotionally loaded occasions where shoppers are trying to avoid generic choices. Mother's Day, Father's Day, and Valentine's Day all posted either new records or near-record expectations in the latest NRF releases.
Mother's Day 2025 expected spend
Mother's Day 2025 was expected to reach $34.1 billion, with celebrants budgeting $259.04 on average and nearly half saying uniqueness mattered most.
Source: S5 · National Retail Federation (Trade body), April 28, 2025
Father's Day 2025 expected spend
Father's Day 2025 hit a record $24 billion, with 76% of U.S. consumers planning to celebrate and celebrants budgeting $199.38 on average.
Source: S6 · National Retail Federation (Trade body), May 29, 2025
Valentine's Day 2026 expected spend
NRF's 2026 Valentine's Day survey projected a new record of $29.1 billion, with 55% of consumers planning to celebrate and $14.5 billion expected for gifts to significant others.
Source: S7 · National Retail Federation (Trade body), January 27, 2026
Gift buying keeps moving online. The Census Bureau's latest release pushed e-commerce to 16.6% of fourth-quarter retail sales, while NRF's holiday tracking showed Black Friday and Cyber Monday still functioning as the main online gift-buying events.
U.S. fourth-quarter 2025 retail e-commerce hit $316.1 billion, and full-year e-commerce reached $1.2337 trillion, or 16.4% of all 2025 retail sales.
Source: S4 · U.S. Census Bureau (Government), March 10, 2026
Black Friday 2025 stayed the top U.S. online shopping day at 85.7 million shoppers, narrowly ahead of its 80.3 million in-store shoppers and Cyber Monday's 75.9 million online shoppers.
Source: S3 · National Retail Federation (Trade body), December 2, 2025
NRF said online stayed the most popular Father's Day 2025 shopping destination, ahead of department, discount, specialty, and small-business stores.
Source: S6 · National Retail Federation (Trade body), May 29, 2025
The current gifting signal is less about bigger baskets than about more specific baskets. NRF's occasion surveys repeatedly show shoppers prioritizing gifts that feel unique, memorable, experience-based, or able to keep delivering after the holiday itself.
Mother's Day shoppers prioritizing a unique or different gift
NRF found 48% of Mother's Day shoppers said uniqueness mattered most, and 42% prioritized a gift that created a special memory.
Source: S5 · National Retail Federation (Trade body), April 28, 2025
Father's Day shoppers open to subscription boxes
Subscription boxes reached 43% of Father's Day shoppers in 2025, up from 34% in 2019, while gifts of experience climbed to 30%.
Source: S6 · National Retail Federation (Trade body), May 29, 2025
Valentine's Day 2026 pet-gift spend
A record 35% of Valentine's Day 2026 celebrants planned to buy a gift for a pet, lifting expected pet-gift spending to $2.1 billion.
Source: S7 · National Retail Federation (Trade body), January 27, 2026
For actual picks, start with the occasion gift guides.
Methodology
This page uses the latest official U.S. figures available to GiftHint on April 6, 2026. When a source describes spending as expected, planned, or forecast, GiftHint preserves that wording rather than rewriting it as a completed total.
NRF occasion releases and holiday reports do the best job of showing shopper intent, average budgets, and event-specific gift behavior. The U.S. Census Bureau release is used here for the broad retail e-commerce baseline and share of retail sales.
All dollar figures are nominal, U.S.-focused, and shown as reported by the source. GiftHint does not interpolate missing values or blend survey-based estimates into a synthetic house number.
Sources
Use these links to check the original NRF and Census reporting behind the figures.
S1 · National Retail Federation · Trade body
Published November 6, 2025
NRF's winter-holiday forecast for November and December 2025, including projected retail sales and average planned seasonal spend per person.
S2 · National Retail Federation · Trade body
Published January 12, 2026
NRF's post-season read on 2025 holiday sales using Affinity Solutions card data, including the 4.1% growth figure for November 1 through December 31.
S3 · National Retail Federation · Trade body
Published December 2, 2025
NRF's holiday hub covering Thanksgiving-through-Cyber-Monday shopper counts, Black Friday/Cyber Monday behavior, and 2025 seasonal survey highlights.
S4 · U.S. Census Bureau · Government
Published March 10, 2026
Official U.S. Census Bureau release covering fourth-quarter 2025 retail e-commerce sales, annual 2025 totals, and e-commerce share of total retail sales.
S5 · National Retail Federation · Trade body
Published April 28, 2025
NRF and Prosper survey release covering 2025 Mother's Day spend, average spend, celebration rate, and what shoppers value in a Mother's Day gift.
S6 · National Retail Federation · Trade body
Published May 29, 2025
NRF and Prosper survey release covering 2025 Father's Day spend, average spend, experience gifts, and subscription-box interest.
S7 · National Retail Federation · Trade body
Published January 27, 2026
NRF and Prosper survey release covering 2026 Valentine's Day spend, per-person budgets, shopping destinations, and pet gifting.
S8 · National Retail Federation · Trade body
Published May 1, 2026
NRF and Prosper Insights graduation survey covering U.S. graduation gift spending totals, average per-gift-giver spend, and gift-type share.
S9 · The Knot · Vendor research
Published September 1, 2024
The Knot 2024 Guest Study of U.S. wedding guests covering average wedding gift amounts by relationship and the cash, physical gift, and gift-card split.
S10 · Adobe Analytics · Vendor research
Published January 7, 2026
Adobe Analytics report on U.S. online holiday sales for the 2025 season, including total online spend and mobile share.
S11 · Deloitte · Survey
Published October 15, 2025
Deloitte 2025 Holiday Retail Survey covering planned holiday spend and the share of consumers giving experiential gifts.
S12 · Bankrate · Survey
Published September 1, 2024
Bankrate and YouGov survey on unused U.S. gift cards, including the share of adults holding one and the average unused balance.
FAQ
National Retail Federation releases show consumer gift spending through holiday retail sales, planned shopper budgets, and occasion surveys. GiftHint uses those NRF releases for shopper intent and gift behavior, then uses Census retail e-commerce data for the broader online retail baseline.
NRF forecast November-December 2025 retail sales at $1.01 trillion to $1.02 trillion, and its Retail Monitor later said 2025 holiday sales grew 4.1% year over year.
The U.S. Census Bureau estimated fourth-quarter 2025 retail e-commerce sales at $316.1 billion, which represented 16.6% of total retail sales in the quarter. For all of 2025, e-commerce accounted for 16.4% of U.S. retail sales.
In the latest available NRF releases, Mother's Day 2025 was expected to reach $34.1 billion, Father's Day 2025 was expected to reach a record $24 billion, and Valentine's Day 2026 was expected to reach a record $29.1 billion.
NRF's 2025 occasion surveys point to more demand for gifts that feel unique or memory-making. Father's Day showed rising interest in subscription boxes and experience gifts, while Mother's Day shoppers also leaned toward gifts that feel distinctive rather than generic.
Statistics by occasion
Each page pulls the cited spend, budget, and behavior figures for one occasion into a single read.
Related reading
For reporters and partners
Quote requests, background, and fact checks tied to the numbers on this page.
Who publishes GiftHint and how the site thinks about gifting.
More about how GiftHint works