Cash is king when it comes to graduation gifts, a new survey shows.
    Americans will spend a total of about $4.5 billion on high school and college graduation presents this year, with almost 59 percent of those gifts coming in the form of cash, according to a survey from the National Retail Federation. Gift cards are next at 31.3 percent, with electronics at 11.5 percent and apparel at 9.1 percent, the survey said.
    One-third of Americans plan to buy graduation gifts this year, the survey said.
    “Retailers can expect to see a nice bump in sales later this summer as students redeem gift cards and make big purchases with graduation money,” National Retail Federation President and Chief Executive Tracy Mullin said in a news release.
    BIGresearch, a consumer market intelligence firm, conducted the survey of 8,353 consumers and the survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 1 percent.
    So is it really “all about the Benjamins” at graduation? Not at all. It’s more like “all about a couple of Alexanders and a couple of Abrahams.” The average consumer buying graduation gifts will spend about $51.05 on each present, according to the survey.