ecommerce-valentine-hearts

[FREE ebook] Love and online sales grow on Valentine’s Day

The ecommerce world is awaiting Valentine’s Day! According to Nextopia, in the week leading up to Valentine’s Day retailers saw an 11% improvement in average order value.

Perhaps not everyone will get all lovey-dovey and starry-eyed in February, but marketplace sellers can love this time due to the increased sales potential. This is one of the biggest shopping seasons the world has seen, bringing in more money than St Patrick’s Day, Halloween and the Super Bowl combined.

This article will help you make the most of your ecommerce sales potential around Valentine’s Day. Here’s what you’ll learn:

  • How Valentine’s Day can affect your online sales figures
  • How to increase your sales in February (with online sales data)
  • What sells best around Valentine’s Day.

Ecommerce & Valentine’s Day: FREE ebook

ecommerce valentine parcel

Sell a gift! Who will get a gift on Valentine’s Day?

Target No. 1: 53% of women said they would end a relationship if they didn’t receive a gift from their beloved one. But they’re not the only ones who will get one.

According to some date over millions of pet owners will buy gifts for their pets. Singles may feel quite lonely too, especially at the time of lockdowns and restrictions. This means that, despite appearances:

Valentine’s Day should have something in store for almost everyone. And if you come up with the right message, you can offer almost anything!

Online sales in February

In the retail calendar, Valentine’s Day has a prominent position in the month of February. No wonder that producing Valentine-oriented content and promotions is a must for many online sellers around the globe.

Online sellers, content writers and graphic designers have a great opportunity to tell love stories that will bring them thousands of online buyers. The possibilities and channels are endless.

Ecommerce sales around February: some love’n’sales-related stats and facts

Americans love spending their money on Valentine’s Day so here are some facts and figures for you. The data comes from CNN, NRF, business2community and aboutflowers:

  • 224 million: The estimated number of roses grown for 14 February.
  • 51%: The percentage of people who purchase red roses for this occasion.
  • 64%: The percentage of men who purchase flowers for this occasion.
  • $18.6 billion: Total spending reached on Valentine’s Day.
  • $1.9 billion: So much will be spent on flowers.
  • $4.4 billion: So much will be spent on diamonds, gold and silver.
  • $700 million: This is the amount Americans will spend on Valentine’s Day gifts for their pets.
  • 14 March: This is when men shower their significant other with romantic gifts in South Korea and Japan.

And last but not least:

  • 85%: The percentage of both sexes who say that sex is an important part of Valentine’s Day.

What to sell around 14 February?

The sales growth around 14 February takes place mainly due to the products from the following categories:

  • Gifts
  • Apparel
  • Health & Beauty.

ecommerce calendar 2022 blog banner 2

What are Valentine’s bestsellers?

  • Flowers
  • Candy
  • Jewellery
  • Chocolates
  • Clothing
  • Adult & Lingerie
  • Electronics
  • Travel
  • Wedding
  • Dinner
  • Gift Cards
  • Books & Music
  • Cards and gift cards.
Fun fact!
According to Sainsbury’s, after the Valentine’s exchange of gifts, the romantic mood continued and signs of gratitude were observed. In other words, sales of condoms also grew by 12%.

Remember the emotion behind your Valentine’s sales

Not only are you selling a ring, a trip or a box of chocolates, but also love. It may sound cheesy, but this is what buyers have in my mind when buying gifts for their dates.

Reflect this in your product descriptions and advertisements. So instead of saying “You must buy this beautiful necklace, say “A beautiful necklace that she will love.”

How can online sellers prepare for Valentine’s Day?

Web traffic increases as Valentine’s Day approaches. Thus, expect a great deal of last-minute shoppers. However, you should prepare for Valentine’s Day’s sales time in advance.

ecommerce valentine web traffic

Before Valentine shoppers start flocking to your store, your ecommerce website must be Valentine ready. You must prepare your product offers, marketing campaigns and content to reflect the Valentine spirit.

Don’t be afraid to spice up your campaigns and content a bit. Why not use a special template and, obviously, the color red? Create Valentine’s landing pages: with hearts, flowers and the color red they will look relevant to online shoppers.

Use your punchy / sexy blog posts to drive traffic to your website and offers. Run Valentine’s Day promotions, such as a “kiss% off”. Finally, make your offers shareable on Facebook and other social media.

Make your copy and ads relevant AND romantic

Consider the queries that can be used to search for gifts and use relevant words for your Valentine texts. A few examples include chocolates, travel, Valentine’s sale / deal, romantic, gift, dating, red hot and sexy. Take care of your SEO, optimize your pages and include keywords, e.g. Valentine’s Day Jewellery, nearby florist.

This way you increase your chances of being found online and … becoming (more) attractive.

10 tips for preparing your online shop for Valentine’s Day

  1. Target and segment your audience according to gender, age, relationship and parental status.
  2. Make your online store mobile-ready with a mobile-optimized design. It should load fast and have a smooth check-out process.
  3. Use apps to notify your (potential) buyers of special offers, discounts and early birds.
  4. Guarantee timely shipping.
  5. Offer free gift wrapping.
  6. Start your Google Ads campaigns in advance.
  7. Remarket: target a particular website’s visitors with specific, relevant ads.
  8. Send an email campaign to your customers from the previous year.
  9. Consider partnering with a company that offers complimentary services, for example spa services and flowers. This way you can advertise an offer 2 for 1.
  10. Run a contest.

How to get it right, if your business is not a flower shop or a jeweller’s?

If your product is not that Valentiny, no worries: online shoppers’ interest goes beyond hearts, roses and chocolates. Many companies use Valentine’s Day as an opportunity to promote a mix of products, for instance saucepans, software, home insurance or cars.

In the past IKEA Australia organized furniture sales, offering free cots for children born nine months from Valentine’s Day. Needless to say, it went viral. Hence, a little bit of creativity can always make your offer relevant and desirable to BOTH more AND less relevant target groups.

Target single people and refocus your offer

Of course there will be haters, despising the cheesiness that will be in the air around 14 February. All those Valentine sceptics may be single or cynical. Or simply not very enthusiastic about this commercial holiday. Why not use this fact to your ecommerce advantage?

You can target the groups named above with the right message, such as:

  • “Not in the mood to get lovey-dovey in February? Give YOURself a treat and check our offer!”
  • “The best is yet to come, for now shower YOURself with gifts!”

Consider Singles’ Day (11 November), the biggest online shopping day in China: Alibaba tends to record sales bigger than Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined!

Online shoppers & online sellers: buy yourself flowers!

So the Valentine “Love & Pamper YOURself” messages can do the trick. Showing people that they deserve to be loved, whether they are single or in a relationship, inspires positive emotions and puts things into a different perspective. So why not inspire not only couples to shower each other with flowers and gifts, but also single people.

Showing affection to their friends or even themselves can transform the belief that Valentine’s Day is only for the lucky ones who can’t take their eyes off each other. In fact, why not promote the “buy-YOURself-flowers” philosophy.

Not only will it improve the mood and well-being of many people, but it can also boost Valentine online sales even further!

ecommerce valentine jewellery

Valentine’s Day should have something in store for almost everyone. And if you come up with the right message, you can offer almost anything.

Conclusion: ramp up your Valentine online sales

Expect a huge amount of traffic around 14 February. Remember a lot of your website visitors will come from smartphones and tablets so optimize your websites accordingly.

Keep in mind relevant keywords, romantic copy and a Valentine design.

If you segment your offers, targeting both those in love and those more forlorn, you increase your audience and the number of potential buyers.

This is how you can kill two birds with one stone: use the same holiday to pamper starry-eyed couples and offer retail therapy to their single counterparts.

Finally:

Don’t forget to send a Valentine’s e-card to your customers. After all: all you need is love.

valentine-ecommerce

Love and online sales can’t help but grow. Grow your online sales NOW!

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