A complete post-mortem of Valentine’s Day sales this year

Consumers may still be reeling from the pressures of inflation, but you can’t really put a price tag on love, at least when it’s Valentine’s Day.

According to NRF, consumer spending on Valentine’s Day this year was predicted to hit ~$26 billion, up from $23.9 billion in 2022, marking one of the highest spending years on record.

The average amount consumers were projected to spend on gifts amounted to $192.80 (up from $175.41 in 2020), per NRF.

Of course, a lot of the spending was for traditional gifts like chocolate, flowers, going to dinner, or just a good ol’ bottle of liquor, Katie Thomas, who leads the Kearney Consumer Institute, told Retail Brew.

Per NRF, the top categories of gifts included candy (57%), greeting cards (40%), flowers (37%), an evening out (32%), jewelry (21%), gift cards (20%), and clothing (19%).

“When you think about the sort of experience-over-things mentality, when it’s the more straightforward holiday, people just want to give the material thing,” she said. “They’re not necessarily buying cooking classes or something like that; they’re going to give a wine basket, or they’re going to do a sort of chocolate arrangement.”

Many consumers, however, were expected to take an “it’s the thought that counts” approach, choosing homemade presents like a custom Spotify playlist or making a nice dinner at home, or simply getting a nicely packaged takeout order, which Thomas calls “trade up at home.”

“We found that a lot of people actually think cooking at home and splurging on a nice bottle of wine, or a nice cut of meat—they actually see it as an upgrade to going out to eat,” she explained. “You’ll see a lot of that this year,”

Love is love: Lastly, consumers were spending more on not just their partners or a hot date, but also friends, pets, and other family members.

In fact, NRF predicted total spending on gifts for these groups would hit $7.1 billion, up from $5.2 billion last year.

As for those who were single, they were showing some self-love this Valentine’s Day. “I think the other thing we’ve seen is ‘treat yourself’ [sentiment], which is that so many brands were running deals for Valentine’s Day that you can splurge on something for yourself,” Thomas said. “Valentine’s Day is for everyone, so to speak.”—JS