Just as the holiday season of sweets closes and the New Year’s diet begins, the chocolate and candy are put out in stores to tempt every soul who dares to enter near Valentine’s Day. With an estimated $18.2 billion spent each year on celebrating this holiday, there is a lot of love in both the air and the consumer market.
Who are people buying for?
Although the holiday is typically associated with couples romantically treating each other, the market also includes friends, family, teachers, and even pets. In a survey done
by the National Retail Federation, consumers budgeted how much they plan to spend on each of the following people in their lives:
- $85.21 on their significant others/spouses
- $26.59 on other family members such as children or parents
- $6.56 on children’s classmates/teachers
- $6.51 on friends
- $4.27 on coworkers
- $4.44 on pets
Furthermore, there is a growing new audience of singles who also like to celebrate the holiday. Slightly less than 50 percent of the population is single, and, of those, around 25 percent are planning to celebrate this holiday. According to one study, a single man averages $74 in spending, and a single woman averages $40 in spending during this holiday. How can single people resist buying chocolate when the entire grocery store is showcasing it? Brands may want to reconsider ways to target this new and growing audience for the holiday!
What do they want to buy?
Gifts for significant others will often include spendy hotels, dinners, jewelry, or clothing, but gifts for family, friends, and the self are typically much less expensive. “It’s the thought that counts” sways many people to purchase small chocolates or candy to remind the people in their lives that they care on this special day. However, 94 percent of people state that they want to receive chocolate or candy this year, so it is no surprise that an expected $1.7 billion will be spent on these sweets—just in the couple of weeks leading up to the big day.
Ways to improve sales during this time
Although Valentine’s Day will still feature a majority of couples as consumers, there is huge potential for opening the market to target products to singles or as atypical gifts. It is important for brands to recognize this expanding audience to better target advertising and increase sales.
Market Just-In-Time
Statistics have shown that people don’t plan ahead to shop for Valentine’s Day as much as they plan for other holidays. In fact, around 46 percent of people say they won’t even start buying until early February. Therefore, it can be an important budget saver to only market a couple of weeks in advance of Valentine’s Day.
Help Impulses
In-store advertising is key to solidifying consumer decisions in the moment. POPAI’s study discovered that 76 percent of purchasing decisions are made in the store; therefore, in-store product representation can have a major impact on sales. Many customers make purchasing decisions in under five seconds, so in-store displays are vital for catching the buyer’s attention and providing convenient access to products. Valentine’s Day is a high-traffic time that provides the specific chocolate and candy industries an opportunity to stand out to consumers and drive sales up tremendously.
How Observa helps you make more money
During this important high-traffic holiday, products need to be present and displayed in an aesthetic way on the shelves of every store. For Valentine’s Day, 62 percent of shoppers make unplanned purchases, and 16 percent of those are determined by product displays, so there is no better time to receive real-time, unbiased snapshots of what consumers are seeing. Fast results allow immediate insights, allowing corrective action to be taken before the holiday passes.