Valentine’s Day Marketing Statistics 2017

Valentine’s day is a peak selling season for multiple different industries. Businesses that sell or distribute products such as flowers, candy, jewelry, dining, lodging and other products are experiencing one of the best shopping seasons of the year, having some overlap with the Superbowl. Many of these businesses can start ramping up their marketing about 2 weeks before February 14. For those who may be thinking of creative ways to leverage the holiday to increase sales, here are some Valentine’s Day Marketing Statistics to help future planning:

General Valentine’s Day Marketing Statistics:

Over $13 Billion are spent for Valentine’s Day. The average consumer spends $116.21 ($146 according to another source) and every year it’s increasing. Much of that is spent on 180 million valentine’s day cards, 198 million roses, 58 million pounds of chocolate, and 8 billion “Sweethearts” candy.

The most common gifts are the following (allowing for multiple gifts):

Cards, 52.1%
Candy, 47.5%
Dining, 34.6%
Flowers, 34.3%
Jewelry, 17.3%
Clothing, 14.4%
(These are percentages of total sales on Valentine’s Day 2016)

These stats are from MarketResearch.com but they are also confirmed by Bing Valentine Search Data for January 2017.

54.8% of consumers celebrate Valentine’s Day. Consumers 65 years of age and older feel less of a need to make purchases for Valentine’s Day. Ages 25-34 spend the most (about $84).

Around 28% of consumers shop online exclusively for Valentine’s Day, another 35% shop both online and in stores. This means online advertising that focuses on Valentine’s day would be beneficial, especially for ecommerce stores and local businesses.

Valentine’s Day Marketing For Couples

Valentine’s Day is traditionally for couples. However Entrepreneur is suggesting additional strategies for singles and purchases are also made for friends and family members, which are discussed below. Here are some stats to help target couples:

Most commonly men buy gifts for women, but there is a market share for women purchases. Men buy 73% of flowers and they spend twice as much as women overall. Perhaps the best available statistic which can especially be used in marketing copy is the following:

53% of women said they’d end a relationship if they didn’t get a gift on Valentine’s Day (Statisticbrain)

This is emphasized since good marketing copy often identifies pain, purposely stirs emotion and creates urgency. Male consumers who are in a relationship are more likely to buy the moment they see that statistic and correlate it with the solution that the ad is presenting to them (which could be your product).

Many purchases are also made by women on or for Valentine’s Day. 14% of women buy themselves flowers. Women buy 85% of Valentine’s Day cards, and as previously stated there are purchases made for friends and family members in addition to couples.

Valentine’s Day Marketing for Singles, Friends, Family and even Pets

Entrepreneur pointed out that over half of Americans are identifying themselves as single and they suggest marketing that does not exclude this group of people. This is similar to the requirement that websites must be mobile-friendly since over half of internet traffic comes from mobile devices. Valentine’s day can be an opportunity to strengthen and build all relationships.

According to Linkdex, people who make purchases for Valentines Day don’t just buy for their significant other, they also buy gifts for:

family members, 59.4%
friends, 21.7%
teachers, 20.4%
collegues, 12.1%

Bing search data also shows additional information, indicating that when people search for “valentine gifts for . . .”, they fill in the blank with:

friend, 20%
children, 7%
teachers, 7%
daughter, 4%
co-workers, 2%
mother, 1%
classmate, 1%
father, 1%
pets, less than 1%
(significant other terms included husband, 22%, boyfriend 17%, wife 16%, girlfriend 4%)

In 2016, 19% of people bought Valentine’s Day gifts for their pets, spending over $681 million.

Since some advertising efforts often target the “low hanging fruit” (meaning there is less competition and therefore could produce a higher return), these could be significant targets. Even if it’s just 1% of searches, that’s 1% of a large volume of searches nationwide, and that’s just data from Bing. Google has over 80% of the search market.

Since gifts for friends, family and pets are often less extravagant than gifts for a significant other, ads that are targeting this portion of the market should use phrases like “affordable”. The cited article from Search Engine Journal on Bing data even has specific suggestions for ad copy.

For both couples and non-couples tangible gifts are not the only ideal products to sell for Valentine’s Day. People are also looking to purchase experiences, such as date nights, movies, dining, and lodging

For additional information see the following links. If this article was helpful to you, please “like”, share, repost and comment below and on your preferred social media, especially if you have any additional information to share.