Recession-Proof Valentine’s Day Online Spending is Up 8.48%

The U.S. Economy Might Be Shaky; But Valentine’s Day Online Spending is Up 8.48%; Consumers are Spending an Average of $142.70 on Their Sweethearts

According to payment card issuer Retail Decisions,

  • Gift Cards Replaced Roses as the #1 Gift Purchased for Valentine’s Day
  • Two Dozen Medium Stemmed Classic Red Roses Are More Popular Than One Dozen Classic Red Long Stemmed Roses
  • Top 3 Gifts Purchased Online By U.S. Military Personnel for Their Sweethearts Back Home Are A Dozen Medium Stemmed Classic Red Roses, the Hershey Kissable Candy Tower and Gift Cards Gift card

    Key Statistical Findings:

  • Men are buying more online than women who are going to retail stores for Valentine’s gifts.
  • U.S. fraudsters are attempting to buy gifts online for their loved ones. They’re more romantic than UK fraudsters who only buy for themselves, according to ReD data.
  • Gift Cards are the U.S. consumers’ gift-of-choice for Christmas and Valentines.
  • From February 1-11, 2008, the online shopping days leading up to Valentine’s Day, the spend per consumer is $142.70, up 8.48% on last year.

    Top Products Purchased Online

    1. Gift Cards – Up 10% on last year
    2. Two Dozen Medium Stemmed Classic Red Roses
    3. Two Dozen Medium Stemmed Romantic Mix Roses
    4. Classic Red Long Stemmed Roses – 1 Dozen with Vase –
    5. Hershey Kissable Tower (Chocolate and Little Teddy Bear)
    6. Mrs. Fields Valentine’s Day Box
    7. Glass Frame, with Personalization ‘This is What Love Looks Like’
    8. Cuisinart – Food Processor

    Retail Decisions monitored real-time online shopping data February 1-11, 2008 for its global blue chip retail clients to track consumer buying patterns and fraud activity associated with Valentine’s Day 2008. Their retail clients include Wal-Mart, Macy’s, Bloomingdales and Tesco.

    According to Retail Decisions and the National Retail Federation, Valentine’s Day is the third biggest holiday – Christmas/Holiday is #1 and Back to School is #2. The NRF also predicts that this year consumers are expected to spend $17.02 billion on Valentine’s Day.

  • Alan Gray is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of NewsBlaze Daily News and other online newspapers. He prefers to edit, rather than write, but sometimes an issue rears it’s head and makes him start hammering away on the keyboard.

    Content Expertise

    Alan has been on the internet since it first started. He loves to use his expertise in content and digital marketing to help businesses grow, through managed content services. After living in the United States for 15 years, he is now in South Australia. To learn more about how Alan can help you with content marketing and managed content services, contact him by email.

    Technical Expertise

    Alan is also a techie. His father was a British soldier in the 4th Indian Division in WWII, with Sikhs and Gurkhas. He was a sergeant in signals and after that, he was a printer who typeset magazines and books on his linotype machine. Those skills were passed on to Alan and his brothers, who all worked for Telecom Australia, on more advanced signals (communications). After studying electronics, communications, and computing at college, and building and repairing all kinds of electronics, Alan switched to programming and team building and management.

    He has a fascination with shooting video footage and video editing, so watch out if he points his Canon 7d in your direction.