Valentine's Day: The New Big Online Holiday

By Jamila White

Published on this site: February 3rd, 2006 - See more articles from this month

If you think your big holiday rush is over, think again.

Last year, Valentine's Day shoppers spent a whopping *$3.9 billion* on the web alone - a 30% increase over 2004. If you've got an e-commerce web site and you aren't taking advantage of this market, you're missing out on BIG sales: shoppers spent an average of $144 online for Valentine's Day gifts in 2005, according to a report from online payment processor Verisign; and February 1 was the biggest single shopping day of the period.

Some of the biggest winners came from these retail categories:

• Greeting cards, up 50%
  
• Jewelry, up 34% (diamonds up 130%)
  
• Flowers, up 16% (purchases on February 14 up 349%!)
  
• Candy, up 2% (chocolate up 49%)

But you don't have to be in one of those industries to get a piece of the Valentine's Day pie. Practically any product or service can be positioned for Valentine's Day sales:

• A night out - restaurant, limo, tickets, clothing/shoes
  
• Spa/massage/beauty/makeover (including a romantic couples' massage)
  
• Travel for two
  
• Stuffed animals
  
• Lingerie
  
• Love songs
  
• Photo albums and frames - anything sentimental
  
• Personalized keepsakes
  
• Relief from burden: maid service, babysitter, etc.
  
• Anything for couples
  
• Anything red
  
• Anything heart-shaped
  
• Anything gift-wrapped in red

5 Tips to Boost Your Valentine's Day Sales:

1. Group gift items together and promote them heavily on your home page and via email.
   
   
2. Make it easy to select the "right" gift: organize your offering by category, recipient, and/or price range.
   
   
3. Start early - begin promoting right after the new year.
   
   
4. Offer expedited delivery for last-minute shoppers, and highlight this feature. (Be sure to make your turnaround times and deadlines perfectly clear. Don't make any promises you can't keep - it will be hard to placate a husband whose furious wife didn't get her gift on time!)
   
   
5. Think beyond "sweethearts" - nowadays, people shop give Valentine's Day gifts to parents, children, teachers, children's classmates - even pets!

But why stop at Valentine's Day? With a little smart e-commerce marketing, you could easily be ringing up the gift sales all year 'round.

Jamila White, "The E-Commerce Diva(tm)", helps small business owners attract new customers and sell more products on the Web. Get her free "Sell More Online" newsletter at http://www.ecommercediva.com