Love in retail: how to catch the wave of sales by February 14

Valentine's Day is a popular Western holiday that has taken root in Ukraine. In the US, Valentine's Day is second only to Christmas or March 8 in terms of consumer activity.

Thus, in 2023, according to the Capital One Shopping research agency, Americans spent approximately $25.9 billion on Valentine's Day gifts, which is 8.37% more than in 2022. 

How can you use Valentine's Day in your store to increase sales?

Valentine's Day: a history 

Valentine's Day is a special holiday celebrated in many countries on February 14. Valentine's Day has both Christian and ancient Roman roots. One of the most famous legends tells of St. Valentine, a priest from Rome who lived in the 3rd century AD. 

During the reign of Emperor Claudius II, a decree was issued prohibiting marriage for young men. The emperor believed that young men without family obligations should serve in the army. However, St. Valentine opposed this injustice and continued to secretly marry couples in love. When his activities were discovered, Valentine was arrested and later executed.

Before his execution, according to one version, Valentin fell in love with his jailer's daughter, who often visited him. He allegedly left her a farewell letter signed "From your Valentine," a phrase that has become legendary and is still used to this day.

Over time, the celebration of Valentine's Day spread to many countries around the world. On this day, lovers exchange symbolic "valentines", give each other a Valentine's Day gift, or express their feelings in other ways: prepare Valentine's Day wishes, arrange romantic dates, etc. 

In today's world, Valentine's Day has become an occasion to express love not only for your significant other, but also for friends, family, relatives, and just dear people. This day honors love in all its manifestations.

The essence of the holiday from the marketing point of view

For the modern consumer, Valentine's Day is a cocktail of romance, gifts, and shopping. Succumbing to the general festive atmosphere, people buy a lot of things as gifts.

The cultural traditions and symbolism of the holiday are well used by entrepreneurs in their marketing strategies. 

On the eve of the holiday, sellers in many business sectors want to win back their market share, offer customers original Valentine's Day gifts, impressions, and come up with interesting services at attractive prices.

How to capture the attention of customers on Valentine's Day

To ensure that your Valentine's Day products hit the mark, you should consider certain trends that have developed over the years. For example, men tend to spend more money on gifts than women. Therefore, when planning your assortment for the holiday, make sure you have both expensive products for men and inexpensive ones for women. 

The basic rules of the holiday business are as follows:

1.Don't be as spontaneous as your customers

Holidays, except for birthdays, tend to come unexpectedly. Putting everything off until the last minute is a habit of many people. However, this doesn't mean that you need to decorate your shop windows and advertise holiday products in 2-3 days. It's best to do it in 1-2 weeks to think through all the details and order the necessary amount of goods from the supplier.

2. Give customers a choice — price, product, delivery terms

Since all categories of consumers can hypothetically buy Valentine's Day gifts, make sure you have a range of prices and a diverse assortment in your store. If you have an online store, offer customers all possible delivery options, including targeted delivery by courier, which may be in high demand on the holiday. 

3.Combine the holiday with your niche. Be creative

If you have a business that has nothing to do with romance and vanilla hearts, you shouldn't miss the chance to increase sales during the holiday season. 

Try to be original. Do you sell power tools or household goods? 

Why not develop a creative banner that shows a woman romantically "sawing" a wall with a drill, with a man sitting behind it, and add the following caption: "On Valentine's Day, all women get a 10% discount on power saws" (or a punch, drill, and other "tools of power" for women). 

4.Set the promotional period

Promotions are successful when they have a defined expiration date. This trigger works well in sales. Customers are more active when they feel limited in time. When Valentine's Day is tomorrow, and there may be no discount the day after tomorrow. 

However, don't just organize promotions on the day of the holiday. Global retailers typically offer promotions on holiday goods a few days before and after the holiday to satisfy the whims of all consumer groups: those who do everything in advance and those who forget about gifts altogether. 

5.Analyze previous sales periods

To make your Valentine's Day promotion a success, you should consider the possible difficulties of past activities. This will help you understand which products were the most popular, which didn't work, and plan the appropriate assortment. 

What methods can help you increase sales on Valentine's Day?

Before you develop promotions and marketing activities, think about where you plan to advertise them, what budget can you allocate? 

Usually, the best channels for promoting any promotional offers are social media and email/sms marketing. Social media will help you attract a new audience, and email marketing will help you provide personalized offers to different categories of customers.

You can organize contests on social media. Emails will allow you to personalize your offer depending on the gender, preferences, and activity of your customers. It is also worth placing holiday banners on your website and launching advertising campaigns in Google search results before the campaign starts. 

What activities can you come up with for the holiday? 

Create and promote promotions

The second important condition for successful sales is, in fact, the very essence of the promotional offer and its timely presentation to customers. There are many ideas for promotions — the main thing is to set the discount amount correctly so that it does not lead to losses. Start-up entrepreneurs often forget about this when trying to attract as many customers as possible. 

By the way, you can calculate the benefits of a discount in the Torgsoft accounting program, a full-fledged CRM system for business, where you can keep track of sales, goods, customers, financial calculations, and customize various promotions for specific customers.

The most common variant of the Valentine's Day promotion is to give a -14% discount.

However, promotions can be done not only with discounts. Give something for free for purchased goods or as a gift. People love "sharas"; even if they understand the irrationality of a purchase, consumers are willing to spend money to get something for free. 

Develop gift sets

Imagine a customer comes to a store to buy a gift for his loved ones. He has little time. And here you need to go around several departments: in one to buy the gift itself, in another — valentines, in the third — a chocolate bar. And then go to another store to buy soft toys. All this is long and inconvenient. And a gift set in this situation is a godsend. 

It has everything you need: a valentine, sweets, and a valuable surprise. All of this is beautifully packaged and displayed on the main page of the site or in the central window. The buyer simply takes such a set and solves the problem with the gift in one fell swoop. 

The sets should be different in terms of content and price.

Sell gift certificates

Such gift options significantly save the client's time and will definitely be useful to the recipient. Certificates can be made in different denominations. The design should match the theme of the holiday. 

Gift certificates can be used to boost sales of non-holiday, non-romantic products. You must admit that giving your beloved man a beautifully wrapped certificate is much better than a screwdriver or a hammer. 

In addition, the certificate can be enclosed in an envelope to which you can attach a valentine.

Gift ideas for Valentine's Day

1. Cards or drawings for Valentine's Day. According to statistics, more than 60% of buyers give Valentine's Day cards on this day. For some, it is the only sign of attention, for others it is a nice addition to the gift. 

2. Sweets. About 45% of people also give candy. The most popular choices for Valentine's Day are candies in a red heart-shaped box and chocolates with hearts on them. Although there is a lot of competition in this category, good packaging and additional elements to the candy can work in your favor.

3. Romantic dinner at home or in a restaurant — are satisfied with 44% of couples. It's only logical that restaurants and cafes, in particular those offering takeout and free delivery, generate the most revenue on this day. 

4. Flowers. 36% of people send flowers on this day, and 30% of them are women. 

5. Teddy bears and other soft toys are given by 27% of lovers as an independent gift or as a set with sweets, a card and flowers. 

6. Luxury perfumes and jewelry are purchased by 12%.

7. Unusual or specific gifts. Another 17% of respondents are trying to come up with something out of the box and are looking for special gifts for the specific needs of their spouse.

Other options for Valentine's Day gifts:

• jewelry,

• handmade accessories,

• heart-shaped souvenirs: vases, dishes, photo frames, lighters

• movie tickets,

• certificates of impressions,

• underwear,

• gadgets.

Activities for online business

Valentine's Day traditions can be used in any business and format. These ideas are suitable for both online and brick-and-mortar stores.

1. As gifts, you can offer users preferential terms of service, a discount card with a fixed discount amount, etc.

2. Raffle off a prize among customers on social media: a romantic trip, movie tickets, dinner at a restaurant, a free photo shoot — the size of the bonus depends on your marketing budget.

3. Publish an informational post on social media or send an email with a selection of romantic movies, books, or products.

4. Promote charity events, encourage people to leave change to support the Armed Forces or children from orphanages, the elderly.

5. Create a separate landing page or product category on your store's website for holiday sales.

6. Organize a virtual celebration of the Day of Independent Hearts on February 15. Involve clients who are no longer in a romantic relationship in this event.

7. Post tips on choosing gifts for Valentine's Day on your blog.